Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

from my blog at
http://livingonthelandweb.blogspot.com/2011/02/permanent-intensive-beds.html?spref=tw

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
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Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Permanent Intensive Beds

Why grow with permanent intensive beds?
from Paul at livingonthelandweb@gmail.com

There are places where food gardening can be done by tilling up a whole area 
and planting in single rows, and often requiring too much watering and 
weeding, and cost. But times like these need more efficient and sustainable - 
and more inexpensive - use of space and inputs. And for the current growth of 
home, market, and community gardening to be sustained, the methods need to be 
both doable and rewarding. Too often they aren't.  Some useful sources listed 
at the end of this article.

Efficiency

Not just trendy, permanent beds and aisles can make more efficient use of 
available space and inputs for growing. Beds can be intensively planted and 
allow the garden to produce much more vegetables by NOT leaving 18" aisles 
for tractor wheels between single rows. No tractors here. In intensive beds 
plants are spaced equally in each direction, depending on the room they need 
when mature. Do the math for carrots with recommended spacing between plants 
and the same spacing between rows - say, for a simple 3'x20' bed. Eight rows 
in a three foot wide bed? How many carrots total? Unsustainable industrial 
farming methods are also inefficient and impractical for home, market and 
community vegetable gardens.

Soil compaction

Beds are usually 3-4 feet wide to reach the middle from either side, and 
aren't walked on and compacted. Aisle width may vary as needed. Soil that is 
not compacted by feet or wheels allows better root growth and better plant 
growth. As such it needs little or no annual tilling or digging. It's easier 
to work in amendments. Uncompacted beds percolate irrigation more deeply, 
hold moisture better, and drain excess water more easily. Compacted soil is 
harder to water deeply and is more prone to waterlogging when it is watered 
deeply or gets too much rain. Either condition is hard on plants.

Inputs

Beds require less amendments, mulch, tilling, and irrigation than the entire 
garden because aisles need none of these. All inputs are concentrated on the 
growing soil in beds. This saves labor and money. Plus, the cost of a tiller 
can easily outweigh any savings from growing your own. Initial bed layout and 
digging in organic amendments can avoid buying a tiller altogether - and 
regular tilling brings weed seeds to the surface to sprout. With free or 
cheap local materials for amendments and mulch, startup costs can be limited 
more or less to simple hand tools. But why amend and mulch?

Mulched beds

Organic mulch allows water to penetrate while reducing surface evaporation, 
conserving moisture, and greatly reducing weeding. In a wet climate beds may 
need to be slightly higher than aisles for better drainage. Mulch protects 
shallow roots from the sun's heat and moderates soil temperature which helps 
growth - and food production. It helps to keep the soil surface from being 
compacted and crusted by rain on bare soil. Water percolates down more 
easily. So besides saving water by not irrigating aisles area, less water 
also is needed for the bed soil. Winter mulch can protect soil from hard 
freezes in milder climates, and as Ruth Stout explained long ago you just 
pull the mulch aside in spring to let the sun warm the soil and plant. For 
transplants mulch can be pulled aside and replaced around plants. Coarser 
mulch material needs to be a little thicker layer than finer material. Bare 
soil is subject to erosion loss by wind and water, and is rarely best for 
growing. In field and forest nature abhors bare soil.

Amendments

With permanent beds, the labor and expense of amendments aren't wasted on 
aisles that get walked on. Organic amendments may vary including compost, 
green manure crops, animal manures, bone meal, and minerals. In composting, 
greens and browns ideally are combined in a ratio of more or less 1:20 for 
nitrogen in green matter to decompose browns such as aged manure. But the 
same materials may be worked into the soil directly, skipping the compost 
pile. Proper amendments also go beyond providing plant nutrients, by 
loosening soil structure for good root growth and moisture retention, and by 
providing raw materials for earthworms and microorganisms such as mycorrhizae 
that improve soil structure and healthy plant growth. Raising the level of 
organic matter becomes more practical and affordable when only the growing 
beds are amended.

Adaptations

Beds may need raising and framing under certain conditions such as sloping or 
uneven ground, thin, rocky, or hopeless topsoil, or too much rain. Where 
conditions permit beds can simply be laid out flat and marked with permanent 
stakes or other markers. Lumber or other materials may be used to define 
edges and keep bed soil or mulch in place if needed. Where space permits 
green manure crops such as legumes that add nitrogen and bring up subsoil 
minerals can be rotated with growing beds.
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Sources

Some of many sources on intensive beds and organic growing, available at low 
cost from http://www.bookfinder.com which includes many booksellers . I'm not 
an expert and we don't need to be experts if we combine what works best from 
those who are.

High-Yield Gardening: How to Get More from Your Garden Space and More from 
Your Gardening Season, Rodale Press

How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than 
You Can Imagine, by John Jeavons (& others by Jeavons)

Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening. The Indispensable Green 
Resource for Every Gardener, Rodale Press

Getting the Most from Your Garden, Rodale Press

The Complete Book Of Composting, Rodale Press