The BIG Bed

This is the large garden bed we are working on. We have had it for several years. But this year we didn't weed it or till it. We are sheet mulching or sheet composting. Over the winter we scattered our compost over it and then covered it with cardboard and builders paper (much easier to come by but more fragile when wet) covered it with a layer of leaves and then a thick layer of straw. This is it in progress. You can see the layers. I edged the perimeter with the straw after laying the paper and before filling in with the other layers.

We have quite a few vegetables started already to go in it. Under our grow lights we have: yellow summer squash, zucchini, pattypan squash, a bush butternut squash, green and purple tomatillos, German green tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, black from Tula tomatoes, Moonglow tomatoes, red pear tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes and two bush cucumber varieties. I need to figure out how we are going to combine everything and what we are going to plant where. I have some vining beans that I want to put on a teepee but I am not sure yet where I want to put it. I'd love for the kids to be able to get in it. But if I put it in the vegetable garden they will compact the soil and cause trouble. I'll probably end up putting it in the bed on the hill behind this garden if we can avoid the zipline.