I love to garden, but I'm always looking for ways to work smarter and not harder. My favorite lazy gardener tip is lasagna gardening. I make new beds by laying layers of wet newspaper and cardboard right on top of the grass and piling on layers of organic materials usually comprised of old horse bedding, coffee grounds, leaves, grass clipping, and the at least partially composted stuff from my compost pile. The horse bedding makes a really nice looking top coat to hide the other organic materials.
For a different answer, I'd say mulch, lasagna-style or "otherwise":
It insulates from extremes of heat & cold, helps retain valuable moisture, protects little seedlings & rootlets from drying, adds a finished look to the flower bed, &, when it finally goes the way of all life & decays...it nourishes the soil.
I thought I'd pass this along - this site has a lot of good tips for gardening, really easy for me to waste a lot of time on there. Its got ton of info on plant nutrients and other stuff too.
