Sheet Mulching + Youth Education @ City Farm SLO

Scope: 1 Acre Mixed-Use Youth Education Urban Garden

Goals: Improve crop production by redesigning existing farm systems. Develop CSA program.

Funding: Grants and donations. Most supplies were donated through business partnerships.

As the contract Permaculture Designer for City Farm SLO, I helped reexamine, rearranged, and rebuild some of the existing systems on this 1 acre urban farm in San Luis Obispo, California. Lucky for me, this garden already had many useful design elements in place and staff who cared about designing for success. Some elements I appreciated included a sizable tool shed, an outdoor kitchen, a covered pergola with benches, and a decent irrigation system; see some photos above. Additional, we had a lot of talented teachers, farmers, and loving community members pitching in with leading culinary classes, school field trips, and community planting days.

One area that needed much improvement on this farm was the soil. It was muddy and dense, and heavily littered with ox thistle seeds and plants. I always seek to use materials that are readily at hand, easy to acquire, and make sense for the site. This is one case in which cardboard sheet mulching was really a great option. The farm was located near a furniture store that always had a large stock of huge cardboard boxes they were happy to donate. This made it easy for our students to take apart and cover large areas of soil quickly.

After the cardboard, we layer wood chips, soil, hay, straw, and compost from Cal Poly vineyards. None of these ingredients by themselves are all that immediately desirable. So above that we layered a healthy cover crop of red clover and fava beans to add biomass and nitrogen into the soil mix. While this recipe did take longer to decompose, in 6 months time there was a healthy field with lower weed prevalence and rich mycelium layer sure to feed many generations of crops to come.

The high school students of this farm worked hard to start a collaborative veggie box, and were able to deliver 2 rounds of veggie boxes to over 30 customers each time, in Spring of 2020 before school were closed due to COVID-19. This model of CSA was cool and different from other CSAs I had previously been involved with that only sourced products from their own farm. This collaborative CSA linked with other small and specialty farmers to mix-and-match crops from 3 to 5 different farms into one delicious veggie box.