Sheet Mulching for Spring

“Wait. Let me get this straight. You want me to throw all this trash in your garden.”

That’s what Melvin said when I asked him to cover my little fenced area with cardboard boxes and a pile of fallen limbs.

I decided at the end of the growing season that I was going to break down all the grass in The Secret Garden and convert the entire area to a production garden. I had been saving up boxes from all my various deliveries. Rather than send them off to a landfill, they head to the grounds as these break down into compost. I had gotten a start on laying them out but still had a long way to go.

Melvin comes once a month and helps me with my overly challenging tasks. This request, I am sure, ran counter to his usual to-do list. But he helped me with what I asked and we finished one side of The Secret Garden and topped it off with two bales of wheat straw in an afternoon. It would have taken me the entire month of September to get there by myself.

By November I had collected enough cardboard to tackle the other side. I removed the tape and stickers while Melvin carpeted the grass with the boxes. Then he gathered a pile of limbs I had saved in the yard and placed them on top. The wood decomposes and turns into spongy goodness that not only provides nutrients but also holds water for the plants above.

An additional five bales of wheat straw finished off the left side and amply covered the right. I recently read Ruth Stout’s No Work Garden Book. She advises taking the straw, or the nutrients, straight to the garden. The manure cows produce, coveted by gardeners everywhere, comes from what they feed on. But the cows take some of the nutrients first. The idea is basically cutting out the middleman of manure. Or should I say middlecow.

With that complete, I’ve continued to compost in place, sticking kitchen scraps under the straw here and there, pouring my coffee grounds on top, and adding contributions from my two rabbits, Peabody and Lapine. I’ll layer this with grass clippings and leaf mould.

In theory, I should have good, rich earth by end of March. We will see.

Why?

So what’s the point of all this? Wouldn’t it be better and easier to just go get some fertilizer, some garden soil, and a supply of fungicide, insecticide, and herbicide?

It might be easier but it wouldn’t be better. I call that plan Earthicide!

I have recently learned that topsoil is a huge agricultural export in the United States. We are selling our very own earth. According to a report by Matt Hansen of The Week, “In the United States alone, soil disappears 10 times faster than it is naturally replenished, according to the Cornell study, at an estimated rate of nearly 1.7 billion tons of farmland alone per year.” 

The birds eat berries and their waste enriches the soil. They provide meals for predators and feed on garden pests. All creatures thrive and provide in this way, except we humans. We mine our resources like there is tomorrow. Instead of giving back to the land, we dump our waste in water and landfills and pump the ground with fertilizers and poisons. We are making lots of withdrawals but no deposits. This is an equation that cannot last forever.

I want to know that I am improving my land. I have a long way to go, but this is one little Alabama acre that will be a haven for flora and fauna, not a death trap. It has been a learning experience and there have been some ups and downs but at least I know that I am making deposits!