Where I live, for example, the high risk of root disease in the onion family and for potatoes makes four-year crop rotations smart for these, but I don’t worry about allowing long rotations for other vegetables. The Ohio State University Extension has listed several benefits of gardening in a raised bed. The French intensive gardening method also helps with diversifying space, as it frequently utilizes additional gardening techniques like interplanting and companion planting. Order Mel Bartholomew’s book All New Square Foot Gardening for more information. Don’t despair; get creative. By rotating the location, heavy feeding plants will get a new more vital area, and the area they depleted the year before will support plants with different requirements. When I initially encountered Jeavons’ book in the 1970s, I set out to follow his technique for double-digging my garden. Beauty and productivity harmonize in an intensively planted garden when you add flowers and natural, structural elements. Sign in with your online account. Using mulch to keep the soil covered is effective at smothering germinating weed seeds. Ease of working 4. High-density mixed planting. Learn how to build, double dig, and maintain your own Chinese-style intensive bed. Square-foot gardening calls for purchasing a large amount of peat moss, which isn’t a renewable material. The Intensive Garden is one of the 7 family size gardens that are being trailed as part of the RED Garden Project. I know it’s all about “reading definitions” but it really helps if you understand these intensive vegetable gardening concepts before you try to do them. 6. They can be as tidy or as wild as you like, take little effort to maintain, and still produce an astonishing amount of food from a small area. Prompt succession planting. More traditional gardens consist of long, single rows of vegetables spaced widely apart. It also reduces disease and insect infestations that could become severe if the same areas are used each year for something like tomatoes. Simply, group several different species closely together in the same plot. Suggestions? Intensive Vegetable Gardening You can maximize the productivity of the garden using intensive gardening techniques. I’m on Bartholomew’s side in favoring simple, low-maintenance methods (after all, the energy of the gardener is a valuable resource, too), but gardeners can learn much from Jeavons about sustainable practices. He asserts that this flexible, ecological methodology is as important for soil fertility as it is for his economic success. (Such crops provide a significant amount of dietary calories as well as a significant amount of carbonaceous material for composting.) Foot paths are only between the beds. For novice gardeners, Bartholomew’s method of marking off beds in 1-foot squares may be particularly helpful as a way to visualize how densely one can plant. The reasons for this are that different vegetables use more of some types of vitamins and minerals than others. Determinate tomatoes, those that ripen a large crop all at once, generally produce better if left to sprawl. Loosen soil in raised-bed planting sites by “double-digging” to a depth of 2 feet. If you have a tiny urban garden, you aren’t likely to be able to grow a considerable amount of grain crops for supplying carbonaceous compostable materials, as Jeavons suggests doing. Reliance on compost. Intensive Vegetable Production refers to a system of marketing and producing vegetable crops in which great attention is placed on detail and optimization of resources such as land, capital, labor, equipment, transportation to market and management time. Consider growth rate above and below ground when interplanting flowers and vegetables. Roots are another source of organic matter, so instead of pulling plants when clearing a bed, I cut them at the soil line and leave the roots to decompose. Much of the garden area is taken by the space between the rows. “Double-digging,” or digging and refilling trenches, is central to biointensive growing but may not be worth the work. 2. The system you choose should take into account your location, … That’s hard to argue with! Since these books hit the shelves, millions of gardeners have experimented with and embraced the gardening techniques advocated within. Achieve staggered harvests with succession planting. Go permanent. Another principle is to make small beds, no more than 3-4 feet wide, and alternate rows of above ground and under ground vegetables. As soon as you pull out one food plant, you drop in another - of a different species. Building and preparing an organic garden using natural No Dig Gardening methods Easy steps for building a vegetable garden. The organic matter in compost also increases soil’s water-holding capacity and improves its texture. … Like to read more content, Join the Mother Earth News Community Today! This results in even more yield without adding more garden space. You'll find tips for slashing heating bills, growing fresh, natural produce at home, and more. You can stagger the crops by planting them several weeks apart. Unless you plan on canning large amounts of tomatoes, however, that won't really be an issue. Each year you should rotate the areas used for particular vegetables. These crops can be planted while the tomatoes or vines are young, and many will be ready for eating before the tomato even sets fruit. Similarly, a 1998 study by Ohio State University found no significant yield difference between beans and beets grown in beds that had been cultivated only on the surface and beds that had been double-dug. Relax and smile. The soil must be very loamy and fertile. Multiple Cropping. Regarding water conservation, plants growing in the ground usually need less irrigation than plants in containers or raised beds do, because soil-bound plants benefit from capillary flow of water from the subsoil. It will give you more area to plant while still producing full or nearly full crops from your garden plants. 1. I’ve talked with hundreds of gardeners over the past few decades to glean some of the commonalities between successful gardening systems, and the resulting recommendations that follow here will help you grow a high-yield but low-maintenance, sustainable garden. 