What do you dig your garden with?

You don't have to put peat moss, or anything specific, between layers – don’t need layers – other than mentioned. Just use good sense about what the soil needs; put down something like manure, rotted if you have it, etc.: the newspapers, and/or cardboard, and all the mulch, turn out nice by the end of the season. The rain packs the mulch down.

We made maze-like paths and stuck to them, don't pack the soil where you want to plant. Don't drive equipment on the planting area if you can help it -- they say.

Give it a try and build on it. It is amazing how 8" of straw, plus newspaper, can work itself down to only an inch or two, and into the soil in only part of a year.

Alex

BTW Peat moss would be OK to use, I guess -- just not required, if you have a lot like we do. Though we have not used it. It is easier for us to get well-rotted manure from Francis, our good friend and neighbor, than to get peat moss from our own low areas.

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Thou art That

You can definitely plant in newly created no-till beds. As mentioned before, I "make the bed," so to speak, dig holes and fill with aged compost to protect tender roots.

I've found horse manure to be less hot than other manures, and some plants, like irises, love it pretty much straight from the horse. The biggest benefit to aging is to kill weed seeds.