First step for the area of my food forest was to sheet mulch it last summer. Sheet mulch consists of overlapping cardboard sheets to smother weeds, topped by a thick layer of organic matter. I often use straw (not hay!), as shown here since the bales come apart in "flakes" or "books" 2 -3 inches thick. The wastebaskets contain water for soaking the smaller pieces of cardboard. Appliance boxes are great for projects like this; it's available free from dumpsters behind appliance stores but it's best to ask permission first.
Now that the snow is gone, the ground has thawed and the weather has improved (slightly), work has begun in earnest. Fifteen of the bareroot plants that I ordered from St. Lawrence Nurseries arrived on Thursday the 7th so I had my work cut out for me that weekend. Believe it or not, I had all 15 plants in the ground by Sunday afternoon. Woot!
I had taken a bunch of photos of the bareroot plants to show you what they look like, but when I was downloading them off the card, my computer went into sleep mode and I lost a bunch. Suffice to say that bareroot stock literally comes with their roots bare with no soil around them. The plants are dug while still dormant and the roots are bagged and sealed in damp sawdust for shipment. Bareroot stock is quite small, so huge holes aren’t necessary; many of the them don’t look like much – a stick, a piece of root with “eyes” even – but they do well because they’re planted while they’re still “sleeping”. They’ve been in the ground a week and all are showing signs of life. If the weather would just warm up a little, we’d be in business!
Photos tell the story better than a lot of verbal descriptions, so here we go.
First, here's the area in plan. The juneberries and elderberries are on the right along the fence; the nannyberries and ground cherries are arranged around the Bosc pear in the center of the "teardrop". Lupines (for nitrogen fixing) and other small plants will go in later.
Larger plants are put in first (in this case, a Bosc pear) and the sheet mulch is brought up around it. The tree has a temporary chicken wire fence to protect it from rabbit damage. Fortunately, deer aren't a problem in my garden, probably because of all the resident dogs in the neighborhood.
The cardboard is soaked with water, before the straw is piled on top. This helps flatten it, and hastens the composting/decomposition of the whole thing. Note that there has been no digging or turning over of the soil other than what was necessary to plant the tree.
This is a better view showing the grass and weeds that the mulch is covering. Minimal digging. Mowing first is a good idea; go as short and close to the ground as possible and leave the clippings in place to decompose under the sheet mulch.
Here you can see the straw being laid down. It's best to cover small areas at a time; if you try to do the whole thing, you'll find the cardboard drying out before you get to pile the straw on top. The short stakes with orange tape are marking planting locations and edges.
Fast-forward to April 7, 2011 - my fifteen bareroot shrubs have arrived from St. Lawrence Nurseries! Yep, they're all in there.
I know they're hard to see, but this area along the fence has been planted with six juneberries and two elderberries. They're small and quite vulnerable to rabbit damage so I've made simple chicken-wire cages held in place with short pieces of bamboo. See the greenery back in the woods? Most of those are 'ramps' or wild leeks.
The curve of the path that will lead into the woods. The white trunk to the left is the Bosc pear. It does have branches but you can't make them out in this picture. The bed on the right has the juneberries and elderberries; I've dug out a trench to outline the bed so the lawn won't creep back in any time soon (I hope!)
Again, hard to see but I've put in three hazelburts (hazel x filbert crosses) to form a short hedge along one edge of the path. I'm using the recommended spacing from the catalog for all these plantings.
The intended route of the path to the woods. The mulch looks a little worse for wear after all winter, and has been scattered a bit by the wild turkeys but there's a plan here. Honest!
Ground-cherries and nannyberries (wild raisin) on the opposite side of the planting area from the juneberries. That "log" is an old telephone pole that functioned as a pole for a yard light until it was taken down.
All three rhubarb plants made it through the winter! Yay! Right now, everything is so small I have stakes and plant protection everywhere so I (hopefully) won't step on anything.
The comfrey made it through also. Comfrey is a mulch plant; you can hack it back several times a year and mulch with the leaves. That's why it's near the pear. Comfrey also has small pink flowers that the bees love - and our pollinators need all the help they can get.
Obviously, there’s still more work to do; the Juneberries and Elderberries are waiting for their sheet mulch and I’m hoping to top it all off with a couple trailer loads of compost. But the most important thing at this point was to get those plants in the ground. And get this; there are a few more on the way from different nurseries – two Paw Paws and a Witch Hazel. And the vegetable garden is waiting for some decent weather so I can begin planting.
Spring – from now through early June is the most frantic part of the year in the garden. So get out there and get busy!
