How to sheet mulch in your garden
Also known as “lasagna gardening,” this no-dig technique makes starting a garden easy.
By Roger Doiron
DO YOU THINK that starting a new kitchen garden is back-breaking work? Well, it can be, but it doesn’t have to be. One of the easiest ways to start a new garden on lawn is using a no-dig technique called sheet mulching. This method can be used at any time of the year in Maine, but the best time is in the fall when fallen leaves and grass clippings are abundant. Here’s how you do it.
Pick a spot that gets at least six hours of direct sun a day and is convenient both for harvesting and watering.
Mow the grass on your future garden site as close to the soil surface as possible.
Water the site thoroughly so the soil is soaked thoroughly to a depth of six inches.
Cover the spot with large pieces of untreated cardboard or several layers of overlapping newspaper.
Cover the cardboard or newspaper with thick layers of whatever organic mulch you can get your hands on—leaves, compost, manure, grass clippings, straw, seaweed (rinsed), etc. Add new types of mulch as they are available to you. Spread a 6-inch layer of topsoil over the mulch, water, and wait. Over the course of the cool months, the sod will decompose, adding rich organic matter to your soil.
When things have thawed out in the spring, turn your soil with a garden fork or a tiller and plant.
If you’re anxious to start planting sooner rather than later, you can also use this method in the early spring and begin sowing shallow-rooted spring crops like salad greens and radishes into your topsoil layer before the lower layers have decomposed. For crops with deeper roots like tomato plants, you can cut a hole through the lower layers and plant seedlings directly into the ground. In this case, you wont need to till your garden, but will want to keep adding layers of organic matter as they become available. Before you know it, you’ll be picnicking on your lawn in a whole new way.
Roger Doiron is founder of nonprofit SeedMoney (formerly Kitchen Gardeners International), which promotes food gardens by offering funding and technical assistance to groups wishing to start and sustain food garden projects serving people in need. For more information, visit seedmoney.org.
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Green & Healthy Maine is published by TheSunriseGuide, LLC. This article originally ran in the 2016 SunriseGuide.