Organic Landscape Design

Vital Food Farms, LLC is working with Pam, the land owner to produce food for charity.  Rose Ann Bennett operates in the role of garden coordinator.  The property is a 3/4 of an acre horse property and was gardened using traditional methods in 2009.  When Rose Ann contacted David Ward she was considering not gardening the property this year because - although the soil is very rich in organic matter - it is also rich in weed seeds and invasive grasses and she did not have the resources to hire someone to weed the garden.

Here is the property the morning of sheet mulching day.  Nice-World had delivered six bales of hay and arrived that morning, May 29, with seven yards of aged cow manure from Lyons.

We had 8 workers most of the time and completed sheet mulching 8 key hole beds in about five hours.

About 1 1/2 beds were planted on sheet mulching day and then three of us went back and planted the rest on May 31.  We built another 4 beds, which used up the manure and cardboard available, on June 14.  Those beds where planted June 17.  We will have more pictures later in the summer.

Here are the beds as they appear June 28, 2010:

Compare that to the area planted with traditional methods in the upper right of that picture.

To participate in the Vital Foods gardens contact Rose Ann at (720) 933-3764

This is what the beds looked like on July 5, 2010:

Here is what the beds looked like on August 3, 2010