Lesson: Lasagna Garden Basics
Lesson: Lasagna Garden Basics
This lesson: Lasagna garden basics using biology, chemistry, and physics to understand life systems and compost in place ecologies. This system is also called "in place" composting. The principle is the same: browns and greens in a wet warm environment break down into humus and attract life.
Materials
- Clear glass aquarium
- 1 gallon each of:
- Dirt
- Shredded leaves (Not whole leaves)
- Cut grass
- Manure of some sort
- Shredded paper
- Sand
- Green plant leaves
- Small twigs and sticks
- Sawdust or Peat Moss
- Mulch
- 1/2 gallon of
- Coffee Grounds
- Egg shells ground up
- Banana peels blended fine
- Cardboard
- 1 liter of water
- Tape of some sort
- Sharpie Marker
- Trowels or shovels
- Tarp to manage spills and mess
- Broom and dustpan to clean up
Instructions
- On a table place the tarp and the empty glass aquarium
- Assemble all of the raw ingredients around the table
- Taking turns allow the kids to start building layers in the aquarium
- Each layer should be about 2" inches thick
- Start with cardboard, then dirt, then leaves, then grass, then mulch, then green leaves, then paper, then grass, then mulch, then sand.
- Repeat the layers again.
- On top add the coffee grounds, egg shells and banana peels
- Carefully pour the water over the top of the layers
- Allow students to watch the layers interact with the water
- What do they observe?
- Cover over the top of the aquarium with mulch and cardboard to keep moisture in
- Finally have the students label the layers with tape and sharpie marker
- Take care to mark EXACTLY where the layer was when labeled
- The student will observe the structure of the layers expanding and contracting over time
- Be careful this experiment can get quite heavy!
- I always choose where I position this so it is easy to see but I only have to move it once
- A critical note: The more sunlight this gets, the slower it decays as sunlight evaporates the water.