Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net>]

I understand that this is a complex subject and, so far, I'm not helping much, but I'm juggling too many threads and don't want to let go of any of them.

 

Lately I've read of "reductionist thinking", expressed as a "bad" thing, but after a lifetime as an engineer, I'll have to stick with it  until I understand the concept and what may be wrong with it better.  So, try to solve the problems separately.

 

I want to break down the various ways of thinking about "companion" planting in order to simplify.  One way, already mentioned, is annual rotation.  This seems easiest to resolve by grouping your planting beds into groups of 3, for a 3-year rotation, like Jeavon's heavy feeder > heavy giver > Light feeder rotation.  That way, three succession plans can be developed; one for each bed that can be reused each year (but on the next bed in the rotation).  With the rotation factor gone, it's easier to do, first, temporal planning, then spatial planning.  Then check the plan against beneficial/antagonist characteristics.  Very reductionist, but when you're through with this process, you can step back and look at the big picture.

 

With the fruits and annual vegetables covered, I'm going to make a grain-garden plan on paper, trying Winter Wheat, followed by a hot-weather bean, for two crops per year.  Don't know what to rotate it with in the other bed(s)..  Maybe a carbon crop?  If I can come up with a reasonable plan by Fall, I may do it in soil.

 

My nutritional reading has convinced me to plan some chickens and I have an acre that could be used for a cow, but I just can't stretch my imagination that far right now (never milked anything!).

 

As I said....too many threads.

 

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz

----- Original Message -----

From: TradingPostPaul

To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Friday, April 13, 2007 1:35 PM

Subject: [Livingontheland] succession planting - advice and benefits!

Here's one site on succession planting

http://www.gardenguides.com/how-to/tipstechniques/planning/successi.asp
"Some vegetables take up their space in the garden all summer, while
others need only a short time to ripen. Careful planning can allow you to
plant a succession of crops in the same space. If your garden space is
small, you will want to take advantage of this technique.

"First, plant crops that mature early. As soon as these have been
harvested, pull them up and have a second crop ready to go in the ground.
It helps to start as many plants as you can in peat pots to give them a
head start. After your second crop is harvested, you can often have another
planting of cool weather crops. Choose early-maturing varieties so they can
be harvested before winter sets in."

They list:
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

They have a page on raised beds
http://www.gardenguides.com/how-to/tipstechniques/planning/raisedb.asp
and wide row growing
http://www.gardenguides.com/how-to/tipstechniques/planning/widerow.asp
and the advantages of each over single row planting.

That's just one website, and probably not the best on the subject. I'm
finding that some of this we have to learn by doing and guessing. Weather
gets in the way. Things don't always mature or germinate when the seed
packets say to. Or we don't have time when things need seeding in pots or
transplanting out, and lose a few. When one thing is harvested, empty
spaces need transplants right away. I'm learning it this year. Can't stand
wasting good organic beds 3/4 of the year as in the past.

It may not be for first time gardeners. BUT once you try succession or
interplanting, you find your production can easily double for the same
garden space. And of course, if  you're doing raised beds or wide rows, you
hit the jackpot. You're getting twice the plants in the same garden, and
doubling production again by getting early, summer, and late crops from it.


Four times your neighbor's yield ain't bad either.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net




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