Have you ever found yourself faced with a chunk of super dry, hard clay that you would love to plant something in? One of the easiest ways to build a usable soil in your bed is to sheet mulch. There are lots of recipes and descriptions out there on how to do it, but here's a quick overview with pictures of a bed we mulched last year for my kids to plant their veggie garden in.
One of the first steps is to review your soil test. Soil test? What's a soil test? Why do I need to take a soil test?
If you don't know what your soil is like where you plant your plants, you could be dropping them in a vat of acid, or base, or worse. The best way to know the conditions in your soil is to have a soil test done. In the state of NC, soil testing is free most of the year. Talk to your local cooperative extension to find out about soil testing in your area. They usually can help you interpret the report too!
This particular bed was extremely acidic, so the first thing we did was add some lime to bring the pH back up to a better level for plants to grow. Next, we chopped the weeds, but left them in place. We will be smothering them, so no need to kill or remove them completely.
Then, we spread a thin layer of compost on top, just to encourage worms and other organisms to come on up and get active in the bed.
After the compost, we laid out thick corrugated cardboard, tape removed, to smother and kill all the growing plants and emerging weed seeds. We also watered the cardboard to get the layers good and moist. The cardboard not only acts as a natural weed killing layer, but it also decomposes over time into compost. Additionally, the use of old mailing boxes is a great reuse of a resource that might otherwise end up in the landfill!
After the cardboard, we layered as much leaves as we could fit into the bed. You can use any different type of bulk organic matter you can find, such as hay or leaves. I had the city bring me an entire truck load full of leaves from city leaf collection, so we used the free resources we had on hand. Another great way to recycle nutrients into the landscape!
Watering in your layers will help keep the moist and encourage decomposition. It takes a long time to get moisture in and out of that many layers, so water them in as you apply them. Try to build up your layers to a foot or more high. It will decompose down very quickly to a much smaller amount, and the more you start with, the more organic matter you will add to your soil!
Near the last few inches of bulk material, we laid out another layer of compost. Home made compost is the best! Turning your kitchen scraps and landscaping trimmings into awesome nutrients for your yard is an awesome way to recycle nutrients for your own benefit.
We filled the final layer in with more leaves, watered them in good, and left it there to decompose into a viable growing bed for us! Don't forget to add your garden flag or other decoration to spruce it up while it's working its magic.
It's just that easy. Overall, we worked probably around an hour. The hardest part was lugging our leaves one wheelbarrow at a time up the hill from where we had them stored. That, and keeping our patience up with two little ones underfoot wanting to spray each other with the water hose.
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