Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

To keep it simple, growing is sustainable if the soil is continually
improved so it can go on being farmed the same way and  producing
indefinitely. For commercial growing I'd add the methods need to sustain
the grower financially to keep operating. 

Intensive or succession planting is tricky, but well worth it for home
production or profit. It means more from available space. 

intensive spacing guide 
http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/vegetable/intensive.html

diagrams for suggested mix type of interplanting for early, midseason, and
late garden 
(Getting the Most from Your Garden p. 134-36)

Succession Planting - Perennial Crops, Crops that occupy the ground only
the first part of the season, crops that occupy the ground the major
portion of the season, Crops to be planted in July or later for fall and
winter gardens
http://www.gardenguides.com/how-to/tipstechniques/planning/successi.asp

http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/envirohort/426-335/426-335.html#L3
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1257.html
http://extension.unh.edu/Pubs/HGPubs/intvegar.pdf
http://www.clemson.edu/fairfield/local/mark/intensgard.htm
http://www.css.cornell.edu/courses/190/abstr/reid3.htm
http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/concept.htm

There's a lot more to intensive growing but I'll stop there.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 1/14/2007 at 1:09 PM Carrie Shepard wrote:

>paul,
>   
>  Perhaps you'd like to define your ideas of sustainable agriculture and
>then compare those with what the UN's Agenda 21 are?
>   
>  It certainly opened my eyes to have someone ask me this question.  I'm
>all for good stewardship and health of the land and animals, but I'm NOT
>going to be an advocate for the kit and caboodle the UN is trying to push
>on everyone (like population control and stealing property away from
>individuals), thus I am not using the word sustainability if I can avoid
>it.
>  
>Carrie
>  Something I'd like help with is tools for planning the garden for
>continuous harvesting?   I do fine at initial plantings, but NOT so well
>at staggering plantings and getting seeds started to plug into the garden
>when a crop is ready to be harvested.
>