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Author: admin, 20.11.2020. Category: 3D Landscape Design Software Free

52 Beautifully Landscaped Home Gardens | Architectural Digest Mar 10, �� Moleskine Passions Gardening Journal The �Moleskine Passions Gardening Journal� by Moleskine will be a familiar sight for fans of this stationery brand, and can be used for multi-year recording and garden planning. A garden journal can be whatever you want it to be � a basic record, a quick reminder for upcoming activities, or a detailed fine-tuning tool for your specific garden. It could be as simple as some sketches and notes on what you are growing and where, or as comprehensive as a full file of your landscape plans, plantings, harvests, weather. Jun 25, �� This article is a reprint and update of one written in early on burning holes in landscape fabric (an update of an article that appeared in Growing for Market).We normally rely on readers going to the archives but several fellow farmers have asked this question in the last few weeks.
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You can use a spiral notebook, a composition book, a 3 ring mini-binder, or a commercially prepared garden journal.

There are many options available for purchase online, but I like to use one that I can add pages to as I need them. The first year that we started our vegetable garden, I used a simple composition book to record what we planted and it worked very well at that time.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To see more of our full disclosure statement, click HERE. I just happen to be in love with the discbound notebook system that you can read more about HERE because they are so flexible. I can add, take out, and reposition pages as needed.

But you can still follow my suggestions on how to set up a garden journal using any system or format that you prefer. The very first thing that any type of gardener needs to know is their plant hardiness zone and their spring and fall frost dates.

A plant hardiness map and some additional general gardening information came in the Martha Stewart gardening insert that I purchased, but you can find this information for your zip code HERE. I suggest dividing your garden journal into sections. I used some tabs that I purchased at Walmart and some clear plastic divider pages with pockets. You may also want a section for photos of your garden so that you can record your progress. If you are a vegetable gardener, a sketch helps you plan where to put your crops in advance, especially if you are trying to be mindful of good crop rotation practices.

In our raised beds, we plant both seeds and transplants. In this sketch above, I am recording where we have planted both which eliminates the need for garden markers. Whether you are using containers, raised beds, or in-ground planting, having a sketch helps you determine how many seeds or plants you need which may save you money in the long run.

The space you need for each plant is easily obtained from the seed packet, the plant label, or online. If you have never gardened before, sketching your property will help you determine your shady and sunny areas as well. This garden sketch tool and ruler was included in the garden insert that I purchased. It came in handy but is not absolutely necessary. To create the divider page, I cut apart an old folder and used my ARC paper punch to make my own holes.

Whether you are a flower gardener or a vegetable gardener or both, you will want to make a list of seeds that you want to plant.

Be sure to record the exact variety and the date when you planted them. Those packets have valuable information so be sure to save them so that you will know when to harvest and what varieties grew and produced well. You could also glue the packets into your journal but be sure to open up the packet so that you can see the info on the front and back.

We grow a lot of our vegetables from transplants so I have a page for them. Yes, I know, potatoes are not really transplants but they seemed to fit on this page!

The point is, make your journal work for you. Next I created a Log section. The divider page was made by cutting up an old folder and then gluing this pretty paper onto it. The good thing about creating your own garden journal is that you can be as creative as you like. The purpose of this section is to have a running log of everything you do in your garden such as adding amendments to your soil, what fertilizer you used, weather and temperature notes, etc.

If your cover is not waterproof, then just keep it in a plastic baggie for protection. Nobody likes to talk about money, but gardening is NOT cheap, especially if you are a first time gardener!

And the garden insert that I purchased came with these paper pockets that I glued down onto some of the pages in this section. Keeping receipts helps you determine if your gardening efforts are worth it, especially if you are growing your own food.

But can you really put a price on the taste of homegrown food? Or the health benefits? I say no. I included a calendar section in my journal. I used a preprinted one that fits into the discbound junior size notebook, but you could easily print off some calendar pages and glue them inside your journal. Using the information on seed packets or plant labels, you can calculate your harvest dates and put them on your calendar. Last, but not least, is the maintenance section.

