The dark side of lasagna gardening, sheet mulching
Shedding some light on sheet mulching in relation to recycling
Copyright 2009 - Mario D. Vaden
The meaning of "dark side" here does not mean "bad". It's referring to a shortage of ight shed on this angle of the subject. A vast assortment of organic gardening web pages already exist about using paper products for sheet mulching in gardens. That's where plenty of light has been shed on this subject. There are reams of articles about sheet mulching or lasagana gardening. But none that I ever found that include removing paper and cardboard from the recycling process in urban areas. How about if we shed some light on that aspect too?
Lasagna Gardening is the practice of mulching with layers, often by laying newspaper, cardboard or paper over soil or vegetation, covered over with compost, straw, bark or other mulch. This page introduces sheet mulching from a broader perspective, including resources and environment. Its an if-the-shoe-fit's topic for gardeners in areas where recycling is available with comparable benefits.
Lasagna gardening can be called sheet gardening or sheet composting, and is commonly used for no-dig gardening, some organic gardeners, and some lazy gardeners. Each with reasons or excuses. The responsible gardeners will have reasons.
The practice is often promoted as an easy way to garden, sometimes skipping weeding, cultivation, double digging and other work that involves other work and effort.
Lasagna no-till gardening generally does not need herbicides when the first layers are spread and some gardeners may have that in mind. But how can this practice affect the environment or resources locally, and more distant?
Consider a few facts ...
If gardeners hoard cardboard for sheet mulching, those resources cannot be recycled to promote green living or reduce the carbon footprint. In this way, practitioners of no-dig gardening sacrifice an environmental benefit. And the resource they won't recycle back to paper products, simply decays. Recycled cardboard needs just 75% of the energy used to make new cardboard, and decreases the emission of sulfur dioxide - Wikipedia Sulfur Dioxide - produced when making new pulp from trees. This indicates that:
Sheet mulching increases energy use; increases sulfur dioxide emissions; requires more trees to be cut and processed; increases labor and wage expense; and wastes water, oil and energy
Sources, with some variation, state the same basic information. Recycling 1 ton of cardboard saves 46 gallons of oil and 6.6 milion Btu's of energy. Recycling 1 ton of paper spares 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 79 gallons of oil, 587 pounds of air pollution and 4,077 Kilowatt hours of energy. Recycled paper produces 73% less air pollution. All things considered, Lasagna no-till gardening can have a larger carbon footprint and cause more pollution. Working with the earth and exerting more exercise may be the better alternative.
One alternative worth exploring as an alternative to paper, would be using different kinds of leaves from the property, flattened beneath a layer of compost or mulch.
If you search for facts about recycling cardboard, many references will be found with this information. There are literally scores of municipal and other websites with the information. Here is a generic reference on just paper recycling from Wikipedia:
Recycling Paper Article - Wikipedia
The broad look at sheet mulching may seem controversial, but how can it be, if we are simply looking at information? Gardeners who want to improve, simply glean more information, weigh the options and choose a plan. In areas where curbside or local recycing is not available, sheet mulching may indeed be a desireable alternative, allowing cardboard or paper to decay and return to the earth. Rather than filling a landfill.