D Brennan

We plan to add a few new garden beds this year, and I'm wondering if I can prep them in late winter for spring planting?  Everything I've found says ideally you start them in fall, but we missed that boat.

Our plan is to layer cardboard, larger sticks, smaller sticks, rotted hay, compost, topsoil, then leaf mulch.  Currently we have snow on the ground, which might melt this week, but the ground is frozen solid.  

We aren't digging, just building up from the cardboard weed barrier.  Thoughts?

Nancy Reading wrote:

it needs some tweaking to make it permaculture friendly.  

I guess the first question back is what are you trying to do? Then: Are you starting with a previous garden? How did things grow? What are you hoping to grow there this year? What is your soil and climate like? To my mind permaculture is not something that comes out of a box ready made, it is a design system. Without knowing the constraints and assets you have it is difficult to give a simple answer.
Mine would be - 'feed the soil not the plant'. Take a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fp0d6vVzQ8 ; a quick excerpt from the Master Gardener course at Wheaton labs for some interesting pointers.

These are good points.  I've been slowly building my organic gardening skills over decades, our current garden has been in for 18 years.  We have become more and more "permie" in our approaches, and this year our main goal is to focus on companion planting and intercropping, and we're adding two more beds (one part-shade veggie, one for fruiting shrubs) - which has required me to step up my garden planning a bit.  Thus, using this app (our ADHD brains really appreciate a little support in organizing our time, especially).

I'd like to use this "app" as more of a guide than a hard and fast recipe, but to aid in that endeavor I'm interested in translating what they say into more sustainable practices.  For example, one of the comments above referenced slow release vs. quick feed, and also commented on the variations in quality of composts.  I think my take home from that is that compost is great, and for the recommended "standard fertilizer" to-do list item, I might try a compost or worm tea, commercial organic fertilizer, or just ignore that recommendation and go straight compost.  

I'm using SmartGardener to help up my gardening game this year.  I love that it gives you a to-do list, though it needs some tweaking to make it permaculture friendly.  

How would you translate this into permaculture?

Soil Preparation
Compost (N), 2 inch(es), in top 10in of soil, 1 time
Due OnFeb 12, 2025

Soil Preparation
Standard Mix, 5 pound(s) per 100 sq. ft., in top 10in of soil, 1 time
Due OnFeb 12, 2025
A standard mix will supply potassium, phosphorus and any additional nutrients required.

Obviously I'd topdress vs. dig in to the top 10in of soil, but is there really a need to do compost AND fertilizer?  What would be a substitute for the NPK/Standard mix, if not compost?