Hey gang, long time no post! I thought I'd share my sheet mulching journey & get some advice.
In the late summer / early fall of 2021 we sheet mulched a very heavily vegetated, abandoned back garden area to prepare a veggie garden. We actually tried twice - first time, we didn't have nearly enough smothering power from straw and tried to sow a cover crop - the seeds were quickly eaten by birds and the weeds all grew back in a matter of weeks. Second time around, in late August, we slashed and laid down all the greenery, smothered it with cardboard, laid down a ton of composted manure, and biodynamic straw/hay (with immature seedheads).
We had a very wet and hot fall and things broke down in a riot of activity. When planting garlic in October I couldn't stick my hands in the mulch without encountering a ton of worms and other crawlies.
By late spring/early summer, a lot of the top layer was pretty broken down. Unsure of whether or not to leave these bald patches, we acquired some free woodchips via the chipdrop network and spread it over everything. I took the opportunity to lay down some wine cap spawn in a dedicated area. (Note to self - don't plant too closely to trees because it's too dry!)
I admit, I got kinda lazy in the summer and didn't keep up with the rigorous watering the garden needed. Between the hot summer temperatures and thirsty woodchips, everything got a little stressed out. Surprisingly, a lot of things bounced back after a certain point. This year I'm going to get some sprinklers for the days where I don't have enough time in the morning to water everything by hand (or the guts to ask people who are housesitting to do so).
In the fall of 2022 the garden got a layer of leaves from the surrounding trees and neighbours. Not a crazy amount, but enough to keep the garlic and strawberries insulated.
Now, as we enter 2023 and officially our second growing season on the site, I'm wondering - once you've sheet mulched an area, do you keep adding materials/mulch after the initial application, or just let it fully break down? I noticed there was quite a bit of pest pressure last year, but it may not be due to the mulch entirely, but likely from my own lack of support. Curious to hear from other gardeners about what they've found works best after the initial resetting of the garden.
As for other observations I've made through this process:
- Sheet mulching REALLY kept the weeds down. It was glorious. Any weeds that did pop up came out like butter. The only thing that gave us trouble were some wild violets or creeping bellflower (my partner suspects the former, I suspect the latter).
- A few pieces of straw had seedheads that were intact and sprouted, but failed to set roots and didn't grow into plants.
- Squirrels, cats, raccoons - they LOVE digging in this stuff. It's a pain in the butt to keep them out. (City life, I guess.)
- Straw was a very lovely, moisture-retentive amendment. You need a lot of it, so don't skimp. It breaks down fast.
- Wood chips were a little more finicky, maybe I didn't have a good balance of C:N, but the garden felt way thirstier after adding it. My tomatoes, which could go a long while without water, were suddenly stressin'.
- Slugs are cute but you need to really protect your peas and squash seedlings from them.
- I didn't get as large plants as I have been able to grow in containers, but it's the first year, so whatever.
Looking forward to hear from folks with more experience with sheet mulching to see what their year-by-year care has looked like.
