The main ingredient that makes cat litter absorb so well is bentonite clay. This natural material usually forms from the weathering of volcanic ash, most often in the presence of water. According to Wikipedia, bentonite can also be used as a desiccant due to its adsorption properties. Bentonite desiccants have been successfully used to protect pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and diagnostic products from moisture degradation and extend shelf life. In fact, in the most common package environments, Bentonite Desiccants offer a higher adsorption capacity than silica gel desiccants. Bentonite complies with the FDA for contact with food and drugs

When purchasing cat litter to be used for preparedness matters, ensure that you choose the non-clumping, unscented clay litter where the active ingredient is bentonite to help you acheive the best results.

Read these tips on ways to incorporate cat litter into your preps to help protect, reduce odors, stains, and help your garden grow.

1. Use it in your vehicles – Having a bag of cat litter in your emergency vehicles can help the car gain traction if it happens to get stuck in the snow. Sprinkle a small amount on the ground before you get out of your car for foot traction in icy conditions. Further, sprinkling it around icy high frequented areas can also make sidewalks, steps and driveways more safe. This would be a great natural alternative to salt during the winter. 
2. Use it in your sanitation kit – This absorbent material assists in absorbing liquids and smells when using a portable toilet.
3. Reduces mold and it’s smell – Cat litter may be used to absorb small amounts of water that leak into a basement after a heavy rain or to help remove musty odors. It can also be used in your storage closet, tent or any other area of the home to prevent the musty smell of mold. Store clothing, linens, books, papers, camping equipment etc. with 1/2 – 1 cup of kitty litter tied up in a sock or pantyhose to prevent mustiness and mold.
4.  Evict moles and rodents - Moles and rodents loathe the smell of kitty litter. Pour some into the entrance of one of their tunnels and watch the exodus! This would be a great item to have to protect your long-term food storage from rodent infestations.
5. Controls algae in ponds- For fish pond owners, this method works wonderfully to get rid of algae in ponds. Use about one pound of cat litter for 2000 gallons of circulating pond water. It is said that the water may turn muddy at first but it will clear up in 24 hours. Again, ensure that you have purchased unscented kitty litter where the active ingredient is bentonite. 
6. Eliminates odors – Put cat box filler into ashtrays, smelly shoes, at the bottom of trash cans, etc to reduce odors.
7. Reduces oil spots – To lessen staining from fresh oil or grease spots on driveways, sprinkle on clean cat box filler, wait a few minutes, and sweep off. Dispose in the same manner you would dispose of used oil. You may have to apply a second sprinkling. Use a soft brick to grind the cat box filler into the oil. You don’t have to bear down too hard, just maintain a steady circular motion to achieve the best results. When the filler is reduced to a fine powder and remains light in color, you will have removed all but the final residue that clings to the voids in the surface. This light-colored residue will lighten further the longer it is exposed to the sun. Be sure to dispose of oil-soaked cat box filler as local laws require for disposal of used oil.
8.  Great in the garden – Mix an equal part of soil and clean cat box filler, proceed to plant your flowers, shrubs or vegetables. Your soil will remain moist providing for better root development. The litter will retain the humidity at root level. It can be used safely on any type of plant.

In his book, he admits that he obtained all of this “weird” information by holing himself  away in the library and sifting through hundreds of gardening books.  “I contacted manufacturers to obtain their secret files, talked with dozens of gardeners, and searched through the hundreds of e-mails I receive through my website, www.wackyuses.com, where upstanding citizens share their clever uses for brand-name products with me.”

Green has found 11 brand-name  items that can benefit our compost piles to feed microscopic organisms, promote healthy earthworm activity, assist the decomposition process and even repel those bothersome pests that are attracted by our food scraps.  Although these suggestions are to give you an idea of how to add beneficial nutrients to your compost bins, some product suggestions can be modified by using your favorite brands.

