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http://www.doctoryourself.com/organic_garden.html

 

How to Garden and Save Lots of Money

 

Grow Your Food

 

 

BEGINNING YOUR ORGANIC FOOD GARDEN

[Copyright 2000 by Norm Lee. Reprinted with

permission.

May be copied for private use, but not sold.]

 

ONE: THE BASICS

Why garden?

 

As the gardener tends his plot and seasons pass, the

more benefits he likely realizes. He or she may begin

with the single aim of reducing food bills, then find

the flavors are far superior to the supermarket's.

With the extra vitamins and regular mild exercise

comes a gradual improvement in general health and

vigor. News of a trucker's strike brings no stress.

The confidence and security derived from independence

from expensive stale produce and killing frosts in

far-off agri-biz fields cannot be estimated in dollar

value.

 

As produce ripens so grows the pleasure in sharing

lore with other gardeners, as gardeners have practiced

since man evolved from hunter and gatherer to gardener

and home builder. Now the garden begins to be

recognized as a quiet and patient teacher waiting for

the gardener to open to its subtle and profound

lessons. One may begin to experience spiritual joys as

the garden, once a mere work place for " digging in the

dirt " , evolves into a refuge, a retreat for mindful

meditation.

 

Why organic?

 

The home gardener chooses to grow organically so his

plants can feed on nutrient-rich, natural soil instead

of artificial fertilizers, and he declines to play the

fool by spraying poison on his food.

 

Site: The plants require a reasonably level site with

minimum six hours' sunshine, access to water, and soil

conditions that allow for deep-dug compost beds.

Choose a spot that is protected from strong winds,

away from trees and large sun- and water-hogging

bushes. Southeast of the house is best, due south next

best, east is third best; forget west and north. In

southern and southwest areas of the U.S. be sure to

provide 50% or so shade protection during summer

months.

 

When the world wearies, and society ceases to satisfy,

there is always the garden. - Minnie Aumonier

 

Soil: Gardening is like good parenting: you think

first always in terms of meeting the needs of the

garden. You take care of the soil, the soil provides

for the plants, the plants produce food for you. So

the three most important things in gardening are:

Soil; soil, and soil.

 

In most areas there are three types: clay, sand and

humus. It is good to have a mixture favoring humus,

but in any case your soil will improve with compost.

Be an extremist here; composting cannot be overdone.

No need for home gardeners to test for pH. As a

general rule, whatever the problem or deficiency of

your soil, lots of compost will fix it.

 

Compost: The organic gardener is not troubled with

poor soil, because wherever he is, he makes his own.

I've raised gardens in Vermont, three sites in New

York, and three sites in Arizona. In a Mexican fishing

village I developed a deep-compost food garden on the

salty, sandy shore of the Sea of Cortez. All

successfully grew abundant food. There is no soil that

cannot be improved by composting.

 

There are many compost " recipes " , but providing your

garden with sufficient compost is not mysterious,

complicated, nor work-intensive.

 

Layer a few inches of each: topsoil (humus), greens

(grass clippings, raw vegetable kitchen scraps,

leaves), manure (horse, cow, chicken, never dog or

cat). No meat. Keep the pile moist but not wet, and

aerate it by mixing (turning) it every few days. After

a few weeks (composting is not an exact science) it

will be ready to spade into your garden soil, or fill

up garden beds, and/or use as mulch.

 

Behold this compost! Behold it well ...! It grows such

sweet things out of such corruptions. - Walt Whitman

 

Mulch: Mulch is compost-type material used to cover

the soil's surface after the plants have started.

Other than compost, mulch is by far the best friend

and work saver a gardener ever had, far better than

any $1500 tiller. Apply two or so inches of grass

clippings, peat moss, leaves, chipped Xmas trees,

bark, pine needles, the list is nearly endless. People

even use newspapers, old carpets and flagstone, but

these do not feed nutrients to the soil as do the

above.

 

TWO: THE METHODS

 

Why not combine the best gardening methods known

today? You want practices that (1) produce the most

abundant crops in the least space; [2] provide the

most vitamins, flavor and economy; (3) require the

least work, water and tools, (4) most effectively

deter harmful insects, plant diseases, and weeds.

 

Organic methods deliver healthiest produce, most

economically. The composted soil produces largest

crops, and makes for the strongest plants - which

insects like to avoid.

 

Raised beds, once built, are work-savers in many ways:

more efficient use of compost and mulch, smaller

garden to fence and shade, and more production per

plant (because the soil is not compacted by treading

between rows).

 

Intensive planting combined with deep mulch raised

beds multiply food production per square foot many

times over. The " shade mulch " keeps down weeks, keeps

soil moist, saves water.

 

Companion planting has been proven to discourage

predatory insects; basil among the tomatoes, for

example. In fact, scattered plantings of French

Marigolds, onions, radishes and any mint herb will do

much to discourage the bad bugs, but keep good ones

like Lady Bug and mantis.

 

Successive plantings can easily double your food

production by extending the growing season alone.

Beginning with starting seed flats of tomato and

cabbage family in late winter, you can raise a spring

garden, a summer garden, and a fall garden.

 

Year 'Round Gardening. In the late '70s, early '80s

Sherrie and I pioneered a method of producing

vegetables all winter long in the outside garden in

northern climes, eliminating the need for greenhouse,

root cellar, freezing, drying or canning. Our New

Years Day vegetarian meal consisted of 20 vegetables

bursting with flavor, fresh-picked from raised

beds under a blanket of dry hay, sheet plastic, and a

foot of snow.

