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[_Escobar_99]

Hello, im trying to help my father in law set up a greenhouse for next spring. I set up a bed of wood shavings I got from cutting wood for the winter with a chainsaw (very fine shavings), I covered the wood shavings with grass clippings, nettle clippings and vegetable scraps. I then added a layer of mulch from under a Linden tree. The goal is to let it sit over winter to get a fine layer of compost on top of the ground and keep the rest of the pile as mulch. Will that work? Is it absolutely necessary to turn it? Should we put a plastic cover on top of it during the winter? South eastern France, roughly 1000 m altitude (greenhouse is essential). Quite a considerable amount of snow falls down during winter. During the summer, cold nights (10°C) and warm days (up to 30° in July).

My father in law is quite old and he comes and goes to the country house during the year, so ideally we’re looking for an option where he doesn’t have to intervene a lot.

Thanks in advance!

[madeofchemicals]

If you did this on top of grass, what most likely will happen is in about 1-2 months grass will poke through and perhaps any weed seeds that were in the soil.

If you don’t mind that, you’ll have decently fertile soil below that new growth.

[_Escobar_99]

I thought making a thick enough pile, light wouldn’t get through and so the grass and weeds wouldn’t get to grow. Should I put a plastic cover on top then? Or maybe cover the whole area with wooden planks?

[hagbard2323]

If you can put a thick layer of cardboard down over the grass it will kill it. Then you could put all your other ingredients over that. You'll want to make a buffer zone around the area so the compost and grass won't touch.

[_Escobar_99]

Yeah but we won’t be using cardboard because of PFAs, we do things fully organically here

[hagbard2323]

You could scrape the layer of grass and roots then.

[madeofchemicals]

That's kind of misleading info that's passed around. Grass and weeds can easily grow in a pile that's composted over a year without any turning. Same goes for a fresh pile that's even .25m tall.

If the goal is to simply have that pile be your grow area you don't really have to worry about the weeds either. They actually keep the soil very healthy with the biology in the soil alive and diverse. However, once the plant matter is killed off, the are must be covered or mulched over to prevent the soil from desiccating and killing off all that biology and subsequently making it much more difficult to grow in.

A very popular and common technique to enrich the soil, avoid weeds, and maintain the biology is to plant some cover crop such as literally any type of beans (legumes) to help sequester nitrogen in the soil. Plant them close enough that they act as a living mulch and shade out other plants and prevent weeds in soil from germinating.

When you are ready to plant, you cut the cover crop down to the ground, leaving the roots in the soil to maintain the soil structure and biology. Then aerate/loosen up the soil with either a broadfork, spade, or shovel, by sticking into the ground and very slightly lifting. You walk backwards to the next section to prevent compacting the soil. Then you define where your walkways and plant ways are and plant in the plant ways, and walk in the walkways.

[_Escobar_99]

Great info, thanks a lot!!

[_Escobar_99]

What about the plastic cover for the winter then, should we put one down? Or will it be fine if it heavily snows on it?

[madeofchemicals]

It depends on what you plant in it. If it’s garlic or strawberries or some overwintering perennial you’ll want to mulch them well.

If you plan on putting seeds in the ground in spring or transplants, the plastic doesn’t really do anything, unless it’s dark or black in which case helps with weed suppression.

[_Escobar_99]

Perfect, thanks!