Permaculture mulch bed

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Permaculture mulch bed

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Sarah D

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 2584

Posted: Wed Jan 05, 05 5:49 pm Post subject: Permaculture mulch bed

This is a good, low cost, low labour way to make a complete new bed that you can plant straight into, even if you don't embrace any other permaculture methods or ideas. I've used it a lot in my garden, and you can edge the beds or not, whatever suits you.

Decide the size and layout (any shape) that you would like your bed to be. The beauty of this type of bed is that you don't need to remove the turf first if you are making it over grass. Cover this area with cardboard, eg opened out cardboard boxes; on top of this, lay really thick layers of wet newspaper - soak in old bath or similar. Next, put on a very thick layer of mulch - compost, straw, grass clippings, vegetable matter, pond weed, seaweed, manure, clearings from pet hutches, etc. The thicker the better. The top layer can be topsoil, compost, or a mixture, a few inches thick - this gives you a layer ready to plant straight into for the first season. The whole bed will stand about 10 - 12" or so high, hopefully. If you don't have enough matter to complete it, you can start the underneath layers and add as you get it. It will start to sink quite rapidly, but you can continue to add mulch as you go along.
The only warning I would offer from experience is not to attempt it on a windy day!
This is how I do it, and it works for me; and it's good fun, and easy enough for the children to help, especially the wetting of the newspapers.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sun Jan 23, 05 11:42 am Post subject:

Reading through some of the topics again I think we'll try a small permaculture bed this year. Personally I'm not keen on using news paper as I worry about the chemicals it has, unprinted cardboard should be ok. I would like to try it as a way of watering the garden less as I bet it would keep the moisture in.

The main question I have is what would be the most ideal plants? Squashes (courgettes, pumpkins etc) would seem a good bet as they need a fair bit of water.

Are there any problems to look out for, such as extra slugs or anything?

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Sun Jan 23, 05 12:22 pm Post subject:
I read somewhere (think it might have been permaculture mag) that newspapers largely use vegetable dyes. I always thought it was quite the opposite, that there was some nasty stuff in newsprint (and not just the journalists ). Anybody know anything about that or do I have to Google later

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sun Jan 23, 05 12:42 pm Post subject:
I would assume that the permaculture chaps wouldn't recommend using newsprint if it was full of toxins. The things I can remember about newsprint are that it's acidic, and that it's pretty much sterile. So if you have to deliver a baby in an emergency, cover the surfaces with old newspaper.

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