Sheet Mulching

Sheet mulching is an organic gardening method where you plant on top of the ground already there, it is a form of no-dig gardening. This method is great for areas that are hard to dig, because of excessive rocks or just bad soil, whatever the case may be in your organic gardening endeavor. This method also reduces some labor, and maintenance for your organic garden. Some more benefits are increased water storage, improves soil, prevents erosion, as said before makes it possible to create an organic garden where you probably could not have before. So as you see there are many reasons to use this organic gardening method, you can also do it if you’re just lazy and do not feel like preparing the ground, as I said before, less labor, and hey, less labor is not so bad, there is always next year, right?

So, let us get started, there is no need to remove any of the sod or rock, or do any excessive work, just leave your organic garden area as is, weeds and all. Mark the area for your organic garden using a water hose, this will aid us in the next step, if you already have your area boxed in, or however you have it setup, just spray the area, no need to fully saturate it, we just want to get it moist for now. We have talked before about using newspaper as an organic weed control, this is our next step, you want to cover the area in wet newspaper, cardboard, or another organic paper-based product. What a way to self recycle that newspaper! Remember to overlap the edges with multiple sheets. Now you want a one to two inch layer of peat moss, or some type of substitute, or another type of organic moisture holding materials. Alternate layers of compost and your peat moss material, and compost or other organic materials, whichever your organic gardening methods call for. You should regularly increase soil levels by adding large amounts of compost and other organic materials to your garden. Now that you’re done with that, water it evenly, to the consistency of a damp sponge, and you are good to go.