Thriving the Future Podcast Ep. 124 – Creating a New Garden Bed with Milpa

Creating a new garden bed - Do YOU use cardboard or not?
I use Milpa to create new garden beds.
You can have this with very little effort.


I turn the sod over with a broadfork, add some compost, sow some Milpa seed, and cover with a light layer of woodchips.


The base of Milpa is Three sisters - corn, beans, squash. Plus cowpeas, buckwheat, pollinators.


Listen on your fave podcast app and:
TThriving the Future Podcast Ep. 124 – Creating a New Garden Bed with Milpa

Scot Miller wrote:I turn the sod over with a broadfork

Hey, can you unpack this? My understanding of "turn the sod over" doesn't line up with how a broadfork operates, so I'm wondering if you can do more with broadforks than I have done in my yard, or maybe you mean something less aggressive than the phrase "turn over" suggests in my head.

I stand on the broadfork until it is in the ground. I lean back and pull and wiggle it side to side until it loosens up a piece of sod. Since I have a 14" broadfork it also loosens up some of the clay. Then I pull it up and turn it over so it clay-side up, grass side down, either with the broadfork, a shovel, or by hand.