This is where you will make notes about all the things that it takes to have a successful garden: weeding, watering, fertilizing, controlling pests, harvesting, etc. For example, here is my page for weeding. This is where I would identify what kind of weeds I have and what I used to control or eradicate them. Keeping a garden journal is part of the whole gardening process. It documents your successes and helps you learn from your mistakes.

Be sure to follow us on Pinterest , Facebook , and Instagram. Do you have a link? I really like the way you set up your journal and would love to do this for my garden.

Just need help in finding all the goodies. Pattie, the Martha Stewart gardening inserts are out of stock at this time. You could always create something similar using other materials. Thank you Jane for the step by step instructions! This is my first garden journal and I love it! We bought a house with lots of different flowers, evergreens and shrubs. This helps me keep up with what is blooming and when.

I am using the discbound notebook with the gardening inserts from Martha Stewart. The discbound papers printed off just fine! Hi there! Thank you so much for this post.

I just wanted to mention that the link you provided to the Martha Stewart gardening insert has changed. Thank you so much for the wealth of information you shared! I am just getting started and was really looking for a way to keep everything organized.

Your zone is also very similar to mine as I am in 8b, so I will be combing your blog for other helpful tips and advice! Thanks for your inspiring insights into creating a gardening journal of my own.

I look forward to following your posts. She conducts research in applied plant and soil sciences, publishing the results in scientific articles and university Extension fact sheets. She also is one of the Garden Professors � a group of academic colleagues who educate and entertain through their blog and Facebook pages.

Sure, Beth, shredded cardboard, paper etc. He grows everything from vegetables and fruit trees to shrub roses and peonies, using only two ingredients: cardboard and compost. His plants are very healthy. This is called anecdotal evidence and does not lend itself to any kind of objective analysis as there is no control, no replication of treatments, and no data collection.

Interesting article, Linda. Thank you. In science, anything reported that is not published in a peer-reviewed journal is anecdotal. That applies to scientists as well as lay people. Anecdotal research is more credible if it builds on other published research.

So in my example, we know through multiple published papers that arborist wood chips are valuable landscape mulches that keep down weeds and enhance landscape plant growth. So my anecdotal observations are supported through related research, even though the plant material is different.

Right now there is NO published research, whatsoever, on cardboard mulches. So there is nothing to build on or exptrapolate from. Until proponents of cardboard mulch spend the time to run credible field epxeriments and publish those results in appropriate scientific journals, and then have other researchers confirm their results through independent trials, there is nothing to support the use of cardboard.

Hi Linda. Many thanks for replying to my comment. Of course unpublished data is not irrelevant. It is frequently cited in peer-reviewed papers personal communication etc. I would agree with you if you said anecdotal evidence was less-reliable, but irrelevant, no.

He has a great deal of experience commercially and recreationally. My observations were that his cardboard method is no worse than a no-cardboard method if health and vigour of produce are the dependent variables of interest.

The data he reports indicates there is no difference in wet-weight yield between the cardboard and no-cardboard plots. I think your thesis is that using cardboard is detrimental or less preferable than wood chip mulch.

You publish a graph showing CO2 diffusion rates through various media. Do you not think that since there are no peer-reviewed papers on the subject of cardboard as a mulch then it would be difficult to draw any conclusion about its effectiveness? One can be for wood chip but also be for cardboard. One has been shown to be an effective mulch, empirically. It surprises me that those interested in evaluating wood chip as a mulching product do not also include waste cardboard in their assessment almost zero cost , if only to clear up the point.

On the other hand, there is ample evidence, both theoretical and practical, that sheet mulches inhibit water and gas movement while coarse, chunky, three-dimensional mulches do not significnatly interfere with either gas or water water exchange. In the article you helpfully provide a link to your paper.

