Geese Trimming the Grass

Geese Trimming the Grass
Lawnmowers

Friday, August 28, 2015

Sheet Mulching; using what you have to make a difference.

As you can see above and below I have started sheet mulching an area for the vegetable garden.  This garden will be 10 feet by 15 feet. The Herb garden just west of this one is 10 feet by 10 feet.  The soil is in pretty good shape.  I had it tested by the lab up at CSU.  It came back as sandy loam, good on organic material, good in nutritional values of N (nitrogen), P (phosphorus) and K (potassium).  One issue I will have to contend with is the high pH.  It is sitting at 7.2.  Not too bad and I can remedy with the help of good compost and the sheet mulching practices.  Sheet mulching is a good way to kill grass and weeds in an area where you want to create vegetable, herb or flower gardens.  Bermuda grass is resilient and it will be difficult to kill.  This will be a true test of this technique.

Sheet mulching, also known as "Lasagna Gardening" is a good way to repair soils or build up poor soils.  This is an easy practice that can be done by anyone anywhere with just a few ingredients.  The bed will be built in an area of just Bermuda Grass.  I want to eliminate some of the grass areas on this small farm as they require too many inputs.  I would rather the inputs go into food and herb production- they will be less than required by a lawn.

The first step was to cut the grass in this area very short.  I put the lawn mower on the lowest setting and scalped the lawn leaving the lawn clippings.  I then measured the areas and staked the corners using string to create a straight line.  Then the digging began.  I dug out the edges of the garden to separate it from the existing lawn.  Noticed while digging that I saw very little in the way of earthworms.   The sheet mulching process should help to bring more earthworms.  Using  a "what I have philosophy;" I will take some of the big tree limbs that are already down to line the garden edges.  Continuing to use what I have,  I took the boxes from moving to create the first layer.  I removed tape and labels to lay them flat on the soil.  The boxes overlap each other by about 6 to 8 inches on all sides.  My next layer is newspaper.  I used the newspaper from packing and moving.  The ink is soy and safe for the garden.  I did not use the glossy sections as they are not safe for the garden.


One whole length of the garden will be used for garlic growing.  I have several varieties of hard-neck and soft-neck types that I will plant in October along the south edge of the garden where I have dug out the grass and worked in compost.  I will not be sheet mulching that area.  More on garlic planting later on.


The third layer was local manure.  I spread enough to cover the newspaper completely- approximately 2 inches total.  The third layer was local compost.  This layer covered the manure layer.  The next layer will be fall leaves.  The property is full of trees; Mulberry, Alder, Red Bud and Elm. This layer will be added this fall.  Leaves will help to build great soil.

If you have water where you are, go ahead and water in between layers.  Water is like gold here and I planned this project around rain storms.  Rain fell on this site three times now in the last week.  I will update this blog with photos to show how the layers will start breaking down and how fast.  I will record temperatures to let you know how well this process cooks.  Starting this process now in late August will give the layers all of the fall, winter and into early spring to breakdown.  In the spring time I will do another soil test to see where we are for N, P, K and pH.  

Stay tuned......the adventure continues.