8. Produce food in a way that, compared with conventional farming, greatly reduces the use of resources, and places a focus on diversity, soil building and achieving high yields. Here is a cool free reference chart for planting and growing vegetables. Whether permanent beds should be raised, however, depends on the site and on personal preference. An intensive garden mini- mizes wasted space. While this method is reliant on assembling purchased components, it can work well in urban spaces, especially where soil contamination is a concern, where digging into the ground isn’t an option, or where people are especially picky about how a garden looks (perhaps because of ordinances for front lawns). Raised beds are growing areas whose surface is “raised” above the surrounding area. For example, plant one broccoli per square and plant 16 carrots per square.) 22 Shares. The Multi-Bed Garden Plan. Older and less mobile folks could benefit from raised beds because they’re higher up and easier to work in. Most of us prefer to have a continuous supply of fresh tomatoes during the growing season anyway. Be sure to check the variety you plan to purchase to make sure which type it is. Space crops tightly in a hexagonal planting pattern. Reducing the use of nonrenewable resources — whether it’s fossil fuels burned in transporting supplies, irrigation water from deep aquifers or even peat moss — is an important consideration and one that’s on many gardeners’ minds. 8. This garden plan is another exact layout. Quickly replanting any gaps left after harvesting a particular crop lets you use every area of the garden throughout the year. If you have a limited amount of garden space that gets enough sun, or there are other reasons you can't go larger, then the intensive vegetable gardening principles may be the right choice for you. Interspersing crops with different root depths, plant heights and growth rates also means you can grow more in a given space. It will give you more area to plant while still producing full or nearly full crops from your garden plants. Intensive Planting Techniques are practiced with several goals in mind: they minimize soil compaction, allow you to plant in challenging or difficult locations, solve drainage issues, eliminate the need for tilling, increase vegetable and herb production, and conserve water. When you finish shifting the soil, you will have moved all of the soil in the bed sideways by 1 or 2 feet and down to a depth of 2 feet. Leaf lettuce can be planted on either side of radishes and onions, and will be harvested before mid summer. You can even try square-foot gardening in wooden boxes on a balcony. You might need to fertilize more frequently, but what you use will go where it is needed, and not be wasted on walking paths. This upward movement of water can come from a depth of 2 to 8 feet, depending on the type of soil. 1. Soil, climate, weather, water availability, composting materials, pests and diseases vary depending on where you live, so learn from local experts and look for information written for your region. Intensive gardening is a strategic way to plan your garden beds to maximize the number of plants produced. Sow open-pollinated seeds to preserve genetic diversity. With a well-planned intensive garden, you can maximize your yields with minimum materials. One of my problems is compost: I just don't generate enough to create any. I leave mulch on the soil for as much of the garden season as possible (weeds grow all winter in my Northwest climate), but I pull it back in spring to allow the soil to dry out and warm up. Intensive Vegetable Gardening-Gardening Advice for Small Spaces. I saw no difference between the double-dug bed and the rest of the garden throughout that summer or in later years. The use of intensive vegetable gardening methods can increase the yield per square foot by a great amount. Growing vining crops, such as pole beans and cucumbers, vertically will allow you to harvest more in a given space. If this is possible, please tell me how to do this. Also, soils that receive less disruption have more beneficial nematodes, earthworms, soil mites and other microorganisms wriggling and crawling about. 4. It requires more planning so that the plants don't crowd each other too much. Do you appreciate the rugged appeal of recycled tires in your garden? (See Bartholomew’s book for the prescribed numbers. In very hot areas they might need some shade screen to reduce water loss. 2. Two gardening authors and their systems of intensive vegetable gardening have been highly influential in North America for more than 30 years. So if you would like to grow more in the same space, then you should consider applying these principles to your garden area. Care and Cultivation of Permanent Garden Beds, Backyard Bounty: The Complete Guide to Year-Round Organic Gardening in the Pacific Northwest. Improved soil conditions 3. Creating minimal disturbance has led to a bountiful garden with less work on my part. How do I rid my garden of squash bugs from year to year? 9. Intensive planting suppresses weeds, as the leaves of nearby plants quickly fill in and shade the soil. Unlike a single row garden that takes up lots of space, you can plant vegetables tightly in a little square foot garden bed or a horse trough converted into a raised bed. 10. I quickly discovered, despite Jeavons’ cheery instructions, that this was a daunting amount of work. Or, do you … Plant dual-purpose, carbon-efficient crops — such as grains — in about 60 percent of the growing area. Leave wide aisles (at least 3 feet wide) between your growing boxes to easily work in your beds and maneuver between them. The beds can be raised, but it's not required in order to use this method. Root vegetables like carrots, radishes, and beets might also work if your site gets at least 4 hours of direct sunlight a day. Jeavons’ biointensive gardening system is based on developing fertile soil in permanent garden beds that you initially dig to a depth of 2 feet. Intensive Vegetable Gardening In Small Spaces. Community Horticulture Fact Sheet #47 Intensive Vegetable Gardening 600 128th Street SE, Everett, WA 98208-6353 425-338-2400 • Fax: 425-338-3994 • Master Gardeners: 425-357-6010 • TDD 1 -800-833-6388 The goal is to have the plants just, or almost, touching by time of harvest. These methods will produce far more per square foot. Linda A. Gilkeson holds a doctorate in entomology and has been educating gardeners through workshops and writing for more than 20 years. 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