Bubble Wrap.  Cover your compost bin by draping a large sheet of Bubble Wrap over the sides of the pile.  The Bubble Wrap cover can protect a sufficiently moist compost bin from the rain or keep moisture in the compost bin when the sun is out.

Coca-Cola.  Boost a compost bin with Coca-Cola.  Pouring  flat Coca-Cola into the compost pile helps jump-start the microorganisms.  The Real Thing increases the acidity and the sugar feeds the microorganisms, increasing the organic matter in the compost.

Goodyear Tires and USA Today.  Fill the inside of the rims of five or six old Goodyear Tires with shredded pages of USA Today.  Stack the tires on top of each other on the ground and fill them with layers of shredded newspaper, kitchen scraps, and a few red wiggler starter worms.  Add indoor and outdoor organic matter to this worm-powered compost bin.  The rubber tires insulate the worms from harsh winter weather, and as the rubber heats up, the worms make their way higher inside the tires.

Lipton Tea.  Pour strongly brewed Lipton Tea into the compost heap.  The liquid speeds up the decomposition process, and the tea attracts acid-producing bacteria, creating an acid-rich compost.

Maxwell House Coffee.  Pour that pot of leftover Maxwell House Coffee into the compost heap, rather than pouring it down the drain.   The liquid expedites the decomposition process, and the coffee attracts acid-producing bacteria, generating an acid-rich compost.  The empty Maxwell House Coffee cans make excellent canisters for collecting compost ingredients in the kitchen.

McCormick Black Pepper.  Before you add layers of kitchen waste to your compost bin, sprinkle the foods with McCormick Black Pepper.  The pungent aroma and taste of the pepper helps repel animals from your compost pile.

Nestea.  Mix up to a quart of unsweetened Nestea instant iced tea according to the directions (without adding sugar or ice) and pour the liquid into the compost pile.  The tea not only speeds up the decomposition process but also attracts acid-producing bacteria, giving you an acid-enriched compost.

Tabassco Pepper Sauce and McCornick Ground Cayenne Red Pepper.  To prevent dogs from digging into your compost pile, mix four tablespoons of Tabasco Pepper Sauce and four tablespoons McCormick Ground Red Pepper in one quart of water.  After you’ve turned your compost, sprinkle the solution over the pile.

USA Today.  Add shredded pages of USA Today to your compost pile to help the worms and microorganisms fortify your compost with nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus.

Ziploc Freezer Bags.  Store kitchen scraps intended for the compost bin in Ziploc Freezer Bag and keep it in the freezer until you have time to add the scraps to your compost pile.  The decomposition of the frozen scraps will help the microorganisms and the earthworms help decompose the food scraps faster.

As our move to the new homestead draws near, I have talked with the children about the idea of caring for livestock, the responsibilities we will each have for these animals, and what the animal’s purpose will be for our family. 

We have discussed how these animals will not become part of our family.  But, I keep wondering if they will be.  Anyone who have raised animals are aware of the relationship that develops between human and animal.  With that in mind, I worry about the emotional attachment my children will have to them. Especially when it comes to time to butcher some of the livestock. 

Lately, a large devotion of my time has been in researching the different types of  livestock that would suit our family’s needs.  Knowing that animals have their own unique personalities, my focus was on finding livestock that served a multitude of purposes for our microfarm, as well as livestock that had a good temperament around my three children.

I came across an article in a parenting magazine that discusses the idea of why some livestock animals would be an ideal alternative to the family pet.  While I do not agree on livestock animals becoming the family pet, I do appreciate the research that went into which animals are child-friendly.  The magazine article indicates that these pet alternatives would be ideal if anyone in your family suffers from allergies from dogs or cats.

Chickens

• Cheap
• Easy to keep
• Do not require much space (a small shed and room to strut outside).
• Females are calmer and quieter.

Rabbits

• Easy to housebreak
• Even tempered
• Quiet

Goats

• Playful and affectionate
• Active and silly
• Can be compared to a dog
• Needs a small space (at least 20 x 20 pen) and some solid, high fencing.

