In March I posted about mulching the vegetable beds (click here to see that post). In those beds I weeded and then applied liberal amounts of rotted horse manure and spent mushroom compost / garden compost. Well, I have a couple of beds that are so overgrown with grass an creeping buttercup that I had to modify my approach and try ‘sheet mulching’.
So, here’s my quick picture guide. I’m sheet mulching the far end of the bed shown.
1. Place a layer of cardboard or newspaper over the area to be sheet mulched.
I used old feed bags for this bed.
Make sure the layers overlap well, otherwise weeds will grow up through the gaps. Ideally the card should be under the raised bed edges.
Make sure the soil is moist, if not, water it well before putting on the cardboard.
If using newspaper layer it 20 sheets thick.
Here is the same bed, now covered with cardboard.
I have weighed down the cardboard with old tiles.
2. Cover with a thick layer of compost or manure.
I used both, first the manure (see pic below) and then the spent mushroom compost.
Make sure the mulch is at least 2-3 inches deep. It can be deeper than this.
3. Voila, you’re done.
To plant out your crop (I’ll be planting onions) you can excavate a little hole in the compost, water it and then use finer potting compost in the planting hole. If planting potatoes, which many people do in freshly sheet mulched beds, as they help break up the soil further, you can make a slit in the cardboard and plant them into the compost.
Here’s a pic of the bed ready for planting (I may add some more compost to the top first, once the first lot has settled).
4. You can cover the compost with straw or some other mulch (to stop the soil from drying out) if you like, making sure the straw doesn’t touch the plants.
Variations:
Some people don’t like to use cardboard or newspaper, so you can omit that layer.
Others like it and feel it helps supress the weed growth from underneath long enough for plants.
Some people prefer to put the cardboard on top of the manure / compost rather than on the bottom.
Garden Update
Still on the theme of mulching (with some wise words about how to compost eggshells), here’s the last garden update from April.
Guess I need to go out and do another one pretty soon, as it’s already May.
Doesn’t time fly by when you’re busy getting the garden ready?
