Medicinal herbs, kitchen herbs, perennial edibles and berries: https://mountainherbs.net/ grown in the Blue Mountains, Australia
Annie Collins wrote:Hi all!
I am sure this question has been answered somewhere in these threads, but putting in the keywords brings back literally 1000s of threads to go through and I don't have the time since it is autumn and time is of the essence.
I am starting a market garden. I plan on starting small so I don't get overwhelmed. My hope is that I will have the area dedicated in my yard for the market garden ready for planting in the spring. Right now it is all grass. Not well kept grass, just mowed. Here, then, is my plan, the first part already started:
I mowed the lawn short. Next I put about 8" of 1 year old leaf compost on it. I plan on next putting some alpaca manure, worm castings, and azomite on the leaf compost, then raking that all in. I then plan on putting a layer of cardboard over the whole thing, weighing it down, and letting it sit for the winter.
I have 2 questions: Did I do it backwards with the cardboard? Should I have put it directly on the grass?
The other is should I be doing some soil loosening with a broadfork or digging fork before I put the final (or first) cardboard layer on?
I appreciate any ideas/advice!
Annie Collins wrote:Hi all!
I am sure this question has been answered somewhere in these threads, but putting in the keywords brings back literally 1000s of threads to go through and I don't have the time since it is autumn and time is of the essence.
I am starting a market garden. I plan on starting small so I don't get overwhelmed. My hope is that I will have the area dedicated in my yard for the market garden ready for planting in the spring. Right now it is all grass. Not well kept grass, just mowed. Here, then, is my plan, the first part already started:
I mowed the lawn short. Next I put about 8" of 1 year old leaf compost on it. I plan on next putting some alpaca manure, worm castings, and azomite on the leaf compost, then raking that all in. I then plan on putting a layer of cardboard over the whole thing, weighing it down, and letting it sit for the winter.
I have 2 questions: Did I do it backwards with the cardboard? Should I have put it directly on the grass?
The other is should I be doing some soil loosening with a broadfork or digging fork before I put the final (or first) cardboard layer on?
I appreciate any ideas/advice!
List of Bryant RedHawk's Epic Soil Series Threads We love visitors, that's why we live in a secluded cabin deep in the woods. "Buzzard's Roost (Asnikiye Heca) Farm." Promoting permaculture to save our planet.
Hardiness Zone 6 Save the bees.
"Our ability to change the face of the earth increases at a faster rate than our ability to foresee the consequences of that change"
- L.Charles Birch
My Herbal Tea Store (CA)
Gilbert Fritz wrote:If you have bindweed or Canadian thistle, or similar creeping weeds, they will find a way through your cardboard, sooner or later. Also, in my experience, heavily compacted soil stays heavily compacted under a sheet mulch; so eventually my plants, planted in the mulch, got drought stressed. Then again, I'm in dry and sunny Colorado, where things take forever to rot and where soil is more like bricks. Where are you located?
I'd agree that cardboard under the mulch and compost will work better, and the mulch will hold it down.
Also, be careful not to import any mulch with persistent herbicides in it.
You might want to do a soil test to see what minerals you might want to add.
Welcome to Permies!
I didn't think about the herbicide issue when I started doing this and I'm getting my chips from the local landfill. Major bummer. There is no doubt some herbicide in there.
Think of how stupid the average person is. And how half of them are stupider than that. - Carlin But who reads this tiny ad?
A PDC for cold climate homesteaders
http://permaculture-design-course.com
|