Portsmouth Caterpillar Club

My last blog post sparked some discussion on the Portsmouth Caterpillar Club's Facebook Page including one comment that cardboard is allowed under an organic certification (I assume) as long as the tape and plastics are removed and the coated / water-resistant (pfas) materials are not used.  I had a large amount due to my door replacement project from last years so I decided to go ahead and use it to control weeds while trying to maintain the underlying soil health.  Here is what I did. Step 1:  I put a layer of maple leaf mulch to block out light and to create an aeration zone that will sit below the cardboard layer.  This will hopefully reduce the impact and risk of suffocating organisms such as worms and insects underneath.  It will also provide an interim food source.   You can see here I also employed several mulching assistants who inspected and certified my work. Step 2:  I laid down the cardboard and cut it to match the shape of the expanded wildflower garden. 

Over the weekend I worked on my first garden project of 2019!  If you read this blog, you know that I have fairly aggressive plans to add natives to my insect gardens and that means I needed to convert lawns into habitat.  So far so good.  I had some landscaping stones, a shovel, a rake and enough determination to take out some lawn next to the stone wall. My plan was to remove as much of the lawn from the native soil as possible then use box cutters to cut apart cardboard that I saved from last summer when I replaced my front door.  I would then get a yard of compost to put on top to start seedlings that are sitting in the cold frame and hopefully germinating soon.  It seemed like a perfect plan:  the cardboard would block the sun suppressing grass and weeds but would eventually decompose, giving the wildflowers one or two seasons to establish themselves. I then read a blog post that was linked to the Native Plants of New England Facebook.  The blog post was published by The