Hi there,
I'm planning to try out some permaculture concepts in our organic vegetable patch this year. To be specific, I want to build a raised bed and fill it with sheet mulch, as described in Toby Hemenway's book, "Gaia's Garden".
As I understand, the final two layers of a sheet mulch are compost and mulch. However, I usually grow almost all my veggies from seed and I'm a little confused about how to sow them in the raised bed.
Here in the Netherlands, we are told that it's not possible to start seeds in compost, as it contains so much nutrients it actually 'drowns' the seeds and kills them. So I'm not sure that sowing seeds in the raised bed - by brushing away part of the top mulch layer - will work.
I have a feeling that this is mainly a translation issue, but I'd like to be sure. When starting seeds at home, I usually use a bag of "potgrond", which translates as "potting soil/potting compost". Compost in Dutch is pure, composted vegetable matter, which is very high in nutrients.
So, I guess my question is, can anyone tell me what exactly the compost-layer of a sheet mulch is made of?
Kind regards,
numblock