Consequently, these micro livestock can be used for meat purposes, the manure can be used for composting or gardening beds, the milk from goats can be made used as a dairy source, or soap, and of course, the eggs from chickens can be used for food purposes.

In conclusion, when we end up moving to our little homestead, we will raise livestock.  My children will learn to care for animals, and to their dismay, learn to clean up after them.  I want to emphasize to my kids who important is to respect life and care for all creatures.  But, I also want to teach them that the purpose of some of those creatures we care for is to feed the family.  Knowing which animals will be gentle and child- friendly is a great place to start our homesteading adventure out.  Do you have livestock that are child-friendly?

After 13 years of inactivity, a Southern brood of cicadas (specifically known as the XIX Magicicada) are about to emerge after laying dormant underground.  Although the cicadas are harmless to humans, they are however, a nuisance where gardens and trees are concerned.  Cicadas, not to be confused with locusts, feed by attaching a nodule onto a branch and suck the nutrients from the tree.

In an article by the British newspaper, Daily Mail, scientists indicate that “at this very moment, billions of the winged insect are crawling from their exoskeleton cages, ready to suck the sap out of every plant, tree and bush that gets in their way.”

Cicadas spend most of their life cycle underground feeding on root juice.  During their final underground stage, they dig a tunnel to climb out and shed their skin on a plant.  Cicadas then set about to mate.  After mating, females cut slits in the bark of trees where they leave their eggs.  When the eggs hatch the newborn nymphs fall to the ground and then burrow underground where the life cycle begins again.

Which Plants Are Most At Risk?

Because of the large brood that are ready to take flight, younger plants and trees (4 years of younger) can buckle under the strain of housing too many larvae.  Cicadas will suck juices from baby fruit trees, garden vegetables, berry bushes and flowers.  Specifically, more than 270 species of plants could be hosts for egg laying. 

Some of the more vulnerable trees include: Maple, oak, hickory, beech, ash, dogwood, hawthorn, magnolia, willow, apple, peach, cherry and pear. 

Flowers, vines and shrubs include: Rose of Sharon, rose, raspberry, grape, black-eyed Susan, hollies, spirea, rhododendron, viburnum, junipers, and arborvitae.

Source

Protect Your Plants From Cicadas

The most efficient way to protect your plants is to encourage the cicadas natural predators.  Predators such as birds, cicada killer wasps and the preying mantis are the cicadas natural born enemies.  If the preying mantis is not already in your yard, ordering the larvae online and releasing them into the garden area can help control the cicadas around your home.  Also providing bird houses and bird feeders to encourage birds to stay around could also assist in controlling any cicada populations around your home.

Another method being developed is spraying pheromones into the air to stress the insects.  Director of International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Christian Borgemeister, has developed this method for controlling locust populations in Africa.  In theory, this method could also work at controlling cicada populations.

 He states that spraying the pheromone phenylacetonitrile (PAN), destroys the bands of insects.  “The insects are highly stressed.  They suffer high natural mortality and fall victim to the many natural enemies like birds.”  

Using this method is also environmentally friendly and will not kill any of the beneficial insects in the area compared to spraying insecticides.

Get Ready For a Long Summer

Cicadas are relentless and will destroy vulnerable plants, trees and shrubs if given a chance.  Keep an eye out for any infestations and try to control the cicadas in your area before they get out of hand.  Educating yourself on natural ways to deter this nuisance can create a better living environment for the beneficial insects you want around.

 In a long term emergency, people will not have the time to leisurely work in the garden.  Instead, they will be gardening for survival, along with a long list of other daily survival chores.  Survival gardening will be labor intensive, and large amounts of energy (sweat) will be needed to have the garden produce enough food for the present and enough to  put away for the future.  In exchange for your energy and time, you will want a survival garden that will provide your family abundantly with food.  Keeping certain factors into consideration before starting a large scale garden will help you get the most out your time and energy, provide you and your family with the healthiest vegetable varieties, and help you find the easiest types of vegetables to grow. 

