Pizza Gardening

In honor of the Rt. 10 Organic Nursery and Farm Tour coming up next Saturday, August 27th, I am going to blog this week about my favorite organic gardening practices - both at home and in the nursery.

This gives me the opportunity to share with the world a brand new gardening term I've just coined: pizza gardening.

It is related to lasagna gardening, as you might expect. This is a gardening practice many people are familiar with - the concept of layering fresh organic matter, usually in a pit or trench, covering it with soil, and then planting (usually veggies) directly into it. The composting process happens at the same time the veggies are growing - no time lapse.

Pizza gardening is another no-till gardening method. It involves eating pizza as a necessary first step. Ah - if only more gardening tips started that way!

The idea first came to me when I discovered that recycling centers wouldn't take pizza boxes - or any other cardboard boxes that have directly contacted food. So, not being someone who throws anything away that is even remotely potentially recyclable, I held onto our pizza boxes, trusting that in the unknown future, I would be able to recycle them. The stack grew higher, and higher, and higher (I'm sure there were one or two kids' parties in there somewhere), until finally it came to me, in a rare flash of brilliance - "I'll just use these to make a new garden!"

And so I did. Killing off sod by smothering it is a tried and true organic gardening practice. It's the ultimate no-till method, as no soil is ever disturbed, except when you shovel into it to plant your shrub border. Tilling negatively impacts soil structure, which is a precious thing not easily restored. And have you ever tried removing sod by hand? It's back-breaking work, and then what do you with with all of that precious organic matter you have just removed? Yes, you can compost it, but wouldn't it be better to just leave it in place to keep working for you?

So, back to smothering. This is best done with thick layers of organic material that allow water to penetrate and will eventually completely decompose over time. You can use thick layers of newspaper covered with a few inches of grass clippings, or you can use cardboard, held down by whatever heavy objects are at hand.

This method does take a while, during which time you will have an area of your lawn that is covered in cardboard - or, in the case of pizza gardening, with rows of overlapping pizza boxes, in particular. Perhaps not the most attractive presentation, but it gets the job done: in about 2 months, you'll be able to plant directly through the pizza boxes, install your new garden, cover everything with a layer of mulch (preferably shredded leaves or compost), and voila! Your new garden is born, no back-breaking labor or sod removal required.

Before the cardboard returns to the elements entirely, it will keep the weeds down in your new bed for some time. The sod underneath the cardboard will provide organic matter in the top layer of soil.

So - who's up for some Dominoes?

Spring Ephemerals.....small flowers, big statements!

I really don't get out much, but even on my daily commute, I am surrounded by gorgeous wildflowers. My daily ride through rural Chester County is especially beautiful in the spring, with a section of road completely given over to one of the miracles of spring in PA - spring ephemeral wildflowers! Here is Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), close-up and then covering a hillside (someone's front lawn!!):


Whew! Don't you wish you could live there?

Then there are the intriguing flowers of trout lily or dog-tooth violet, Erythronium americanum. These little yellow, nodding flowers rise up from foliage that is attratively mottled. It can form colonies which are very large, but not particularly dense. Again, there is beauty both close up and from a distance:

I could go on and on, but I'll stop with Virginia Bluebells, Mertensia virginica. This incomparable blue beauty colonizes in low-lying areas that never completely dry out. Happily enough for the rest of us, it is also comfortable in drier soils, although it won't spread out so much there. When Virginia Bluebells finds a home it likes, it moves in for the long haul.


All of our spring ephemerals can happily co-exist with other perennials or shrubs that emerge or leaf out just a bit later. Once they die down after flowering, their place can be taken by ferns, wild ginger, or any number of flowering plants.

Spring Beauty!

Spring beauty, indeed! I'm not just talking about the general phenomena - I'm talking about Claytonia virginica, aka Spring Beauty. This sweet little native wildflower is popping up everywhere now, and is especially noticeable in lawns. Have a look at these pictures taken over the last few days (April 20/21) along the back roads of Chester County:




This flower is diminutive in stature, but tough as nails once established. It is often found in moist woods in shade, but check out these beautiful stands growing in full sun right in a lawn (which was mowed a day after I took these pictures!):




Just imagine taking your morning walk along this road!

Spring beauty is easy to establish, and re-seeds itself readily. We have them now at Sugarbush, and they are blooming their little heads off in their pots!

I have to admit, I love these spring ephemeral wildflowers. Somehow the fact that they are with us for such a short period only adds to their charm. Requiring little attention from anyone, they complete their entire life cycle before the canopy leafs out. In fact, I think I have other posts coming for trout lily, Dutchman's breeches, bloodroot and Virginia bluebells!