 

Natural foods will be the medicine of the future. -

Thomas A. Edison

 

See my regular gardening column in back issues of

Homesteaders News, and my article on winter gardening

in Feb '85 East West Journal. The feature article in

#45 Homesteaders News describes winter gardening in

the North in detail. . Check out also TMEN's book, A

TO Z HOME GARDENER'S HANDBOOK #7. For my planting

instructions for all four seasons, see the color

centerfold in The Mother Earth News #85.

 

THREE: THE PLANNING

First, The Paper Garden

 

Stage (1) of gardening is doing your reading; Stage

(2) is creating the plan. These can be as enjoyable as

the stages following: (3) digging in the dirt, and (4)

plucking the harvest. This information below - indeed,

for this entire article - is selected and condensed

from Norm Lee's Book of Garden Lists [see end of

article]:

 

The most common mistakes: [List #93]

DON'T use chemical fertilizers or pesticides

DON'T plan a large garden

DON'T plant rows instead of beds

DON'T fail to use compost

DON'T plant too much seed too thickly

DON'T buy more many " work-saving " tools

DON'T plant seed too deep

DON'T fail to apply mulch

 

How To Avoid Work [List #59] The wise (and lazy)

gardener plans a small garden, loads raised beds with

deep compost, and plants intensively. This reduces

losses from pests, diseases, and drought. The raised

bed intensive planting uses the compost, water and

mulch most efficiently, reduces the stooping and

bending, and virtually eliminates weeds. There is no

plowing, tilling, hoeing, cultivating, weeding,

spraying, dusting, etc.

 

You can quickly spend $2,000 on tools, sold to you on

the claim that they " save work " . When you calculate

the hours of work required for the money to pay for

them, those expensive tillers and weeders, and

sprayers are not so cheap. You need only four tools

[List #67: shovel, rake, trowel, and a four-tine fork.

In hotter climes, a hose for irrigation.

 

Tools that make work [List #68]: roto-tiller, hoe,

cultivator, plow, harrow, seeder, chemical sprayer,

sprinkler ...

 

To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to

forget ourselves.

- Mahatma Gandhi

 

What to plant

 

1. Easiest to grow [List #101]: radish; leaf lettuce;

spinach; tomato; onion sets; sweet corn; summer

squash; beet green; bush bean; turnip; pea

2. Quickest to harvest [List #96]: six weeks: radish;

turnip; leaf lettuce; spinach; bean; beet greens;

summer squash, green onion from sets

3. Most popular vegetable in home gardens [List #149]:

tomato, leaf lettuce, onion, cucumber, beans, radish,

green pepper, carrot, peas, beet, spinach, corn,

summer squash, cabbage

4. Most nutritious vegetables: [List #24] (in order of

food value, fresh & raw); broccoli, spinach, Brussels

sprouts, lima beans, peas, asparagus, artichokes,

cauliflower, sweet potato, carrot

5. Short season crops [List #73A]: bush bean, beet

green, cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, lettuce, radish,

pea, early corn, Chinese cabbage

6. Flats to set out a month before average last frost

in spring: [List #115] cabbage; broccoli; cauliflower;

onion; lettuce; Swiss chard

7. Flats to set out two weeks after average last frost

date [List #115]: tomato; summer squash; green pepper;

cucumber; eggplant, cantaloupe

 

When to plant seeds:

 

1. On Average Last Frost Date [List #36: beans, corn,

cucumber, pepper, cantaloupe, pumpkin, summer squash,

winter squash, watermelon

2. Plant at mid-summer [List #36]: Chinese cabbage,

parsnip, pea, turnip

 

Space to allow:

 

Minimum space requirements per plant [List #63]:

2 inches: peas, carrot, green onion, beet green

4 inches: bean, dry onion, parsnip, spinach, turnip

6 inches: leaf lettuce, celery, cucumber

9 inches: Swiss chard, potato, spinach

12 in: Chinese cabbage, head lettuce, potato, sum

squash, tomato

[see also List #65: plants per square foot.]

 

How Much To Plant Per Person List #98A shows figures

for row cropping; for intensive planting, space

allowed must come from experience and personal tastes.

Suggestion is to begin modestly:

 

1. Plant per person: 20 radish, carrot, beet, onion,

turnip

Plants per person: 3 cantaloupe, summer squash, winter

squash

Plants per person: 5 broccoli, Brussels sprout,

cauliflower, pepper, tomato, white cabbage, Chinese

cabbage

Plants per person: 10 bush bean, potato, spinach

Plants per person: 20 pea, sweet corn

 

2. Normally potatoes, sweet corn, squashes and melons

are grown in patches, not raised beds. See List #65

for plants per square foot.

 

" I consider this collection of vital information one

of the few essential tools for the back yard

gardener... [ Norm Lee's Book of Garden Lists ]

belongs with the trowel, the shovel, and the compost

fork. "

(Helen Nearing, co-author (with Scott Nearing) of

Living the Good Life)

 

NORM LEE'S BOOK OF GARDEN LISTS

Over 2,500 facts distilled from 80+ sources; 300+

lists in 25 categories.

 

Includes sections on: Starting Seed in Flats,

Preserving the Harvest, Companion Planting, Beginner's

Garden, Desert Gardening, List Sources, Garden &

Health; Spring, Summer, Fall, & Winter Gardens, Seed

Sources, and more.

200 pages, wire-bound ....$17.95 (+$2 shipping).

Please send check or M.O. for $19.95 to Norm Lee, 3364

Frye Creek Rd, Thatcher, AZ 85552.

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