Variables to Consider When Growing a Survival Garden

• A survival garden should incorporate dependable and easy to grow vegetables that produce more than one harvest or bears more than one fruit per plant. 
• The vegetable varieties should be types that the family will eat.  It’s not worth the trouble of growing this food if your family will not eat it.
•  Grow vegetables that have high amounts of nutrition and vitamins, as well as finding varieties that possess medicinal properties.  According to medical experts, green vegetables such as broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Lima beans, peas, asparagus, artichokes, cauliflower, sweet potatoes and carrots are some of themost nutritious vegetables in the world.
• Find varieties that grow naturally in your area.  Environments where plants grow naturally mean that less time and effort will be needed in raising them.
• Need for excessive fertilizing to produce decent sized produce is a waste of precious resources.  There are exceptions to this rule of course.  Such as, if the fertilizer used will help the plant produce many fruits or vegetables.
• If space is limited, plants that take up as little space as possible, but produce abundantly will make for a good investment.  Furthermore, finding gardening techniques such as the Three Sisters also makes good use of space.
• If fuel is needed to harvest vegetables, the noise could be an indicator of a thriving homestead, and an OPSEC nightmare.  As a result, the home could be frequented by unwelcome guests.  Additionally, this type of farming method would consume large amounts of fuel. 
• Find vegetables that can do well for storage.  Vegetables such as potatoes, onions, and root crops like beets and carrots that store well can be used when the weather is too cold to grow.
• Varieties that serve more than one purpose is also an efficient use of space and resources.  Varieties such as root crops or broccoli leaves are varieties where the greens can be fed to livestock.  In addition, some survivalists agree that yellow dent corn has a multi purpose use of making grain and feeding livestock.  But this crop requires a large amount of land, resources such as fertilizer, and energy to grow this plant to fruition.

Preppers that are stocking up on non-GMO or heirloom variety seeds to grow, should also have adequate knowledge in gardening skills to get these varieties to produce vegetables and fruits.  However, before a survival garden is started, sitting down and planning the garden and considering different factors will save headaches later on.  Likewise, researching how much food a family will need and how much of the time/energy yield will be needed to produce these vegetables is a valuable use of time.  Also, keep in mind that you know your family best.  You know what they eat, you know what they will not eat.  Come to your own conclusions as to what type of survival seed varieties are best suited for your family and the environment you live in.

Survival seeds are one of those long term essential emergency preps that every family should have.  If the days come when a survival garden is needed, the family will be happy to have invested in such an important prep item.  In exchange for your energy and time, you will want a survival garden that will provide your family abundantly with food.  Non-GMO, heirloom quality is best as these seeds produce seeds you can save for future harvests.  However, stocking up on some packets of the GMO version is not a bad idea either.  Having dependable seeds in times of a crisis is comparable to having another back up for your back ups.  In this author’s opinion, a person can never have enough seeds.  If stored properly, these seeds can last much longer than their expected expiration dates.

Easy Growing Varieties

 Below are a list of easy to grow vegetable and fruit varieties that are not only easy to grow, but will also provide lots of nutrition.   To learn more about the nutritional content of these varieties, click here.

• Nut/Fruit Trees – To learn more about essential nut and fruit trees for a survival homestead, click here. 
• Squash/Zucchini
• Berries – Blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc.
• Grapes
• Peas/Beans
• Kale
• Broccoli
• Peppers
• Potatoes
• Pumpkin

One of the authors at Backwoods Home Magazine suggest planting survival perennials, or vegetables that come back on their own each year.  Perennials such as asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes, horseradish, garlic, perennial onions, and herbs of both culinary and medicinal.  The survival perennials are an efficient way to produce food and make good use of your time.  Some of these perennials, such as asparagus require two years to grow before they produce food.  Therefore, this is why it is so important to research which type of vegetables and fruits you want in your survival garden. 

