By Natural Stepper Kate Heiber-Cobb

We want to let everyone know about the Monona Community Landscaping Project and welcome you to our team! This project was initiated by our Parks & Recreation Director, Jake Anderson, coming to The Natural Step Monona and asking us if we could help the community with possible landscaping solutions for the community center. There had been designs drawn up previously and the plants alone totaled many thousands of dollars, and then many more dollars for the labor to plant them. So, a couple of us TNS Monona members met with Jake and walked the land and brainstormed about a possible community solution that would cost very little.

We came up with a community project of education possibilities, community labor, and donation of native plants by residents. Thus, The Monona Community Landscaping Project was born. Jake was very interested in, and willing to work with us on, sustainable landscaping and planting. He kindly took instructions on how to sheet mulch the plant beds to build soil fertility and have them ready for planting in the spring. Sheet Mulching or Lasagna Beds, are basically a technique of layering compostable materials of carbon and nitrogen that builds active, living soil. Usually it begins with a layer of newspaper and/or cardboard, a layer of leaves, possibly some organic kitchen scraps or aged manure, and then a layer of straw or shredded bark mulch. When done in the fall, and layered deeply enough, it creates soil ready to be planted in the spring. The combination of nitrogen and carbon breaks it down into soil. You’d be surprised how quickly it breaks down – even throughout the winter months. This saved the city money that it would have otherwise had to spend on topsoil being trucked in and spread on the beds, and possible tilling. Besides creating healthy, living soil, it protects the ground from weed seeds and from erosion. It’s cheap and it works!! Start saving those materials for your own yard!!!

So, thanks to Jake there are three growing areas sheet mulched for spring planting. We have a date for a community planting set for Saturday, May 30 from 9 a.m. until noon or until the job’s finished. The rain date is Sunday, May 31, same times. We are asking our area gardeners (and we know there are many of them in Monona by the beautiful yards all over the city) when separating their native perennials in the spring to think about our project and check out the plant list on line, or call Jake at the Parks Department, and donate some of their plants to us. The link to the project information and plant list page is on our city web site. The link to the page on our city web site for the project information and plant list is:

http://www.monona.wi.us/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={045400A4-E412-427B-BAA6-49BBADCD713F}

We are also hoping that some people will peruse our plant list and decide to purchase a small tree or berry bush for our community planting. This project is about creating community around stewardship of our city land and teaching sustainable practices of gardening.

We will be mulching our growing beds deeply to keep moisture in and use less water, feed the soil with its organic content, and keep the weeds at bay. We will be arranging plants in such a way that it creates a plant guild, which consists of plants that feed and aerate the soil, attract beneficial insects, needing less care, and no chemical treatments because of the biodiversity created. We are mimicking nature (biomimicry).

We are also hoping that rain barrels will be installed at the community center and plan on offering a free class for people to watch and participate in that process when it happens. We will let you know details on that as we know.

Later in the season we will have a seed collecting educational event and work day at the bed. We will also be mulching it heavily for the winter months using materials gathered and created in our city parks to do it. (Leaves, shredded bark mulch, etc.)

Maybe you have a class, an organization, or group that wants to participate or donate to this project. If so, please contact Kate Heiber-Cobb from TNS Monona at 224-1462. Our goal is for this to be a broader community project and an educational model of sustainable gardening and land use.