What is going on? What do you think is the effect on the soil of the insignificant differences in CO2 and O2 concentrations associated with the various mulches tested? With regard to the possibility of damage to biologically rich, high-oxygen-demand landscapes mentioned, are these garden environments and how might such damage occur? The diverse evidence on the issue of cardboard as a mulch is of great interest to me. The reason the levels of CO2 were not very different among treatments except under plastic was because these are very simple mesocosms with only microbial life.

No plant roots, no earthworms, no other oxgyen-requiring organisms. As the abstract also states, a more complex landscape with more life will have different results.

Soil oxygen is generally what limits the depth at which organisms can survive. Anything that reduces oxygen diffusion into the soil will negatively affect the soil ecosystem � and the more diverse and complex it is, the bigger the negative impact. Since the article is behind a paywall, it might contain information that I miss. My apologies in advance if some of the points are addressed in the article. How do we know what level of gas permeability is adequate for maintaining a healthy soil life?

Bare soil has excellent gas permeability at the same time it loses moisture. Wood chips DO reduce gas permeability looking at the graph but obviously all the other benefits that wood chips provide make it a good choice for garden. From reading the abstract, the only thing we can conclude from the article is that wood chips are better than cardboard. A conclusion that cardboard harms soil health would require more extensive study. This mesocosm study is limited, because lab experiments have to reduce variability.

The only things using oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide are microbes. In a real world, soil is full not just of microbes, but roots and animals tlat all require oxygen. Oxygen is THE limting factor as you travel downwards in soil, so anything that slows gas exchange will limit oxygen availability. Bare soil is not really a good standard in nature, because it becomes compacted, But again, we needed to limit variability so we could get good comparisons of the diffusion coefficients for different mulches.

But anyone who was to conduct a field experiment comparing mulch types would now have one research-based reason as opposed to a theoretical reason why cardboard would not perform as well as wood chips. We can assume � though need to demonstrate through research � that reduction of water movement would likewise be affected.

I stumbled onto this site looking for information about potential harmful effects of cardboard sheet mulching, especially on insects. I know many of our native bees nest in the ground and need bare soil for this. Any comments? Sheet mulching, as compared to three-dimensional mulch like arborist chips is bad for soil life, period. There is absolutely no published evidence to the contrary. Regardless of the type of proper mulch used, you can always leave bare areas that are not prone to weeds.

Space under low shrubs is ideal as it is protected from foot traffic and can be easily colonized by ground nesters. Science evolves. The scientific method evolved. I suggest you read some books on the history and philosophy of science. So what you are saying is if he collected all data on his work and had a control as well with the data showing better growth then it would be ACTUAL evidence?

He would have to have a well designed experiment and collect the data correctly. Then submit it for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. It would be great if someone could do a longer-term study where they compared a how many weeds are killed long-term using cardboard-and-mulch versus just deep mulch; and b how that affects insect life and other soil health measures.

What happens after two weeks? Two months? Are they the same a year later? Being able to present data like this, and have it then disseminated in garden magazines, books, etc. I agree completely � and proponents of the practice are best suited for providing funding for the research. Sorry for the late response � the pandemic has overwhelmed me with emails and information requests.

Just now getting caught up. Great article with some peer reviewed studies to back up the claims. Do you have any recommendations or a link to a book website for mulching guidelines? Is there such a bitch hing as best mulch? Cedar wooden chips laid two inch thick maybe?

I have two things for you: a review article on landscape mulching, and a fact sheet on using arborist wood chips in the landscape. Both are peer-reviewed. What if you are starting with a weed-infested area? Are there any known differences in recommendations of depth of chips based on climate?

I am currently doing my Master Gardener training in NY. I have degrees in both Physics and Biology and have always been interested in philosophy of science. Thank you for your defense of science and attempting to educate people on non-science. Thanks, Mike! Keep up that MG training � I hope you find it rewarding both educationally and socially.

