Demo Garden

A demonstration garden plot has begun in our North City Community Garden.

Yesterday we created a "Sheet Mulch" or "Lasagna" garden plot. This 5' by 10' plot will be maintained to grow vegetables, while at the same time significantly reducing labor and energy with tilling and weeding.

This approach also greatly enhances the ecology of soil organisms by reducing disturbances, and by building up the organic base of the soil.

You will see below the sequence of steps that were employed to build this particular plot.

Click on pictures to zoom.
The existing 6 inches of topsoil was removed to be used later.

Next, 4 inches of grass clippings were added.

Next, 2 inches of Smit compost was added.

Next, 1-2 inches of oat straw was added.

Next, 4 inches of more grass clippings were added.

Next, some of the topsoil was returned to the plot.

Next, more straw.

The remaining topsoil was added.

Final step, added 4 more inches of Smit compost.

Now we will start to plant.

Here, 2 days later, we planted all but 15% of the available plot space.

Some call this "intensive gardening"...where a variety of vegetable plants are co-mingled and in close quarters. Not only will this provide greater production, but will help shade out areas where weeds would ordinarily pop-up, keep the soil cooler in mid-summer with less evaporation, and it just looks nice.

One of the benefits with intensive, sheet-mulch gardening is that when one plant or group of vegetable has matured and then harvested, you simply replace that spot with another plant or variety for later harvest. Thus you have this ongoing rotation of vegetable production, where the soil bed is rarely vacant.

By next year, all the grass and straw will have completely decomposed. The current layers of mulch and compost will stabilize and provide a extremely healthy soil community that will provide a nutrient fertility that is balanced and sustainable.

Stay tuned for how this will all work out through this summer.

BTW: There is another "Sheet Mulch" or "Lasagna Garden" over on BC Avenue in Lynden.

Joy...