Storing seeds will ensure that in a long-term disaster you will be able to provide needed nutrition and energy for more physical exertion and mental clarity.  Those who have started their survival gardens have no doubt learned from a few garden mistakes along the way. Yet through these mistakes, gardeners have stumbled upon wisdom and grown into better gardeners.  These experienced gardeners  have taken certain factors into consideration before the seeds are planted, and through experience found which vegetables varieties are easier to grow.

The forest floor is something to truly marvel at.  It is an intricate system of organisms and plants, all interconnected and dependent upon the other to thrive.  The tree that once stood so tall, sits on the forest floor where moss and mushrooms grow on it, yet is also a home to a mound of ants.  Once decomposed, the tree will become part of the earth again to create more trees to grow.  The forest biome seems to be a giant recycling system.  Because of the health of the soil, none of the beauty could grow and thrive.    

Soil is a natural resource and without it, there would be no plants, no crops, no animals.  Would it be too much to say that we would cease to exist without the presence of rich soil to grow our food?     

According to the Soil Science Society of America, “Soil is not dirt.  It is a complex mix of ingredients: minerals, air, water, and organic matter – countless organisms and the decaying remains of once living things.  Soil is made of life.  Soil makes life.  And soil is life.  We want to keep and protect soil.”    

7 Facts About Soil You Didn’t Know:

• Soil is living.
• There are more than 70,000 types of soil in the United States.
• One tablespoon of soil has more organisms in it than people on Earth.
• The very best China dishes are made from soil.
• It takes more than 500 years to form one inch of topsoil.
• Nearly all antibiotics used to fight our infections are obtained from fungus found in soil.
• In one gram of soil, there are over 5,000 different types of bacteria.

Source

Creating Living Soil    

Utilizing the way the forest creates soil could be the secret to growing healthy plants.  Of course, this is not a new concept.  In fact, forest farming has been around for hundreds of years, and has recently become a new way to grow high value crops such as wheat in a natural thriving environment.  The basic premise is the better condition of the soil, the healthier and more productive the plant will be.  In order for plants to grow to their optimum capacity, they need nine different nutrients present in the soil.  While most of these elements and nutrients are naturally found in soil, sometimes they can become depleted and need to be added to keep the soil healthy.  The nutrients found in soil are below in addition to natural additions that can be made to improve the soil:  

• Carbon – found in air and water
• Hydrogen – found in air and water
• Oxygen – found in air and water
• Nitrogen – blood meal, fish emulsion, manure
• Phosphorus – bone meal, rock phosphate, superphosphate
• Potassium – greensand, mutriate or sulfate of potash, seaweed, wood ashes
• Calcium – gypsum, limestone, oyster shells, slag
• Magnesium – dolomite, magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt)
• Sulfur – sulfur, superphosphate

No Till Gardening

No till gardening, sheet composting, or lasagna gardening  is a gardening method that builds the soil on top of already existing soil.  More notably, it does not disturb the existing soil, but only enhances it by adding layers.  Essentially, before plants are planted into the ground, a miniature compost pile is layered beneath to decay over time and supply the plants with needed nutrients once the root systems grow.  This is a very efficient method (because it works with the natural decomposition process already in nature) to gardening, builds the soil to create a welcoming environment for friendly insects such as earthworms, as well as creates a living soil that will benefit your plants or vegetables.   No till gardening works with nature instead of against it.  This type of gardening enriches the soil composition that earth worms and beneficial insects prefer, thus creating a healthy habitat as a result.  Finding items that are around your home now to use as sheet mulch is an efficient way to de-clutter and put something otherwise laying around, to use.  Think of composting materials that are normally put in the compost areas.  Items such as:

• Newspaper
• Manure
• Hay
• Vegetable/Fruit peels
• Coffee grounds
• Yard waste – grass clippings, leaves, pine needles, plant cuttings, etc.

