Sheet mulching, the final steps

It has been hard finding the time to get to this posting to finish, but am finally here. This photo shows the garden area around the pool. It has Hosta, Daylily, Japanese Iris, Cleome and ground covers.



For the beginning of the sheet mulch process you need green mulch to get the worms coming up to the top of the soil. In looking around the gardens, these large Hosta caught my eye first. Some years I cut them back, others I have just let them die down and create their own mulch.Whether you cut back your perennials in the fall is often a matter of taste. If you do not like the way the dying foliage works, you probably cut it back as soon as it starts to get ratty looking. If you =can wait out that stage and leave it to die back in place, it provides a great mulch for next season. Also the greenery breaks down and adds nitrogen to your soil.

With the Permaculture process I will not be cutting down my plants except those that will be cut during the growing season to be used as mulch for that specific area.
I must say here that the most important thing to do in getting ready for this mulching process is to get help with it. I tried some of it by myself, but it is a very strenuous process all alone. It went much faster when my daughters and hubby were helping.

This is what the area looks like with the foliage cut back to be used in the sheet mulch.




The first layer of the mulch is a green one, in this case, the foliage I just cut back. it is a thin layer, just enough to encourage all those worms lurking below to come up through the surface for a nice fresh snack. Before the start of the mulching and after each layer it had to be thoroughly watered to keep it all good and moist for the decomposing process.



Then a layer of newspaper was put down to block out any seeds/weeds from coming up.




On top of that went a two inch layer of more green material, to entice the worms up through the newspaper as it decomposes.




The next layer is again a mulching material, and this stage can actually be have any seeds left on the plants, as they will decompose over the winter. I cut back all the plants around the gardens that had gone to seed, mostly utilizing the Goldenrod that grows all over. Once I started cutting it down, I was surprised to find how much there was. With that I was able to put down a great six inch layer. So at this stage I had an inch of green, the newspaper, which was about another half inch, two inches of greens, 6 inches of rough plants, for a total so far of about nine plus inches.



Next I put on a nice layer of rich, black compost,



from my compost bin.



On top of that went a thick layer of shredded leaves that I got with my lawn mower. If you look closely at this photo you can see how excited Abby was with the whole process, as she sleeps soundly, enjoying the warmth of the autumn sun on the driveway!!!





You can see that it is almost up to the top of the fencing, which is about 12-14 inches.




And the final layer was about three inches of seed free greens, for which I used the Jewelweed which had been all around the woods. This was the easiest to harvest as it just came right up with very little effort. This ended up being over twelve inches.

And this is the start of the path in the Spruce area, where the other new edible area is also being sheet mulched.