Peace and Environment News• September 1999
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Peace and Environment News • September 1999 |
by Tegan Wong and Leland Daugherty
Why should little gardens mean little food? If we were to space the vegetables in rows as directed by the seed packages, we wouldn't have enough food to last the year. That is, without clearing more land than is currently available—600 square feet. But we do have enough for us both because we have chosen square-foot gardening methods.
Square-foot gardening includes a variety of different techniques, such as double-digging, close plant spacing, companion planting, and composting. Say you're looking at an old garden or a small grassy spot. It may be hard to imagine that in one Canadian growing season this area can grow all of your vegetable needs for the year.
Where to begin?
Double digging is a necessary component of square-foot gardening. It ensures a soft and happy growing bed for your plants and their roots. Double-digging involves working up the soil to a depth of two feet, while keeping the rich topsoil on the uppermost layer. Some feel that this method of soil preparation requires lots of work, and initially it does. Yet the garden itself will be able to support a higher number of plants per area, minimizing the actual area you need to work with your spade and fork.
Now, let's start planting. How are we going to grow all of our food in a space-conserving way? Each vegetable has an optimum growing area that it needs to develop and mature. We can think of this area as a circle. For example: tomatoes have a circle with a 21-inch diameter, and for carrots and onions it is 3 inches. In the diagrams, the tomatoes are represented by the larger circles, the onions and carrots by the smaller circles. Using these diameters we can design our garden making best use of every square foot. Benefits of close spacing include increased food production, moisture retention and less weeding.
Companion planting is an old, well-known gardening technique. The true joys of companion planting can be fully realized with square-foot gardening because plants are much closer together than in row planting. For example, basil can get close and personal with the tomatoes, and both can share the insect-repelling force field of the marigold.
How are our gardens going to remain fertile year after year? Compost and manure are wonderful, but they come from the fertility of another place. We can someday strive to grow all the fertility we need for our garden by growing grain crops as well as our vegetable crops, then use the non-edible portions of these plants for compost.
Square-foot gardening may enable vast areas of agricultural land to return to wild spaces, while still growing abundant food for everyone on the planet on much less land.
We first read about these techniques in a book entitled How to Grow More Vegetables. This book deserves reading if you want an in-depth description of square-foot gardening, also known as Bio-Intensive gardening. For a current price for this book write to: Bountiful Gardens, 18001 Shafer Ranch Road, Willits, CA 95490 U.S.A, phone (707) 459-6410.
(Leland and Tegan live and work at an environmental community development centre called Falls Brook Centre in rural New Brunswick. Located on 200 acres of farm and forested land, FBC demonstrates the practical application and implementation of sustainable development. In addition to square-foot gardening, FBC has numerous other projects, including mushroom propagation, a wildflower conservation garden, solar and wind power applications, and organic herb gardens. This summer Leland has been coordinating the construction of a strawbale house. Tegan has been working on community forest restoration and the establishment of a native tree and shrub nursery. Please drop us a line or, better yet, come on out! Our address: Falls Brook Centre, 125 S. Knowlesville Rd., Knowlesville, N.B., E7L 1B1. e-mail: fbc@nbnet.nb.ca)
Converted November 5, 1999 - Lg
To follow up on this article, contact the author or the organizations/individuals mentioned; do not contact the Peace and Environment Resource Centre - we cannot provide follow up or contact information. This article is an archival copy of the printed one in the Peace and Environment News (PEN). Viewpoints expressed should not be taken to represent the opinions of the Peace and Environment Resource Centre, the PEN, or our supporters.
