Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Sharon Gordon" <gordonse@one.net>]

For information on implementing the system, see:

1) How to Grow More Vegetables *(and fruit, nuts, berries, grains and other
crops) than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine
By: John Jeavons 7th edition, 2006 for detailed information.
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/prodinfo.asp?number=BEA-0300
You also might read The Sustainable Vegetable Garden
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/prodinfo.asp?number=BEA%2D0310

2)  To help plan a complete nutrition garden,  use the information in
One Circle: How to Grow a Complete Diet in Less Than 1000 Square Feet
By: Dave Duhon & Cindy Gebhard, 1984.
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/prodinfo.asp?number=BEA%2D0370
and
BEA-0031 Booklet 31:
Designing a GROW BIOINTENSIVESM Sustainable Mini-Farm - A Working Paper
By: Ecology Action Staff
2003, 45 pp , Language: English
"Introduces in detail the concepts behind the design of a sustainable
mini-farm that provides compost material for soil fertility, food for a
balanced diet, and crops to market for a small income, all in the smallest
possible area. Includes 10 forms to be filled out with data from your own
garden site and nutritional needs and takes you through the process that
will end in a sustainable design for your own specific situation. The
process is one used in our workshops that has evolved over many years.... a
crucial tool for your home garden!"
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/prodinfo.asp?number=BEA%2D0031
plus either some nutrition software like DietPower
http://www.dietpower.com/
or a nutrition book or the usda site
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

You also might do at least a check for each of the four seasons to see if
each season's foods provide complete nutrition.

3) To see some examples of how this was done to minimize land use, see
 Booklet 14:  The Complete 21-Bed Biointensive Mini-Farm
By: John Jeavons, 1986,
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/prodinfo.asp?number=BEA%2D0014
 Booklet 15: One Basic Mexican Diet
By: J Mogador Griffin, 1987, 32 pp , Language: English
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/products.asp?dept=104
 Booklet 25:  One Basic Kenyan Diet: Diet, Income and Compost Crop Designs
in a Three Bed Learning Model
By: Patrick Wasike, 1991
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/prodinfo.asp?number=BEA%2D0025
 Booklet 26:
Learning To Grow All Your Own Food: One Bed Model For Compost, Diet and
Income Crops
By: Carol Cox & Staff, 1991
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/prodinfo.asp?number=BEA%2D0026
Or Albie Miles experiment where he grew a garden and ate the output to test
the strategy
http://www.cityfarmer.org/albie.html

Note that these plans are designed to provide for basic health on the least
amount of land possible.  If you don't need to restrict yourself this way,
you can still do the same sort of planning but increase the diversity which
can help nutritionally and create the sort of diversity that might help in
odd weather years or in case of a disease attacking one item or variety.

It is good however to do a sample 1-3 bed test garden to see how your
proposed plan works together and to see if you like the combination of foods
available in each season.

4) To add on the strategy of growing winter hardy vegetables to full size in
the fall and then leaving them growing(but very slowly) sort of like a
living refrigerator, see the strategies in Four Season Harvest by Eliot
Coleman.
http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/
Their pictures are inspiring too.
http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/main/photos/photos.html

Sharon
gordonse@one.net