As an avid gardener I take great pride in my gardens and the methods I use. I've learned a lot since I started tending plants and growing my own food, and while I look forward to learning more along the way, I'd also like to share what I know with those who care to listen.
My Garden Methods Include:
(All Organic)
Companion Planting
I invite bugs into my gardens.
What!? What the--?
Yes, you read correctly--I invite bugs into my garden. There are many, many kinds of insects. Just like in the rest of the animal kingdom, insects are both herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. The carnivorous and omnivorous insects--also known as predatory insects--are very beneficial to your garden. They will hunt out those uninvited dinner-guests munching your tender vegetables, and quietly "take care of 'em". They're working for you, and all you need to do is draw them into your garden by including plants which offers them shelter and food, and offering water goes a long way, too.
In companion planting--or at least in my garden--we call these kinds of plants "friends", and they are typically flowers of one sort or another.
I also use plants to repel, or deter bugs who would make a meal of my crops. Usually they have an unpleasant flavor or strong odor (for example onions, chives, and herbs like basil, sage, and rosemary--also some flowers, like marigolds). We call these plants our "allies".
The "Family" System
Not only do I utilize companion planting in my gardens, but I have a system of grouping crops into families which makes it easier to provide common growing needs of similar plants, and makes crop rotation a confusion-free process. Typically plants of the same family require the same kinds of growing conditions. By grouping them together soil preparations, mulching requirements, watering needs, etc. are much easier done when crops are grouped into families and located in a centralized plot. Each "family" has particular friends and allies. When you have your crop-family, your friends and allies all in their centralized bed, it becomes a crop "neighborhood".
And that is the key to my system: crop-neighborhoods.
Intensive Planting
Closely planted crops will form a leafy canopy that maintains soil moisture longer and keeps weeds from becoming a problem. And so long as you've assed plenty of organic matter to your soil, there's more than enough "food" to keep your plants healthy.
I utilize three methods for planting. I scatter seeds in blocks, I plant transplants in repeating patterns, and for crops that sprawl, like squash, cucumbers, and pumpkins, I plants seeds in hills in double-wide beds.
Soil Building Strategies
Composting is an integral part of my entire garden scheme. I am a composting-freak! Traditional gardening methods eat up the nutrients in the soil 16-times faster than nature can replace it. Therefore it is my number-one priority to be continuously replenishing the nutrients my crops are extracting by feeding the soil and the microorganisms who live there, enhancing the soil.
I also use organic fertilizers, (nothing beats good old-fashioned manure!), biodegradable mulches such as grass-clippings and cardboard (reserved exclusively for isles and walk-ways), and annual neighborhood-rotation.
One of the most controversial strategies I employ is my No-Till rule. Your soil is full of life. There are 900 billion microorganisms in a pound of soil. In order to avoid tilling I use the double-digging method, which is--to say the least--very labor intensive. Once the beds have been dug I can simply aerate the soil annually with a spading fork. The beds will have to be re-dug once every five to seven years, and I do this on rotation.
Protecting the soil is of the utmost importance, too. As I already explained it is essential to protect the nutrients in the soil, but you also want to protect it from becoming compacted by traffic. Well-intentioned family or friends might not realize how important soft, fluffy soil is for your crops (or how much work you put into digging that soft soil!). So I warn anyone who enters my garden to stay on the main paths, and I try to teach them why it is so crucial.
Open-Pollinated Seeds
I already make it a priority every year to get my heirloom tomatoes, but since the addition of the bee-hive I've been pushing to increase my use of open-pollinated seeds. Open-Pollinated seeds allow the gardener to collect seeds from a crop for future planning. If you want the higher nutrition of original varieties you must use non-hybrid varieties, as many vegetables today lack nutrition (and taste!) from over-hybridization.
To learn more about open-pollinated seeds try this quick reference from Eat Healthy Foods: Open-Pollinated.
Backyard Beekeeping
Keeping your own beehive increases pollination, which increases yields. Bees play another key part in my garden as they fill this pivotal role in pollinating my plants. It is a joy to watch them interacting with the crops and to know the good they are doing.
This is my favorite beekeeping site: Pollinator.com
Biointensive Practices
Currently I'm merely "working toward" being fully biointensive in my garden practices. It is my ultimate goal as a gardener to reach this level of self-sufficiency.
These are the 8 essential aspects of biointensive gardening:
- Double-dug, raised beds
- Composting
- Intensive planting
- Companion planting
- Carbon farming
- Calorie farming
- Use of open-pollinated seeds
- Whole-system farming method
As you can see I still have a ways to go before I can truly consider myself a biointensive gardener. If you'd like to know more about it, check out Grow Biointensive.