By Canny Cahn
It’s so much fun when students “teach” their teachers!
Our Mentoring Program was designed help members share gardening information in ways beyond our existent monthly meetings and presentations. The premise assumed that “mentors” would teach “mentees” and that every gardener possesses teachable skills worth sharing.
But my recent “mentoring gig” at the home of Valerie Andreassen and Steve Harvey upended my notion of ministering to the garden-needy. I learned so much more from this planting-savvy duo than I could ever teach them.
Here’s just one piece of wisdom they shared:
Valerie and Steve’s Recipe for No-Dig Beds:
Cover the designated space with two heavy layers of “naked” (no labels, no color) brown cardboard
Wet the area thoroughly to start breaking down the turf below.
Surround the cardboard with something that will hold added soil. I stabilized my pile by surrounding it with logs until a delivery of stone arrived.
Keep the new bed wet and plant it up!
Mulch. Mulch. Mulch.
Soooo quick and easy!
I loved skipping the much-dreaded job of skimming off and taking away the top layer of turf.
The crawly creatures down below multiplied and I didn’t unearth new weed seeds. Just a few hours of work gave me a much-needed shade bed designed to add a distant focal point to a random section of apple trees.
Valerie and Steve’s garden is a wonder of creativity. I’ll profile more of their gardening tricks in a future edition Canny’s Corner.
Canny Cahn is a member of GCW and facilitates the GCW Mentorship Project.
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