We held a permaculture sheet mulching work party at our house this past weekend. This sentence most likely needs decoding.
Permaculture is an approach to living that is focused on sustainability and connection. The word itself is a contraction of "permanent culture" and "permanent agriculture". There are
guiding design principles and attitudinal principles. For example in the sheet mulching project we did, three main principles of permaculture design were key: use small scale, intensive systems; optimize edge; use biological and renewable resources A permaculture attitude reflected in our garden design is
get a yield. Sheet mulching is composting in place and building soil in a similar manner to the way nature does it. The benefits are many including weed suppression, water conservation and maintenance
soil health and organisms.
The designer and skill facilitator was
Dave Homa. He led us in the design, multiple steps and layers of laying out the
key hole gardens and the furrows. We used leaves, coffee grounds, seaweed, newspapers, wood chips, stone dust, cardboard, chicken and rabbit manure, woody plants, straw and
compost. The garden transformed from essentially a "weed bed" to an organized and optimized space for planting and pollinators.
More information about permaculture can be found at
Portland Maine Permaculture.
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| BEFORE |
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| Creating a starting point |
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| Laying the outline of a key hole with material from the garden |
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| List of inputs |
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| The Design |
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| Adding the compost |
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| Laying down the base for the paths |
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| Straw on the beds and wood chips in the paths complete the design |
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