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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Yields
  • Date: Sun, 05 Dec 2004 10:19:59 -0700


James: . . . unlike most past gardens where I planted very large beds of one crop, this time I rather planted very small plots of things all over the garden --

On my short list of books to write is one titled The Scattered Garden. I was first prompted to the design by squash and pepper experience--plantings separated by substantial distance are less likely to be decimated by squash bugs. In the case of peppers, which have the unkind habit of cross pollinating, the design saves one from biting into a sweet pepper only to have one's mouth, throat and eyes explode with pain.

There are other advantages to the scattered garden which I am sure you all will quickly see, not least of which is that diversity has the greatest chance of something succeeding when much fails.

There are two distinct disadvantages to multiple crops in discrete beds and planting areas scattered around the homestead. The first is simply that the best gardens are maintained by frequent visits by the gardener, who quickly sees something happening and makes an adjustment, whether extra water or picking squash bugs before they become a full-blown invasion. The second disadvantage is disruption of the rotation schedule. It's lots easier to have rotation follow a circular pattern around the garden, each bed having one crop, followed by the appropriate succession crop. In my experience, really high organic content can ameliorate incorrect pH, so if one has the wealth of immense mulch, rotation is less critical.

I often leave potatoes in the ground all winter under mulch and dig a few pounds at a time.

I do the same with carrots. Just put heavy mulch on the beds and leave the roots in place, where they are most happy. Climate dictates where this practise works. As does temperament. Some common people object to digging spuds in January.

Yesterday I noticed that the deer had been into a plot of Irish Cobbler potatoes, a plot 4' x 7'. They had pawed up a 1' x 4' strip on one side and some sizeable potatoes were lying on the ground. Curious, I though, why didn't they eat them?

My first thought is that you were lucky. Many predators eat a bite here and a bite there, ruining many more than they consume. Raccoons are infamous for taking a single bite out of many tomatoes--real gourmands--although they will clean a strawberry bed from end to end of anything red.

The intriguing thing about this is that crunching the numbers on the yields from SMALL intensive plots from the past few years, the *ideal* garden that is extrapolated from those yields to support most of the food needs of a person is quite modest.

I believe a diligent person using intensive gardening can feed a family of four on a half acre or less, including vegetables, fruits, chickens and rabbits. I've not yet tried it with grain, so don't have a feel for that land requirement. There are books on this subject. Some writer-gardeners have taken it to an extreme, spacing plants to the tenth of an inch, it seems. If maximum yield from minimum land is your desire, books that come to mind are Square-Foot Gardening and How To Raise More Vegetables on Less Land Than You Ever Imagined, or something like that--I think latest additions include Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and maybe chocolate cake. Look up John Jeavons and Mel Bartholomew on Amazon.






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