Sheet Mulching

The trees and shrubs cut
and piled up in the front of the house.

The pile of cuttings chipped

Now the sheet mulching begins.

Loading woodchips 
into the wheelbarrow.

The Northwest corner:
All of our natural fiber
clothing and other household
goods are laid out on the ground.
Worn out sheets, mattress pads and 
bath towels are great for sheet mulching.
Sooooooo much better than dumping 
them in the landfill!

All of the cardboard boxes that we packed our belongings in when we moved from Santa Fe, New Mexico, are laid onto the bare dirt. 8 to 12 layers of newspaper works just as well as cardboard. 6 to 8 inches of woodchips are then piled on top of the cardboard or newspaper. Before the first rain oyster shell powder is preferred to sprinkle on top of the chips. Alas, no oyster shell powder is available. The alternative is lime stone ground finely which is what will be used.

For those of you that have followed this blog since it's inception, you are aware that mulching is foundational for building the soil, aka soil regeneration. Woodchips used to be easy to come by when MuRefuge soil regeneration began. 

We now have a compost pile covered
with our compost blanket.
In the area with woodchips 
covering the ground a native bush will be planted.

As time passed others learned of this essential activity and wood chips became more difficult to procure. In Santa Fe where the technique was just beginning to catch on, I was able to have a load of wood chips delivered for $60. All I had to do was put my name on the list and when the tree trimmers were in the neighborhood, I received a call that a delivery was to be made the following morning.

Back in Sonoma County woodchips are at a premium! So the pile of chips from the vegetation cut and chipped on our property has now been used for the beginning of the backyard mulching. 

Sierra Tree Service
delivered a load of almost
all woodchips with minimal leaves.

A sizable dent has been made in the cardboard boxes used for our moving. Olivers, the local grocery store, has cardboard boxes available for pick up after shelves are stocked. And several neighbors have graciously volunteered to save their cardboard boxes. When visiting Auntie T, we scavenged her recycle bin for cardboard boxes which we brought home. Our neighbors to the West throw their cardboard boxes over our adjoining fence. And then a friend delivered a huge amount of

very large cardboard boxes which may be enough to finish the mulching project.

Another soil regeneration project that has already happened is between the patio and the tall hedge that blocks the apartments on our West. Mostly herbs have been planted in this space so soil regeneration is essential for their growth and well BEing. In that light we sojourned to Grab 'n Grow and purchased bags of Mango Mulch. As some of you will remember truckloads of this wonderfully rich mulch were delivered to MuRefuge. At PageRefuge there is much less needed.

Below is a a mini snapshot of the "herb garden" and Dwight's stunning male and female Tewa heads:

The mini herb garden contains basil, 8 chives,1 comfrey, echinacea, sweet marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, 2 Broad leaf plantain, 2 rosemary plants, 2 kinds of sage, white yarrow, zinnias along with 2 tomatillo plants and 1 cherry tomato. Seeds for chervil and arugula will be scattered at the beginning of the cooler weather.

Gardening brings me many a joyful