In the article, A Guide to Creating a No-Till Garden,  the author provides an in depth recipe for creating this type of garden:

Here are more specific recommendations of layers you might add after the newspaper.  First, lay down four to six inches of grass clippings and leaves.  If possible, shred the material to help prevent matting.  Next, broadcast or dust the leaves and clippings with a light layer of soil amendments such as lime, greensand, and rock dust.  You might also layer comfrey and dandelion leaves here, as they are both bioaccumulators that concentrate nutrients from the soil in their leaves, and will release these nutrients back into the soil as they decompose.  Because both dandelion and comfrey sprout easily from small sections of root, however, be sure to use only their leaves.  Finally, add a layer of animal bedding and top it with straw.  Enjoy the winter as your new garden bed fertilizes and builds itself.  In the spring, you should be able to plant starts directly into the mulch after brushing aside the straw.  To sow seeds, you may have to add a thin layer of compost in order to achieve the best consistency for germination. 

Viable soil is the key to a successful harvest.  Investing your time into ensuring the soil is healthy is a wise investment on your part, and surely an investment where you will indeed reap what you sow.  Allowing the natural decomposition process to take place, allows nature to do the work and prevents you from breaking your back.  This method allows you to make better use of your time/energy yield, helps recycle trash, creates a healthy earth worm environment, and supplies plants with essential vitamins and minerals when they need it.  In the book, The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible, the author begins his chapter on soil with a few words of wisdom, “Folk wisdom has it that a poor gardener grows weeds, a good gardener grows vegetables, and a very good gardener grows soil.” 

For recipes to make soil, click here

Additional sources for soil:

http://www.agroforestry.net/pubs/Sheet_Mulching.html    

http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/howardSH/SHtoc.html 

http://www.small-farm-permaculture-and-sustainable-living.com/sustainable_soil_structure_management.html

Many may not be aware of a food revolution slowly growing in popularity around the nation.  This revolution is advocating people to take back control over their food sources.  They suggest we even go as far as growing it ourselves to understand not only the process and learning as essential skill, but feel the pride of growing your own food.  Those who are trying to become more sustainable in their lives have created micro farms to begin growing their own food.  

Similar to the micro farm movement,  the food revolution, stresses teaching individuals self reliant practices.  In addition, they suggest getting the children involved in the process so they can understand that food is in fact, not from a can or from the grocery store itself.  Growing produce is a complex system that requires lots of time and effort to develop a product.  Getting children involved in this process, gets them away from the television, gets their hands dirty and gets their minds working.

According to those at the Food Freedom Revolution, they believe, “our children AND our food system determine our future.  This statement is very serious and is KEY to the survival of our freedoms.  Let’s give our children real purpose in life and teach them things that will provide them with the skills of self reliance.  Our current school system is training the children (workforce) to be dependent on a system that wants to control them.  Let’s demand and develop more educational programs for children, which teach respect for nature but that also teaches self reliance.  We are all too compartmentalized and dependent on the system.  We need a broader range of skills…

Over the years, this author has heard multiple teachers express concern over the fact that many parents expect the teachers to parent the child.  What a scary concept allowing a stranger whose entire motivation is to get the child to think as a group and not as an individual.  We, as parents share a similar dream of our children growing up to think for themselves, to stand up for those who are being oppressed, to be able to take care of themselves and their future families.  The schools are not going to teach this – that rests in the parents hands.  Knowing that there are people out there willing to spend the extra time to get the word out to make a difference is refreshing.

Location and land characteristics are crucial factors when a person is considering purchasing land for a survival retreat.  According to James Rawles, author of How to Survive the End of the World As We Know It, the decision to have a survival retreat should be “well-prepared and defensible redoubt with well-planned logistics.”

Location is usually contingent upon where a person is employed at.  However, many people are finding that working from home has given them the freedom to be more flexible in their property selection.