Hi Linda really great and informative article thanks! Can it be just torn up into small pieces and laid down? Even shredded, cardboard is still going to act in a sheet-like manner.

Fabric is much worse than cardboard, and plastic is the worst of all. Neither is a good option for maintaining healthy soil conditions. I would believe that leaves mat down and not 3 dimensional.

Would they not act the same as what you think the card board is doing. Also when ice forms in lakes and ponds over winter gas is trapped under the ice but has the chance to escape around the edges and holes. It depends on the species. Leaves that are soft and thin, like maples, will mat and create anaerobic conditions in the soil. Leaves that are tough and crinkly, like oaks, will not. We demonstrated this with research, and published the results.

But cardboard is still a useful addition to a compost pile as a source of carbon no? Yes, cardboard shredded or otherwise cut up is a good brown material for compost piles. Arborist wood chips are organic materials that most closely mimics the natural process of debris accumulation on soil. Surely burlap would partially exclude light and suppress some growth from plants you are trying to control?

Just like how panes of glass in a greenhouse exclude a certain amount of light and more if they are dirty? Could a layer of burlap topped with wood chip be a good solution, as a lot of more vigorous wild plants would eventually break through the wood chip layer?

Seed germinaton requires very little light, and some require no light at all. But the seedlings require light after they use up the resources in the seed. There is no non-chemical way to selectively control weeds and weed seeds while attempting to germinate seeds of desirable species. As someone who gardens mostly with native plants, I am not interested in attracting earth worms due to the competition.

Could using this method actually be beneficial for native plants if the cardboard was used as a bottom layer while a good leaf mulch based soil was placed on top as a planting medium? The plants could go directly into the top layer of soil without cutting into the cardboard. I assume I would end up with fewer worms in the area because they would be suppressed by the cardboard while the plants would have a chance to get established.

Any thoughts? Cardboard does not help anything because it restricts water and air exchange. And you want to plant your plant into the soil � not on top of cardboard. They need to establish into the site soil. Any stragglers i can manually remove. When I uncovered soil from super deep wood chips, it was dry and lifeless. Whereas a couple inches of woodchips over a layer of cardboard still allowed the soil to be wet.

Wood chips do not do this. Bark mulch does. Wood absorbs water. Bark does not. If this were true, then every forest would be dead. They absorb water like a sponge. Bark mulch is left over from the lumber industry and has little to no wood. Wood chip mulch has very little bark as the mass of wood is so much greater. On the other hand wood chips particularly if containing fine particles undesirable absorb incoming moisture ,letting less through to the soil beneath.

Sorry, but no. Our current research and any casual observation confirms that the soil beneath bark is dry. ON the other hand, arborist chips maintain the highest soil moisture.

As someone who also struggles with noxious weeds like morning glory and witch grass I would gladly exchange smothered soil for eradicated weeds.

I would then be able to revive the soil. I did on time smother a bed with a heavy wood chip layer over plastic. After two years I removed the plastic and found happy healthy morning glory root systems! Perhaps they were being feed from the peripheral but that seems unlikely as the periphery was mowed turf with no obvious morning glory.

The best non chemical approach so far has been deep mulch with regular hand weeding of the weed as it becomes apparent. The weakness in the approach is me being consistent with a busy work load distracting me elsewhere. You would be surprised how far perennial weeds can extend their root system. Somewhere outside your property there is a vigorous population of morning glory.

Over time you will see your weeding become much reduced, with just some recalitrant patches to manage. Hi, Linda! Is it a better option or not at all� Thanks in advance. There is research to support the limited use of shredded newspaper. But intact newspaper has not been studied in a comparative way, and given its sheet structure it is going to restrict wate and gas movement to some extent. Have you conducted any scientific experiments or used apparatus to confirm lower levels of DO under the cardboard or is this still just at the scientific hypothesis stage?

