How to start a no-dig garden

Newspaper, alfalfa, straw, compost, blood meal and bone meal.

BASICS:

1. Lay 10 to 20 sheets of newspaper on the ground -- soil, grass or concrete. This stops weeds and attracts worms. Saturate with water and dust with blood meal and bone meal.

2. Add a pad of alfalfa and dust with blood and bone meal. Bales of hay and straw come apart in 2- to 3-inch-thick pads.

3. Next come 8 inches of straw, again dusted with blood and bone meal. Don't skimp on the alfalfa and straw, Marfisi says, because "this stuff really compresses in the first few weeks and then you lose the benefits of low water need and thriving plants."

4. Wet all this down.

5. Finally, top off with 3 to 4 inches of compost, which also will compress.

6. Now plant seeds or seedlings.

FINDING FODDER

Alfalfa and hay can be found at grain and hay suppliers. There are a few near the L.A. Equestrian Center in Burbank. At Stephens Hay & Grain in Glendale, for example, a 110-pound alfalfa bale is $18.50; a 60-pound bale of straw is $7.50. Delivery is available.

NO DIG BOOKS

"Esther Deans' No Dig Gardening & Leaves of Life," by Esther Deans. The 2001 reprint is available at harpercollins.com.au.

"How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back: A New Method of Mulch Gardening," by Ruth Stout.

"The One-Straw Revolution," by Masanobu Fukuoka.

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Lisa Boone