Sheet Mulch Success

       We installed sheet mulch yesterday! The first thing we did was dig a hole to see what the soil was like. Fred Meyer says it's always a good idea to dig a hole and see what the soil is like. After about a foot, we found that the nice, dark soil turned into sand. Susan Woolverton hypothesized that it used to be the bank--or main body--of the river. She's probably onto something there.
       After that, we took some pitchforks and aerated the soil. "Aerate" here meaning "poke holes in the ground." Lots of fun in this step.

 

Susan, Tim--barely visible--Spencer, and Alexis aerating the soil.

       After that, we spread a layer of compost over the grass so that just a few tufts were poking out. Then we spread a layer of cardboard over everything. The cardboard kills all the grass and eventually the compost will break it down into delicious plant food. We owe a huge "thank you" to Shack-a-Thon and the various Greek organizations who gave us big boxes. Also a big thanks to Tom Wieseler from Sodexo for bring a number of boxes directly to our site.
       With the cardboard covering everything, we uncovered our mound of compost and wheelbarrowed it to the location, just about fifteen feet away. Arial, Spencer, and I shoveled compost into wheelbarrows that Jon and Nathan wheeled back and forth from the pile to the site. The other 7 or 8 of us were spreading it all out and unloading the rest of Lisa Stroschine's truck. Lisa and her two children came and got in on the fun, too.
       Then we unloaded two truckloads of wood chips with rakes and shovels. I'm not sure if you've ever unloaded two truckloads of wood chips before, but it's a lot of wood chips. We spread them out so no compost was visible.
       Finally, we swept up the site, put our tools away, and admired our work. It took just over two hours. I'm glad we got it done quickly, but there were some people hoping to come by later who didn't have the chance to help. Luck for them we'll be designing the garden at some point in time.
       There were a lot of cameras floating around, so as we get more pictures, we'll post them here along with some updates on what's next: design and choosing plants.
       We don't have a design date set yet, but stay tuned for that information. In the meantime, start thinking about what you want in the garden!

 -Peter