Neither I nor anyone else as far as I can tell has run experiments on this � which would be very useful. However, the facts remain that cardboard is made to reduce both moisture and gas exchange, and that earthworms as well as other soil organisms need oxygen in the root zone.

The evidence, indirect as it is, is stacked against using cardboard as a mulch. I would like to see proponents of the method fund independent research to generate some direct evidence. We just bought a house that many of the plants were dying. When we dug a hole to plant some trees we noticed that the previous owners used cardboard in all the flower beds. In every hole we dug there were no earthworms and there ground was dry.

Now I know why�. How about using it to kill your lawn? I started covering parts of my lawn with cardboard boxes, filling them with mulch. Bad idea? A thick layer of mulch will kill your lawn. One of the links in the first paragraph goes to a post explaining exactly how to do this. What about those using brown material, like lawn bags? What matters is the structure of the material.

Three dimensional mulches are better than two dimensional mulches. In the study is the cardboard 2D or shredded? The link only points to a short synopsis of the study without a detailed conclusion. But it is just a single layer of cardboard. Bottom line � all sheet mulches are worse than wood chips in terms of gas exchange.

Does this include layers of newspaper? Newspapers will restrict gas mavement as well. I suggest you read the article I linked. Yes, some species are better able to tolerate low oxygen levels in the soil. But others do not. But until then it is an unsubstantiated method with some significant potential drawbacks. I reviewed the summary of the paper, and the first two species appear to be endogeic� This is consistent with my statement in that I assumed you were not talking about epigeic species�.

You have to be kind of crazy to be gardening in the desert anyway� Even crazier to research worm behavior there�. Absent that information, all we have is published evidence about worm behavior, comparative mulch characteristics, and cardboard manufacture.

Anecdotal information is not equivalent to scientifically derived data. I also recall a discussion about German research on anaerobic conditions being much better than generally considered� However, the literature has not been translated� This was mentioned by Allyson Jack who seems to be a monster when it comes to finding literature in the field�. This would need to be translated and scrutinized as it goes completely against the current body of published work. He states an important point in that whatever approach is made, a gardener should consider two things � 1 providing material for the worms to eat � whether organic or mineral and 2 providing an environment that fosters ideal conditions � stabilization of temperature and moisture.

These factors are interrelated and should be the goal. Butt suggests that a combination of deep burrowers and surface dwellers may get the best results.

However, Butt emphasizes that further research is needed before trials and projects can be performed � a greater understanding of the various worm species needs to be pursued first. Then, the field work can be better analyzed. Testing in the field has limitations ie. I believe that certain worm species will do well with lasagna gardening and that anecdotal evidence is relevant due to the absence of scientific data either way.

It makes sense that lasagna mulching can help create an environment temp and moisture that will increase earthworm carrying capacity. Even with lots of money, the scientific evidence is sometimes swayed toward a preferred outcome ask Monsanto.

You can, of course, do whatever you choose. But to make a convincing argument you need to provide published research. This is true of any practice in any field that appears to contradict the current state of the science.

Lasagna gardening is not based on anything one would find in nature. Deep mulching with coarse organic materials, however, is similar to what one finds in forests and its utility has been borne out in published research. Sorry, but the biological and medical sciences have been so thoroughly corrupted now by corporate interests that I would sooner trust anecdotal evidence from a bona fide experimenter with the interests of the planet at heart than I would any published paper.

The more methods we have for consideration and experimentation, the better. There is some evidence that lining planting holes for trees with cardboard in dry environments increases water-holding capacity and promotes development of mycorrhizal fungi. Context is everything! And please. At this point, judging by the evidence all around us, science wins no prizes.

Everything else is opinion. This is insulting to the many hard-working researchers in the sciences everywhere. OK, Im calling BS. Rather biased here, as I created my entire garden ft x 60 ft with layers of cardboard.

Try leaving a cardboard box outside in the rain and � does it not become saturated? Ironically I have used this method because in fact I do want earthworms to help my garden.

