Bio intensive gardening
veggiecanner
18 years ago
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dchall_san_antonio
18 years agolast modified: 9 years agoveggiecanner
18 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
INTENSIVE of French Intensive Gardening
Comments (9)While I do believe that French Intensive gardening (aka Jeavons, square-foot, etc.) does indeed have utility, I would have to disagree with alot of your conclusions. First of all, vegetable cultivation for human consumption is quite removed from some sort of pristine "natural" condition. It requires forced suppression of competing plants, manual cultivation of the soil, introduction of processed inputs (yes, even compost has been processed), irrigation, fertilization, genetic selection, pest suppression, etc. etc. My point being that if you were to buy a package of 100 vegetable seeds and plant them into just any old soil, I would hazard to say that less than 10 of them would survive to a viable harvest. And of those few, I would hazard to say that their nutritional and culinary value would be very low. There is a movement under foot lately that tries to equate vegetable gardening with some sort of Rousseau-esque state of nature. It is not. That vegetable on your plate has more to do with human labour than it does with a state of nature qua nature. Seen in this way, French intensive gardening is simply another system of getting plants to produce what we want, when we want it. As you say, [the French intensive makes use of] shade, sun, spacing, nutrients, beneficial insects, raised bed, square foot, permaculture, organic and more. There is really nothing natural about that. In a state of nature, the plants that survive are hardly suitable for human consumption because they are tough, woody, and tasteless. They have adapted to the natural state by putting their energy into survival and reproduction, whereas the vegetable and the human work together to have that energy directed into an edible fruit, root, leaf, etc. Is this just a philosophical distinction? Perhaps, but it does point to a glaring problem with the intensive system: it makes the plants conform to the system/plan rather than having the system/plan adapt to the plants. If you doubt me, simply take a look at Weaver and Bruner's root sketches for common vegetables. There is no way you can tell me sprawling vegetables like squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. are best suited being crammed together with only a foot or so separating them. For the record, I do practice a semi-intensive system for my kitchen garden: lettuce, spinach, herbs, carrots, etc. But for my large "production" garden I find the intensive system to be a waste of time, energy and inputs. I still build wide, raised beds, ammended with organic inputs and very carefully cultivated and nurtured. The difference is that each plant is given the space required to grow to it's full development. This means less water and larger individual vegetables. It also means less time on my part, which is a very limited commodity. Here is a link that might be useful: Root diagrams...See MoreSprouting potatoes
Comments (7)What I have learned is you want to green up your potatoes at least 4 weeks before you plants. Put them in a room that gets light but out of direct light. Greening up makes sure the sprouts do not get too long (you don't want them any longer than 3' to 4'. being in the dark encourages a lot of leggy, weak growth as the sprouts reach for any available light). Cut the potatoes into pieces no more than 24 hours before planting. make sure there is an eye in each piece and that the pieces are not too small. Here is a link that might be useful: Boulder Belt Eco-Farm...See MoreBio-Intensive Beginner
Comments (6)I plant intensively in raised beds. After harvest I mix in a bit of compost and it mixes in my dried grass clipping mulch as well. If a heavy feeding crop I add commercial granular fertilizer like Dr. Earth or Whitney Farms according to recommendations on the box or bag. Smooth out soil & replant that same day. Helpful to shade new transplants esp. in your warm climate. Be creative with rigging shade for them -- an inserted piece of cedar shake, upturned cardboard box or plastic rubbermaid tote (propped up a bit with bamboo stakes for air circulation). After a day or so plants will be fine without the shade. Greens especially will take off if you've not disturbed the roots much and have provide shade & water. To maintain intensively planted bed - put back in what you take out in the form of compost + fertilizer. If minerals are in short supply in your soils you'll have to add some of that, too. Here we add lime yearly in the form of calcium carbonate. Rains 9 months of year wash it all away. Should find info from the master gardeners in Hawaii about your soils and how to maintain them for gardening. Adapt their recommendations to your methods esp. organic. Hope that helps, Corrine Here is a link that might be useful: Hawaii master gardener program...See Morehonestly,is there such a thing as organic gardening in Florida??m
Comments (19)Thanks for the compliment, teeka and gatormomx2. I have to give the credit to my DH who faithfully lugs the mulch after I point to the cardboard I just laid down. Btw, the adjacent beds have not been mulched since last March, but were done the same way initially with cardboard over two years ago. What you see on the edge of the path is acalypha repens (not weeds), which is not doing very well as it is getting too much shade. Teeka, sounds like you can get mulch pretty easily. How lucky. Make sure they don't bring you weed trees or palm. Turn it down if there's any chance of brazilian pepper, camphor, carrotwood, etc. Appliance companies are usually great places to get cardboard boxes. Think subzero boxes if you are covering large areas, and overlap the edges by about six inches. Don't disturb the soil. Just put the cardboard over the weeds/grass coming through unless they are so bulky that you can't lay it down flat. Don't worry! In already existing beds, you can use small cardboard boxes between plants, or thick layers of newspaper overlapped by a few inches. Don't put the cardboard/newspaper too close to the trunks of plants, since it will hold moisture there and you don't want to risk rot. Then apply the mulch generously. Gatormom, we are great scavengers of leaves and any organic materials left by the curbside. We are great recyclers and it is such a shame for great materials to be taken to the landfill. In Feb-April, my DH and I collect many bags by the roadside each recycling day. We only pick them up from homes that don't appear to have a big weed problem. One year, we collected over 500 bags (I used to drive a minivan). Usually it's more like 200 now, since my DH drives a prius now! This is what we use for mulch during the spring months. Natives and veggies, I usually do newspaper in the veggie garden because I usually mulch with grass clippings or leaves there, and I don't want the cardboard to show through this lighter mulch, but there's no reason you can't do cardboard as long as you're not doing seeds. Make your holes after you put the cardboard down. Once it gets wet a couple of times, you can cut through it with a shovel or trowel. Anna...See MorejanetLA
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