Best Explanation of Sheet Mulching. Ever.

And it is no surprise, as it was written by local permaculture dynamo Christine Gyovai for the Piedmont Garden Swap. Learn more about area permaculture events and opportunities at the Blue Ridge Permaculture Network site.

The part about the multitude of happy worms is what really got me. Read on.

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Hi all,

I've built several beds with sheet mulching - layering newspaper and cardboard (and compost, etc.) - with varying degrees of success.

My most recent beds have worked out wonderfully - we have about 450 sq. ft. of sheet mulched beds.

I removed all glossy colored sections from the newspapers, and removed all tape from cardboard. I think the Cville Weekly uses soy-based ink; would want to double check with them for sure.

I put the cardboard down first, overlapping the edges by 6 in, watered the layers well, put an inch of compost down, put down newspaper (about 6 sheets thick) again overlapping, watered well, and covered the whole bed with thick straw mulch. It takes a few seasons to break down, and you want to keep it as wet as a wrung out sponge. The worms go crazy (I've never seen so many worms). They come up and eat the sugars and starches in the newspaper and cardboard and aerate the soil, and you get their castings. Really remarkable. I've planted seeds and starts directly into the beds.

Here's a link to a project I worked on in Charlottesville for a class I co-taught. You can see pictures of building sheet mulch beds, as well as read a document Kathleen Maier wrote about the process:

The book Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway gives a great description of sheet mulching as well.

Hope that helps,

Christine

What Worked, What Failed in 2007

I'm cutting myself a little slack this year in the way of 2008 garden planning. Knowing that I will have my hands full with a newborn, little bean this spring - I am paring down, streamlining and refocusing my garden energies.

Today's post will be about reflection. A 2007 garden season postmortem-of-sorts.

I'll post later on this week about short-cuts, no-fail veggies and flowers to grow and lighter garden projects that can be tackled and/or savored between naps, feedings, vomit and poo.

The Successes

Planting potatoes in straw. The potatoes eventually burrowed down a little further into the soil below the straw, but the minimal amount of digging, up front, makes this a winner.

Our new bean and pea trellis. Truth be told, I swiped this idea from neighbors of ours who have a tidy, productive, totally enviable garden. I consider this trellis my first step toward the upper echelon of vegetable gardeners. And a standing homage to them and how they inspire me.

The lasagna bed. It is hard to screw this one up. What I layered last spring became a viable bed this fall - for lots of bulb planting. No-till gardening rocks.

Cardboard mulching. For the raised beds. For the pathways between the beds. For the break it gave my back. Recycling never felt so good.

The Failures (a.k.a. Lessons Learned)

Seed balls. These never produced much of anything. Big, big disappointment. After reviewing all of the variables, I realized that I should have used dry and ground terracotta, not wet terracotta. I actually can't wait to try these again. I'm thinking it would be a fun party to have with other gardeners. We can roll seed balls, gossip and compare gardening notes.

Sweet peas in containers. Not a complete failure, but not the heady volume I was hoping for . . . and had in the raised beds in previous years. They will return to the beds this upcoming season. Scrambling up the new pea trellis.

Tomatoes without any sort of fencing. This was garden gambling with almost no respect for the original inhabitants of Sugar Hollow - The Deer.

Growing corn in raised beds. A lackluster showing, at best. But I'm not completely sure it had to do with the smaller growing area or raised beds. The soil was just meh - in need of improvement and nutrients. Corn is a big feeder. So - in summary - compost, compost, compost.

The Lasagna Bed: The Very Basics

Okay, I am mildly ashamed that it took me so long to figure this one out.

The Lasagna Bed.

A No-Till Method.

Why did I spend several seasons moving earth, when all I needed to do was create something on top of the earth? Gears start turning, mouth opens slightly, smoke rises from ears. Ahh - I see . . .

This is my first attempt - I felt a great sense of accomplishment after less than an hour this past weekend. And my back was the better for it.

The bottom layer is cardboard. (I made an arrangement with the local health food store to ferret through their weekly recycling pile.) Ideally, you'll need to wet the cardboard and then start with your layers. I'm testing out compost, mixed with shredded leaves, some coco(nut)-peat and eventually, grass clippings. Then, lots of mulch. Repeat.

As everything starts to decompose - you pull the layers apart and start planting. I'm going to create paths and just put hardwood mulch from our county's solid waste authority over those sections of the cardboard mulch.

An even bigger shortcut, for small spaces, would be to buy bags of potting soil, lay them flat on the ground, cut them open and plant di-rectly. Throw a little compost and mulch its way and you should be ready to plant your new-fangled flower bed.

I've heard that you need to wait a year for everything to break down - but I'm hoping for something a bit sooner (which is why I am using already decomposed compost and coco-peat). Patience is something I still only aspire to practicing.

It doesn't look like much now, so you need a lot of vision. I'm hoping for some natives - Black-eyed Susans, Echinacea, False Blue Indigo and Phlox. Vision! Which is what most of us gardeners seem to thrive upon anyway . . .