I do think it is crucial not to overload the area with organic materials, but all I know is that there is a crap ton of worms when I dig around. I used this method in a former pasture,and there were some pernicious grasses that I think were helped by the cardboard. BTW, I have come to the conclusion that tilling is not good for worms. Without some sort of comparative experimental study you can only guess what your cardboard is doing.

You may not like it or agree with it, but I fail to see how you can call it BS without some substantial evidence to the contrary. These are good things to consider. This entire process is very attractive to nematodes earthworms and other soil animals , bacteria and fungi, which as they crawl toward and through the cardboard actually open up pockets where gasses and moisture can transfer, both from the atmosphere and from subsoil.

You are never doing only one thing in gardening or any act for that matter , so it is very important to think about the short, medium and long term effects of sheet mulching; which by and large have many more advantages than perceived problems. In good lasagna garden designs cardboard should be relatively close to the bottom, which, as I said above will ensure that it breaks down and seeds the layers above and below it with nutrients.

Have you ever actually tried this? Many layers of cardboard will form incredibly dense forms of mycelial mats which can seed the surrounding soil for years to come with beneficial fungi and encourage processing of all types of pollutants. It is a beautiful sight as the wildflowers surrounding them explode with health and vigor. Also, common earthworms are technically an exotic species in America. Certainly useful and helpful and at this point naturalized and deserving of habitat.

There are many places like high elevation and arid landscapes that do not need or would be harmed by earthworm presence in competition with more efficient and adapted local detritivores things that eat dead or decaying things. If you are really worried about worms, why not just make a few worm bins? It is also a remnant product of the patriarchy that has subjugated wise women and country folk for hundreds if not thousands of years. What side of that do you want to be on? Science is not something that is only accessible for lab coated technocrats.

The garden is the perfect laboratory for experiencing science in real time. You were doing well even if you have no science to back up your claims until your last major paragraph.

Can you provide an updated link? Thanks for letting me know, Chris. I have started mine in the fall and plant in the spring with awesome results.

Earthworms are often found under objects that help them stay moist and cool while they find things to pull down into their burrows. Soil looks great, smells good, etc. All of these things, by their physical design, will restrict water and air movement. I reviewed the literature in an article in which is available by email as a pdf if you care to read it. Interior soil conditions are always more moderate than those at the surface: cooler in hot weather, moister in dry weather, and so on.

Wood chips are all you need, and their permeability is vastly superior to any sheet mulch. Through observation you have confirmed what has been known for millenia; cover the soil with an impermeable barrier � such as solid wood or flat stones � and the vegetable matter below will die. WIth the increasing availability of waste cardboard in the second half of the twentieth century you have discovered a free and easy way of suppressing vegetation to create growing space.

The barrier to natural gas exchange and moisture penetration created by layers of cardboard affects not only the troublesome roots of perennial grasses and wildflowers, or the visible soil life, earthworms, insects, arthropods and other soil invertebrates. As far as the soil biology is concerned you might as well drag a rotovator through the soil every day for six months. In fact the invertebrates are able to recolonize the cardboard wastelands relatively quickly; it is the complex soil biology that takes years to restore itself.

I agree Jay. Cardboard is meant to last � otherwise Amazon would have a tough time shipping things in inclement weather. So what do you do if you already put down some cardboard or a few sheets of newspaper covered with soil and mulch a few months ago? Do you just leave it at this point? You can speed up the process by poking holes in it with a pitchfork or some other tool.

How about poking holes in the cardboard? You might still get some weeds but probably no more than with wood chips. Another method: use cardboard for pathways and layers of newspaper for the garden.

Just saying. Why bother using it at all? There is no science behind using either newspaper or cardboard in gardens or in agriculture � except as shredded material. Hi Linda! I have very much enjoyed this post and the subsequent conversations. My results were mixed. What got me into it was the perception that it would be a good way to smother bermudagrass turf. Bermudagrass is the predominant turf grass where I live, and it is great�� as long as it is where you want it.

