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160607 Sheet Mulching turning lawn into food forest square 6204

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Demise of the Lawn.

We had a typical suburban residential water guzzling lawn. During the California drought of 2016, we decided to stop watering the lawn and to abandon it. Here is an image of our lawn on May 6, 2016 with weeds and non-watering. The ground was hard, dry, full of weeds and cracks.

160506 California drought abandoning front yard lawn gone to weed stop watering 3213

May 6, 2016. Another view of the sad-looking lawn.

160506 California drought front yard lawn weeds non watering hard soil 3214

Cardboard Sheet Mulching

We have decided to grow an organic edible garden using the “Back to Eden” method to increase soil fertility and conserve water.

I scrounged Craigslist, dumpster dived and also begged the neighborhood recycling center for large cardboards. The recycling center workers had never heard of sheet mulching and were reluctant to relinquish the cardboards which they make money collecting.

I avoided all cardboards with plasticky or colorful prints. Using an Exacto knife, I had to remove colorful labels or plastic tapes on the boxes and flatten them.

The sheet mulching lasted me 2 years of weedlessness. On the Northwest corner of the front yard where I did not sheet mulch carefully, grass grew two years after this initial sheet mulching, necessitating a repeat of cardboard mulching to suppress the grass.

Lesson learned: careful overlap of cardboards at the edges is very helpful.

Optional: Ordering 10 cubic yards of Organic Compost

I ordered 10 cubic yard (minumum load for delivery to my city) from Serrano Creek Soil Amendments in Lake Forest, California (949) 768-1008.

May 23, 2016. YAY! My truck has cometh!

160523 Serrano Creek Compost Delivery Truck 3382

160523 Serrano Creek Soil Amendments delivering compost 3384L

160523 Side view compost delivery truck 3381

10 cubic yard of compost on top of cardboard sheet mulching.

160523 10 cubic yards compost 3387

At that time, I was charged $16.67 per cubic yard, totally $166.70 plus $54.96 delivery fee, a grand total of $235 of 10 cubic yard of compost for my front yard, back yard and side yard.

May 2016. My wonderful son shoveling the compost pile to spread it around.

160523 Vihren shoveling compost during sheet mulching 3389

Spreading the compost around. Some of the compost were carried in Home Depot buckets to the backyard and side yard for planting vegetables and fruit trees.
160523 children shoveling compost sheet mulching 3390

May 2016. The girls enjoying the warmth of the compost mound.

160523 Nunu and Anicka sitting in the warm compost pileJune 1, 2016. Our front yard is ready to receive the truck load of wood chips. We placed cardboard sheets on top of weeds (the large weeds were trimmed down, others left in the ground). On top of the cardboard we layered compost.

June 2016. Delivery of Wood Chip Mulch from the Tree Trimmers

160601 Waiting for truck load of wood chips from Petersons Tree Trimmers 6145L

June 7, 2016. Peterson’s Tree Trimmers delivered a truck load of wood chip mulch for free!

160607 Peterson's Wood Chips truck is here 6199

160607 Peterson's wood chip delivery 6206

The wood chips smelled sweet like syrupy tree saps and was steaming hot!

160607 Peterson's Wood Chip Dump 6204

After some watering, little straw colored mushroom appears to show that decomposition is going on. It wood chips were steaming and warm for many days.

Planting Fruit Trees

With much excitement, we planted many fruit trees, according to a garden plan sketch.

First we push the wood chips to the side. Then, we gather up the compost underneath into a large cement mixing bin, to add other ammendments (rock dust, azomite, vermicompost, etc). Using an Exacto knife, I cut away a hole big enough to plant the tree, careful to lay cardboard to suppress weed. Next, we faced the hard earth. With some soaking of water and digging large holes, we were able to plant our fruit trees with good soil in the large holes. Then, we covered the holes with compost and mulch with wood chips, creating a round donut shaped berm to retain water.

First two years of our food forest garden

May 2017 Front yard meadow. The white flowers are my cilantro herbs. The red ones in the foreground are pink yarrows. In the middle ground are some red cabbages, behind them are lettuce gone to seed.

170530 Front yard meadow 9661

May 20, 2018. Neli and Jzin in the front yard organic food forest garden.

July 2018. Our urban front yard food forest garden.

180709 food forest 5158 L

July 8, 2018. We grew heirloom tomatoes and other foods and gifted them to our neighbors, in secret hope that they too start growing organic edible gardens!

180708 Spring tomatoes, zucchini etc harvest L

June 8, 2018. Our unproductive lawn converted into a lush food forest with birds, bees and butterflies.

180608 Dimiter washing feet front yard 4346 L

June 7, 2018. This was two years after we took out our non-productive lawn. Towering pink hollyhocks, grapes on the trellis, sunflowers, lettuce patch going to seed, longan with blossoms.

180607 Front yard food forest garden 4313L

June 7, 2018. On the front yard cattle panel trellis: Golden muscat grapes (the grapes are not yet ripen in the photo, they ripen to a golden color at the end of August) as food, grape leaves for wrapping Bulgarian sermi as well.

180607 Front yard 4351 L

Surinam cherries, kumquats, figs

October 10, 2018. We see many song birds, bright blue lizards, butterflies, one large fluffy raccoon and other animals in our little urban forest. Pictured: gulf frittilary butterfly on host passiflora plant.

181010 Gulf frittilary butterfly on passiflora

October 15, 2016. Harvesting purple yam. They taste delicious steamed and served with salt and grass-fed butter!

161015 harvesting purple yam 4692 cropped

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Comments

  • Carol King

    Amazing! I hope to do same when my house us done Aug or sept. Newd HOA approval. House being built on former farmland!

    May 20, 2021
    reply

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