A garden bed can be created quickly with sheet mulching.  The resulting lasagna garden promotes tremendous plant growth and requires little to no watering or weeding.  We built this garden in Oct. 2003.

Water hyacinths are a good source of weed-free green manure.	Logs were used to define the edge of the bed and to act as place holders for our future dry stream. After sprinkling on lime and bonemeal and wetting the soil, we spred a layer of shredded bills and statements.
Hugh is harvesting the water hyacinths.  They are not so pretty after a frost.	The water hyacinths are topped with recycled packing paper. Greta is having fun popping the water hyacinths.
After soaking the paper, partially decomposed wood chips were layered on top.  Wood chips need to be on top because they decay slowly and tie up nitrogen as they decay.