It is ridiculously difficult to dig up and incredibly invasive. I thought sheet mulching would be a good way to get rid of it without trying to dig it up or using round-up which is what most folks are told to do where I live. The grass nevertheless grew up through the layers.

First, I love this whole blog with a scientific bent. Second, I can state that for certain weeds, no amount of woodchips is going to impede them. I have built mounds of chips up to 50cm high and nettles, morning glory and some sort of trailing blackberry came up through it. Problem solved. And I peeked under the cardboard at various stages including after full decomposition and the soil biota looks pretty rich to this biologist- and grows the best vegetables in our two gardens.

I know, not a published, refereed article�. The only way deep layers chips will not keep weeds out is if they are invading from adjacent, unmulched areas. That is probably the issue. We will never recommend cardbaord, as it now is demonstrated through published research to be much worse for gas transfer than wood chips. About sq ft. The rest is native plants in California where we live. These are vigorously invasive plants that spread by underground rhizomes.

As soon as the chips wear down below 4 inches just a bit, those plants come back. Without light, you will have no seedlings surviving to reach the surface of a deep mulch. If you have adjacent rhizomatous plants, there is no mulch that will keep it out. You need to be able to isolate the area from invasion at least until your desirable plants have successfully colonized the area.

Linda, You have opened my mind to a new of thinking. My big problem is bermuda grass. It comes up through just about anything. As a Biology major in college, I do see your points scientifically.. Do I have to install a weed barrier to prevent the rhizomes from running underground from adjacent grass to the piles?

I really dont want to dig but would flipping the soil help? I am willing to do whatever to get rid of the bermuda grass runners. I look forward to your reply. HI Chris � Sorry I am late answering your question! Yes, you have to isolate your weed problem from adjacent weeds, so a root barrier is required.

Once this is done, then you can mow and mulch with a population that has limited underground reserves. Would the deep layer of wood chip thwart established weeds like morning glory and witch grass? These come readily through six inches of leaf mulch, and even through bales of straw. As long as you can isolate the root zone from nearby populations then yes, it will work.

It needs to be VERY deep e. And you need to have something else that you want to grow there to keep new weeds from becoming established. I wonder why worms congregate under plastic that has been left on concrete? I have left plastic bags of mulch in my driveway more than once for a couple of weeks and when I go to move them, there are multiple worms under there. I assumed they crawled out of the ground and under the wet cardboard. In both of those cases, they are looking for moist but aerated shelter.

But underground those same material will cause a decrease in soil oxygen, as the microbes and other organisms use up the available soil oxygen but little is replaced. I have gardened for over 10 years and have 3 active gardens going on now. I am no till lasagna. Cardboard is made with non-toxic usually fish-based adhesives. Cardboard is NOT meant to last. You get plenty of weeds with just wood mulch. Back to Eden methods have been proven to fail.

Termites like wood chips just fine, its not just a cardboard thing. In my experience, worms love cardboard as does fungus. We know that fungus breaks down cellulose material, not bacteria.

When you lasanga your garden, you build up layer upon layer of humus and cellulose. Mycorrhizae takes a long time to really establish and tilling breaks the fibers, which disrupts the networking. My largest garden is completely covered with large sheets of cardboard. Anything that is covered with compost is pretty much decompsed, the stuff that is only covered with mulch is still intact, for the most part.

You keep waiving the banner of science, but for whatever reason, you seem to think that direct observation by experienced people who have done experiments on their own are just plain wrong. These are anecdotal observations.

Not a scientific experiment. When and if you do an experiment and publish the results, then we can talk about it. I have been using the process of sheet mulching for the past eight years in my food forest and garden installations and these growing systems today are all very healthy with greatly improved humus, soil porosity and microbial life.

