Chop-n-Drop Raised Gardenbeds

Here's a simple technique we discovered being used effectively on Oahu's North Shore, which is choked with tall-growing California grass in many areas...

Image: California grass covered almost the entire property - you can see where it has been harvested for the gardenbeds in foreground.

...if you've ever had to clear a patch of this stuff to make way for growing edibles, you know what hard work it is to hack it back, and then dig up its tough root clump to ensure it does not just spring back even more vigourously.

You may have also noticed the soil life thriving in the root zones of these clumps, especially when compared to bare soil immediately adjacent - this 'weed' is performing a valuable function, building soil & creating a habitat for soil biology, and mining nutrients in its biomass... which makes it a potentially valuable resource.

Here's how the Chop-n-Drop Raised Bed technique works:

1. After cutting back an area of California grass
3. The compost heap is topped with a thick layer of mature compost & mulch, which can then be planted directly into:
   
4. 4 months later, the raised beds will have shrunk by about 2/3 or so, and the plant roots can extend into all that goodness below (check out the size of this raddish!):

Simple, and highly effective.  Makes wonderful use of existing resources, and beautifully demonstrates the Permaculture Principle:

• "The Problem is The Solution."

Banana leaf sheet mulch!

Photo: Banana leaf sheet mulch deployed in raised bed garden.  Hana, Maui.

Banana leaves have many uses in the Islands (and in all traditional cultures where banana plants grow), though here's one you may not yet have considered:  a natural, locally & readily available, biodegradable weed barrier for sheet mulching.

In urban and suburban Honolulu, cardboard is a readily available waste product that can easily be upcycled as a biodegradable weed barrier for sheet mulch gardenbeds and paths, though in remote Hana there is nowhere near the amount of waste cardboard available for us permaculturists!

There is, however, and abundance of banana plants (which love the chocolatey-volcanic soils and moisture), and therefore an abundance of banana leaves...

...which brings us to the point of this post:

Appropriate Design.
(an excerpt from Rick Coleman's essay 'The Role of Permaculture in Sustainable Aid')

If you are going to introduce a new technology / technique / tool, these are some things to consider:

• Can you use materials that are inexpnsive or free, that are easily accessible and safe?
• Will it have a tangible positive effect on the community (as well as the aid organization)?
• Most importantly is it able to be repeated (if you build a grand-darble-dooble-funky and leave it, can anyone build a new one?)..
• How can the technology be integrated to solve other problems or be connected to other elements (in the system) and therefore become more productive?

... which, of course, now leaves us with the question:

• What else could we use banana leaves for?

While we ponder that one, here's another example of a locally appropriate material being deployed for use in a sheet mulch garden being built in the drylands of Mexico: