photos by Stephen Eginoire

This week the Garden Project of Southwest Colorado prepped their community garden at the Commons Building for next years growing season. Volunteers turned out Tuesday to help with the sheet mulching, a fast, labor-saving technique used for building garden beds and suppresing weeds. Instead of disrupting soil by pulling out sod, tilling or digging, sheet mulching builds the soil on top of whats already there. Heres how it works: A weed barrier of newspaper and cardboard is placed on the ground to smother grasses and weeds. Next, a layer of manure or compost is spread evenly across the barrier. Finally, the top dressing applied is composed of leaves, straw, twigs or anything mimics the newly fallen organic matter of the forest.