You have no basis for comparison. You have no evidence to base this kind of statement on, and if it were true that would mean that NOTHING grew in Alberta until smart people came along and sheet mulched the province.

Hi Linda,are you aware of any scientific studies involving the use of cardboard for fungal growth? I still appreciated your article. I think most people use the cardboard to try to stop pervasive weeds like quack grass and creeping bellflower. It is far easier to ask an arborist to drop a mixed load than to gather cardboard, remove staples and tape, and try to layer and overlap it enough to hope against the weeds rat-mazing their way through it.

Unfortunately fungi do not produce oxygen � they are not photosynthetic. They use oxygen and release carbon dioxide just like other non-photosynthetic organisms. Yes, Nolan Archer, we are stopping weeds, and as surprising as it may seem, it works a treat. After a couple of seasons, the cardboard is fully broken down and the soil underneath substantially loamier.

Results may differ in drier climates. It may seem easier to you to get a load of wood chips from an arborist, but for me, 14 yards of wood chips minimum delivery in my driveway is unthinkable. It would take me all year to get them down. Plus I have no idea if the trees were sprayed or are diseased.

I use a couple inches of bark on top of the cardboard and am pleased with the look at feel. We all have different limits and compromises to make. This blog promotes science � and there is no published science behind using cardboard as a mulch. In contrast, there are numerous research publications on the benefits of wood chip mulches.

What we do know from our on-going lab work is that one sheet of cardboard � one sheet! And just think how numerous sheets of cardboard with compost in between would affect gas exchange. We will be publishing our research within the next year so everyone can see these data.

Linda, you say there is no science behind using cardboard, but then you say there is no science around it period! So why do you argue against it? Why would you consider plant and soil sciences less worthy of being guided by good information? The function of science is not to disprove anything though often it does.

It is up to proponents of a practice to demonstrate, with peer-reviewed, experimental science, that a practice or product works. If not, then said practice or product has no credibility. But since you asked, we have data from a experiment that show cardboard restricts gas transfer ten times more than wood chips.

That will be published this year. Interesting thoughts regarding cardboard and sheet mulching in general. Specific conditions and specific goals need to be considered before any technique is used. For example, I participated in a wetland restoration project. The site was overrun with nightshade, reed canary grass, rannunculus, lotus and other weeds. We decided that a total kill was needed and went ahead with sheet mulching using cardboard and wood chips.

Yes, it caused anaerobic conditions, but the soil was already anaerobic. The kill was total and we ended up planting in the chips that were on top of the cardboard. The sedges, rushes and willows loved it and eventually sunk their roots thru the rotting cardboard.

A total success with reasonable effort on our part. We were left with heavy, packed clay. On the plus side, we eliminated the rannunculus and reed canary grass that was there, but on the minus side our initial plantings did not thrive and we had to replant with species that could handle the resulting heavier soils.

Cardboard restricts water and gas movement just like other sheet mulches. Cardboard is ten times worse than wood chips in this regard. So yes, where you have plants that are tolerant of low oxygen condidtions, like willows and other wetland plants, sheet mulches are tolerated. You may have gotten the results you were seeking but at a cost to the natural way of things.

These are the same people who claim to be organic gardeners, yet use plastic cups and containers throughout the gardening process. Plastic is never organic nor is cardboard board. I am having a problem with weeds in several long and narrow sections at my home. I live in Michigan. Any suggestions? Was thinking of planting mint. Mostly sunny areas. Weeds are called weeds for a reason.

If you are not willing to use mulch or herbicide, then you either need to pull everything by hand or get goats. It will eventually decompose and possibly ruin the lay of the brick. On this page you have said, among other things:. The latter is less contradictory as they did in fact study sheet mulching, but not with cardboard, rather plastics, particle board, etc. I doubt it. The triangulation of an answer from these studies with respect to cardboard is tenuous at best; I read them to indicate that straw may actually be the best mulch.




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