Preppers are looking into a survival homestead for many reasons. Some want to make the necessary investment in order to feel more secure about being in a short or long term disaster scenario, and some have decided to make a lifestyle change and feel that a survival homestead is the natural progression to achieve this.  Although, the economy has made it difficult for some families to purchase additional land, many are making an effort to scrimp and save in order to have their dreams come to fruition.  In Rawles’ book, he lists key characteristics to use as a guide when looking for survival property.

Ideally, a survival retreat is located in a region with most or all of the following characteristics:

• A long growing season
• Geographic isolation form major population centers
• Sufficient year-round precipitation and surface water
• Rich topsoil
• A diverse economy and agriculture
• Away from interstate freeways and other channelized areas
• Low taxes
• Non-intrusive scale of government
• Favorable zoning and inexpensive building permits
• Minimal gun laws
• No major earthquake, hurricane, or tornado risks
• No flooding risk
• No tidal-wave (at least two hundred feet above sea level)
• Minimal forest-fire risk
• A lifestyle geared toward self-sufficiency
• Plentiful local sources of wood or coal
• No restrictions on keeping livestock
• Defendable terrain
• Not near a prison or large mental institution
• Inexpensive insurance rates (home, auto, health)
• Upwind from major nuclear-weapons targets 

These key characteristics are to be used as a guide to find the right land that suits you and your family.  Ideally, wherever the personal retreat is located, the most important aspect of a retreat is sustainability.  The land must be able to support you and your family on a permanent basis (if necessary). 

Additional Information on Survival Retreats

A great podcast by Jack Spirko on the Perfect Survivalist Homestead Retreat

Criteria For Choosing a Retreat

Sheet mulching, also called composting in place, sheet composting, and lasagna gardening, has many names and just as many variations.  But here’s the basic idea: instead of pulling out sod, tilling or digging the soil, and incorporating compost or manure to create a garden bed, sheet mulching builds the soil on top of what’s already there.  The process, then, is one of construction rather than disruption.  And you 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 more closely mimics nature’s soil-building process – imagine a forest floor covered with leaves, rotting logs, decomposing plants, seeds, and animal scat.  Sheet mulching works with instead of against natural processes, and therefore might save effort, especially in the long-run.  While sheet mulching does not bring instant gratification, given that a bed requires months of waiting until it is ready for planting, it certainly can satisfy a desire to treat the soil well.  Mulching builds soil over time, in contrast with the quick but short-term flood of nutrients brought to the surface through tilling. 

Benefits and Challenges of Sheet Mulching

Mulching, popularized by Ruth Stout’s classic No-Work Garden Book, though easier than hand-tilling soil, is still quite a bit of work.  The materials required are also significant: to mulch 50 square feet with about a foot of material, you would need two cubic yards, or a pickup truck-full of mulch.  The good news is, to do the easiest kind of sheet composting, you need only the simplest of materials, and they are things that you probably already have, like newspaper and yard waste.  And there’s more good news: if you use a final two inch-thick mulch layer of weed and seed-free organic matter such as straw, fine bark, or wood shavings, your garden should have few weed problems.  Mulching also keeps the soil moist and shaded – it’s good protection from the harsh summer sun for beneficial soil organisms like earthworms.  A sheet-mulched bed achieves a spongy consistency which is ideal for young roots seeking early passage through the soil toward nutrients and moisture.  To maintain the benefits of sheetmulching, gardeners should avoid stepping into the bed, which compacts the soil.  Permanent steps (made of pieces of wood or stone) can be placed throughout a garden bed in order to provide access for planting, weeding, watering, and harvest.

Preparing a No-Till Bed

To prepare a bed for spring planting next year, it’s best to begin in late summer.  To begin the sheet mulching process, first cut down the grass or weeds in the area you’d like to transform into a bed.  Lay the clippings down, then add a layer of newspaper at least ten pages thick and overlapped by at least six inches to smother the grass and weeds.  Weeds will come up wherever the newspaper does not adequately overlap.  If the day is windy, wet the newspaper as it is laid to prevent it from blowing away.  The next step is where you might get a little creative.  Because there is no one way to sheet mulch; you should 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 mulching materials. 

