SHEET MULCHING is a fast, labor saving technique for building new planting beds and suppressing weeds.

You may need a little mental tweak to think like a sheet mulcher. Instead of picturing what you need to remove from a certain spot of field or lawn to build a garden bed, you think about what you can pile on top of it that will smother the weeds and break down, over the course of some months, to build a rich, loose soil.

The process closely mimics nature’s own soil-building process. The best time to create a new planting bed with this method is in late summer or fall. If you create a new bed in fall, it will be ready to plant by the next spring.

Mark the perimeter of your new planting bed. You do NOT need to remove the existing sod or weed cover. Just cut it down, and leave it there. It will decompose and add to the soil's nutritive value. You may want to add a thin layer of soil amendments depending on your soil type - gypsum or lime and rock dust.

Now, cover this with cardboard or layers of newspaper. This layer will prevent any weeds or plants from growing up through your bed. Do not use the shiny color pages as they won't decompose as well. Make sure you don't leave any gaps, as weeds or grass from below will come through. Soak each layer. The water will speed up the decomposition. This layer adds carbon to your new bed as it decomposes.

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Make the bed narrow enough so that you don't need to walk in it to weed or plant. Walking in your planting beds will compact the soil, so air and water can't penetrate, causing root stress.

An alternative is to put down flat stepping stones or rounds of wood so you have something to walk on, and make the bed around them. Put them on top of the paper layer, and make sure they're big enough to stick up through mulch depth you are going to add.

The next step is where you might get a little creative. Because there is no one way to sheet mulch; you can use whatever organic materials are available to you. Thinking that the mulch has to be done in a very specific way might be a barrier to your trying it out, so use what you have or what you can easily get.

Grass clippings, non-animal food scraps, unfinished compost, leaves, and yard waste are all great materials. You might also add a layer comfrey and dandelion leaves here, as they are both bioaccumulators that concentrate nutrients from the soil in their leaves. They will release these nutrients back into your soil as they decompose.

This is your high-nitrogen layer, and should be about 8 to 10 inches deep. On top of it, put on another layer of finished compost (complete with worms), decayed leaves, seaweed or rotted manure. This layer should be 3 to 5 inches deep.

Finish with 6 inches of straw, wood chips or sawdust.(Do not bury sawdust or wood chips.) This top layer will prevent the mulch from blowing away, and will keep down weeds. If you use wood chips, they should be small enough to decompose in a year or two. Another great topping, if you can get it, is animal bedding, especially from horse barns. This will break down quickly, and add both texture and nutrients to your soil.

Now, let the whole thing sit a few months. Water it regularly if weather is dry. If you create new beds by fall they will be ready to plant by spring! If you do want to plant immediately, use perennials, large seeds, shrubs, planted directly in the mulch, with some good topsoil added arount them. Make soil pockets for annual starts or small seeds.

This video shows in detail how to sheet mulch. The product they are using, EcoCover, is made in New Zealand, from recycled paper from landfills, and is a much more eco-friendly product and cost-effective.than plastic mulch covers in large commercial gardens.

For our small garden beds, any newsprint paper or cardboard (corrugated is best, from discarded boxes) works just fine, and fits with the 3R's - reduce, reuse, recycle.