Why your lasagna garden sucks

I'm putting the finishing touches on the garden this year, recovering it from a year of disuse.   This entailed a lot of digging, leveling, picking and raking.  The previous owner had the rows going perpendicular to the gradient of the hill, which ensured standing water on the high side of each row.  This gave rise to the notion that "the area isn't good for a garden".   Newly levelled with rows at about a 30 degree angle to the gradient, I think I have a better chance.

I have an early harvest - a harvest of trash that is.  The previous owner was a no-till/lasagna gardener.  A great, labor-saving idea provided you have the right materials; alternating layers of "green" and "brown" compost separated by paper/cardboard/etc.   What is not part of the equation, is all the plastic packing tape attached to said cardboard.  Combining the torn and rotten cardboard and the plastic tape I ended up with two full wheelbarrows of trash.   The weeds and other organic material (and bits of cardboard too far gone) ended up raked into a corner, uphill from the garden so that as they rot the nutrients flow downhill.  Here's the last pile (along with a lot of smallish rocks which I've raked out of the beds).

 

 As you can see there's little shreds of non-degrading plastic all over the place.  Put a rake down, drag it over the ground, and you find some.  While you can argue that it helps keep the soil from clumping, so does sand.

Ok, rant over.   This fall I'm probably going to adopt some kind of lasagna technique to cover up the garden for winter.   I don't mind the odd mouse nest (hey it's just nitrogen) and it will help the worms winter over.   One thing I've used in the past is that "contractor paper" - the heavy brown kraft style paper which you can get at your local Big Box store.   I'll smother that with the last few batches of lawn clippings and be good to go.
Moral: Plastic is not compostable!