2012-05-08 So Far: February

The month of February for the garden project brought about lots of preparation as the Science Minor class set out to sheet mulch!

Based on the sample sheet mulching guide provided, we spent the entire class time outdoors on the balconies working on the garden. Sheet mulching is key to the survival of the garden, as this sets the foundation for the soil type, pH, irrigation, moisture, and thermal protection properties of the garden. Although sheet mulching procedures can vary greatly, they all have a similar goal of building nutritive, active soil to support the plants to be planted in it.

On February 2, the class completed their sheet mulching. Two groups of students worked on the balconies, each following their own procedures. You can see the West balcony’s procedure here, and the East balcony’s here.

As a classroom activity, it was really great to step outside of the classroom and be able to set up the soil for what will hopefully be a self-sustained ecosystem. By brainstorming about what the ‘best’ procedures were, we were really able to consider what needs to be involved in active soil.

The same sorts of knowledge could be applied if junior high or high school students participated in sheet mulching. One of the most relevant topics would be cycles such as the carbon cycle, the water cycle, or the nitrogen cycle. All of these need to be considered when sheet mulching, and this provides an excellent way for students to apply their scientific knowledge and test it out in real life situations.

Not only was this a learning experience for us, but we enjoyed being outside!

Want to see more pictures of our sheet mulching experience? Find them here