Sheet composting

The other day I was talking to my mother, who has quite a bit of yard space, more than I do. We were eating my small crop of beets and beet greens grown in a large pot, which were quite delicious. Next year, I said, you should plant beets, just make your garden bigger. Make it bigger the easy way. Now, I must admit, this method that I will discuss is not original, but I originally read about it in the book, “Lasagna Gardening” by Patricia Lanz, and have read more information about this type of gardening in the books by Ruth Stout, written about thirty or forty years ago. Some of the methods proposed by these authors I have already discovered on my own, mainly due to my own lack of time and quite frankly – also my aversion to unnecessary hard work. The idea is to never have to plow, till, or double dig, and to let earthworms and time do the work for you – like what occurs in nature. The method works very well, as I have tried it in several areas of my garden. It smothers the weeds and creates rich friable loose soil. It also lets one water less frequently, as rich loamy soil with a mulch of some sort retains water very well. A plant with good healthy soil is most resistant to disease and pests.
I started with a terrible weed infested hard packed and gravelly area next to my driveway. I could not even get a shovel into it, so digging it up was not even an option. One begins by laying down a thick layer of newspaper (no slick inserts) and/or cardboard from boxes. Wet the newspaper and cardboard, and then add all the organic material you can get your hands on. There is no set formula. I added bags of cow manure, top soil, and shredded leaves, about eight inches thick. More is better. Then just let it sit there. You can plant some things right away, thought it is better to give it a few months. You can begin this at any time, but now through fall is a very good time. After a few months, time and earthworms will have done the work, and you will have some very good soil and a new or enlarged garden bed. Add more organic material every year, right on top. What type of material?
Horse or cow manure, the dirty litter from rabbits or guinea pigs, all your vegetable scraps from the kitchen, used coffee grounds, eggshells, shredded leaves, grass clippings, pine needles, peat moss, bags of compost, shredded paper, leftover potting soil, regular mulch, hay– in short , as long as it is vegetative matter, it will work. Once you have plants in place – whether they are vegetables or flowers or shrubs – you still keep adding these materials. Even when you have weeds, just pull them and lay them on the soil – to decay and add nutrients to the soil. The same with plants that are done for the season, just lay them on the surface of the soil after you cut them down, leaving the roots in place to decay and also add nutrients. If you use this method, sometimes called “sheet composting, you won’t need a compost pile, and you will need little, if any, commercial fertilizer. Your soil will become rich and loose, and easy to plant. The places where I have done this for the last ten years have wonderful soil to a depth of a foot or more – and all with no tilling or digging – the earthworms will do all the work for you. The only digging I do now is to dig a big hole for a large plant or to transplant an established plant to a better location.
Would you like to know of a perennial that will grow practically anywhere, requires no care and little water, multiplies yearly, has no disease or pest problems, and will yield beautiful blooms and lush foliage that stays attractive all season long? I am talking about daylilies. There is nothing bad to say about them. Yes, we have all seen the ordinary “Stella d’Oro” daylily in practically every landscaping job, but there are so many other daylilies in gorgeous colors – pink, red, claret, lemon yellow, peach, two tone – many have double form, and some are even fragrant. Many are repeat bloomers, and most bloom for a long time in mid summer. I have quite a few and most of them are blooming at this time. I go out every morning and check out the new arrivals. The daylily is called that because each bloom lasts for one day. They can be planted at anytime one can stick a spade in the soil. My friend Teresa who works at a large garden center in southeast Middletown told me they recently got a shipment of 900 fresh daylilies – many different and unusual cultivars that are hard to find. Go check them out for some fresh new color!