You should keep a few simple rules in mind.  First, the combination of mulch layers should be a foot or two deep.  (This layer will settle with the weight of winter snow)  Shallower mulching won’t effectively smother sod or contribute to soil fertility.  Next, think about ways to keep the mulch from blowing away.  You could top the bed with thickly matted straw or leaves.  Also, you should avoid using woody material that won’t break down by springtime.  A thin layer of wood shavings, for example, works fine, while wood chips take too long to decompose.  Finally, your carbon to nitrogen ratio should be about 30:1, the same as in any typical compost pile.  A 30:1 carbon to nitrogen ratio for compost is ideal for both the rate of decomposition that it generates and the quality, texture, and nutrient content of the finished compost.  Carbon sources are those organic materials that are dry or woody and tend to be brown or dead.  Great carbon sources for sheet mulching include dry leaves, straw, and newspaper.  Nitrogen sources are any “green” or wet, fresh material, including non-animal food scraps, animal manure, and green grass clippings.  To give you an idea of what a 30:1 carbon to nitrogen ratio looks like, it’s roughly the C:N ratio found in animal bedding, which typically incorporates both hay and manure.  A three-inch layer of dry leaves topped by an inch of foods scraps also provides a 30:1 ratio.

A Recipe for Sheet Mulch

  Here are more specific recommendations of layers you might add after the newspaper.  First, lay down four to six inches of grass clippings and leaves.  If possible, shred the material to help prevent matting.  Next, broadcast or dust the leaves and clippings with a light layer of soil amendments such as lime, greensand, and rock dust.  You might also layer comfrey and dandelion leaves here, as they are both bioaccumulators that concentrate nutrients from the soil in their leaves, and will release these nutrients back into the soil as they decompose.  Because both dandelion and comfrey sprout easily from small sections of root, however, be sure to use only their leaves.  Finally, add a layer of animal bedding and top it with straw.  Enjoy the winter as your new garden bed fertilizes and builds itself.  In the spring, you should be able to plant starts directly into the mulch after brushing aside the straw.  To sow seeds, you may have to add a thin layer of compost in order to achieve the best consistency for germination. 

Creating a Path System

If you are considering adding paths around and within your garden they can be created at the same time as your new bed.  Paths not only provide access to your garden, but they also serve as a buffer zone that keeps the lawn from taking over the edge of the garden.  Paths need not be very wide.  Two to three feet is generally enough for access with a wheelbarrow or garden cart.  Paths will naturally widen with use, so err on the narrow side to start.  The same mulching techniques described above also work for paths, although path mulching only requires two layers.  Rather than using newspaper to suppress weeds, try cardboard.  Overlapped sheets of brown cardboard, with the staples and tape removed, will take longer than newspaper to decompose, keeping your paths weed-free for a longer period of time.  Remember to overlap the newspaper in the bed with the cardboard on the path or you will find the space between the two colonized by unwanted weeds.  Lay a thick layer of bark mulch or wood chips on top of the cardboard to create a tidy, useful path. 

Start Now

Instead of harboring regrets about what you might have done this summer, plan ahead for next year’s garden by sheet mulching now.  Planting your garden in the busy spring season will be less of a struggle, as your bed will have fewer weeds.  Spring planting will be also be less weather dependent – you’ll be able to utilize the soil earlier during the wet spring than you would if you were using a rototiller.  If nature takes its course, you’ll be enjoying the fruits of your labor at this time next year, and thinking about your next sheet-mulched garden expansion project.

Michelle Nowak served as the Garden Manager at D Acres of New Hampshire during the 2005 growing season.  D Acres of NH is an Organic Farm & Educational Homestead committed to promoting a more sustainable future through farm-based workshops, internships, and public access.  Learn more at www.dacres.org.