Layers of good results

Thanks FOR your excellent article about no-dig gardens [“No Reason to Dig Any Deeper,” June 12]. I had just stripped grass off my front lawn with the intention of planting vegetables and was fretting about how to proceed (grass roots, weeds, poor soil, etc). The answer was in your most fortuitous article.

My neighbor, Colleen Crosby, and I went on a hay-and-fertilizer expedition Sunday and constructed layered straw plots in our Los Feliz gardens. Indeed, it was “absurdly easy,” and if the results are as expected, this could truly be a garden revolution for us. We are both passionate gardeners struggling with the usual issues of minimal space, soil composition and water shortages. Again, thanks for providing inspiration and, most important, instructions.

Karin Williams Los Angeles

In THE “recipe” at the end of the article, the instructions are for creating a 300-square-foot garden. What’s missing is how many bales of alfalfa and straw are required for that area. Just one each? Seems unlikely.

Mark Hunter La Canada Flintridge

Editor’s note: Pat Marfisi says that when he started the garden he used about five bales of alfalfa and six to seven bales of straw. This cost around $225. After the initial setup, he has used much less material after each crop -- about three to four bales a year for a total cost of $50 to $75. He says the soil just gets better each year.

I enjoyed the concise and interesting way you took a complex, and possibly boring, subject to a very readable level.

I also liked your weave of several connecting subjects such as Marfisi’s life.

Bob Price via e-mail