Sure. Now's a good time to do it if you will be planting in spring. You can mix in plenty of compost, or more modest amounts of manure or raw chopped-up plant waste, to give them time to decompose.

You can mix, it is called tilling, organic matter into your soil but it is not necessary since the Soil Food Web will do that for you and they will do a much better job of getting the organic matter into the soil structure than you can. Even if you do till that organic matter into your soil the Soil Food Web needs to work on it to work it into the soil structure.

Absolutely. I incorporate (till in) 300 to 400 metric tons of yard trimmings (grass clippings, leaves and garden clean up) into 15-20 acre fields and it works great. In my climate, I stop adding material on Sept 15 to allow 6-8 weeks for decomposition to take place. We freeze up towards the end of October and thaw out mid April with seeding taking place between first week of May til the end of May. We found that putting leaves in the soil right up to freeze up didn't work so well as we had HUGE nitrogen deficiency issues when we seeded in the spring.

Lloyd

I remember your pictures of that area Lloyd.

Karen

The practice is called 'sheet composting' by some. I've done it on occasion, but for my schedule a simple compost pile works well. I get more bang for the buck by growing a cover crop in the garden, while my compost pile is working.

Awesome, thank you for the information.

Sheet composting and mixing organic matter into the soil are different things. Sheet composting, usually, means putting a large amount of, usually, vegetative waste in the soil and then covering that with more soil. Growing a cover, green manure, crop and tilling that in is one example of mixing organic matter into the soil.

Incorporating (mixing) organic matter into soil is one example of the term "sheet composting" used in numerous explanations so the two terms might not be different things.

There are numerous definitions and variations of "sheet composting" depending on who you talk to and in what context.

Lloyd

I agree the definition of the term is a bit hazy. To me sheet composting has always meant piling a thick layer of coarse undigested compostable material on top of the ground and letting the worms and soil organisms do the job. In warm moist conditions they will reduce it to compost in an amazingly short time, certainly within one growing season.

ok, this is kinda sorta related, but it might be more appropriate in the pests forum, but I'd like to pick the soil experts brains first.

I'm considering doing some lasagna layering this fall in the beds I've created for the first time this year. Everything is growing pretty well this year, lil chlorosis in the squash. I'll be adding some iron, magnesium, and nitrogen individually to try to figure out what the deficiency may be. Everything is growing in ammended clay soil that has 2 years of grass clippings and chipped wood added and decomposed before topping with aged compost (2-3 year old pile) and some mushroom manure (prob 2-3 inches combined).

So, here's my dilema. I'm trying to stay organic. I've been insecticidal soaping cucumber beetles, squishing squash bugs (not too many, actually) and I've performed surgery on 4 pumpkin vines to dig out the squash vine borers and chop them up with my exacto knife (gross lil buggers). Everything I've read about controlling such pests is to "make sure to clean up the garden in the fall so that the pests are less likely to overwinter there and hatch in the spring to infect your new plants..."

Isn't sheet composting just creating the perfect place for the lil squash bugs etc. to take up residence and stay all snuggley warm over the winter waiting for the spring feast of my seedlings?

Thoughts and perspectives are most welcome :)

-Veronica

(sorry if I'm hijacking the posting ... I can repost as a stand alone question if y'all want.)

You're right. It does give them a hiding place but there is no free lunch. Each benefit seems to be accompanied by a drawback. The best way around that dilemma is to turn what is left of the sheet compost under the soil at the end of each growing season. By the start of next growing season it should be pretty well broken down. If you are using cardboard or newspaper as the base of it there won't be much left of it by that time.
Some people do fine with a no till method but it doesn't work in all climates and conditions. You just have to give it a go and see if it works in your garden.

Hi all ... I'm new here but not new to gardening. All organic matter is compostable. Mixing organic mater directly into the soil is what we WANT to do period no if and or buts about it. Gray waste water is ideal to add to the pile to help it along so does nitrogen (green stuff) but it does take time but once you start it goes on year after year forming black gold and beautiful crops. Worms help very much. It's their job.

Duneshot

The adults that lay the eggs that become the squash bugs, squash vine borers may well spend the winter in garden debris, that should not be a problem with sheet composting, but the predators of those wee buggers also overwinter in that same garden debris.

I did a little searching on the subject of sheet composting. I came up with numerous articles and quickly read them. I still fail to see how sheet composting is not mixing organic matter into the soil.

Ya, there is no hard and fast definition that I have ever found.

Some refer to the lasagna garden technique as sheet composting so it can be difficult to know exactly what some people are talking about. In this instance, the OP referred to adding the OM "directly into the soil", so I'm gonna 'assume' they meant incorporating or mixing it in to the soil.

I personnaly do not equate sheet composting with using materials as a mulch, so if I am in doubt as to what people are referring to, I'll try to ask.

Lloyd

Refering to the forum FAQ helps with the definitions used on this board- "pit" or "trench" composting seems to suit the OP's question.

Yes, Lloyd I did mean just mixing things into the soil (mostly apples and pears). Didn't mean to start a big debate.

My father's, grandfather's, and brother's middle name is Lloyd.

Thanks for all your information.

Do ladybugs overwinter or migrate? I guess I hadn't thought about it before. I've seen a few in my garden (none of the alligator looking larva, though, but they might kinda freak me out) ... I'm not a big bug fan in general. I am kinda fond of the bumblebees that fall asleep on the veggie flowers, though. There's not a lot cuter, actually.

Nice link, Lloyd :) Thanks for sharing. Now I'm behind already for spring in creating new lasagna "sheet composted" beds :P ... Just what I need... more stress ;) I really don't have a huge yard. I wonder what I can get away with creating. The pumpkin vines have effectively taken over half of the lower part of the yard anyway. (I had no idea they got that big. We'll see what grows. One pumpkin is probably 6 inches across already... and ... green. I'll assume that's normal. :P )

Thanks everyone for your help, always.

-v

Lady Beetles over winter where they grew up. The Asian Lady Beetle has found that our houses are a very good place to spend the cold, dark winter while others spend the winter shelterd by tree bark, plant debris, etc.