Gardening Methods

* I was not paid for or asked to review the following Gardening Methods. This post was written to share my experiences.

Today I want to share with you two gardening methods that I am currently using, the Lasagna Garden method and the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method.

When I started my first Backyard Garden in 2010, I quickly realized that I had NO CLUE what I was doing and I eventually gave up on it for the year. The ironic part was that AFTER I gave up, the cucumbers grew. We found 3 large cukes buried beneath the weeds.

Lasagna Garden

In the Fall of 2010, I decided to invest the time I would of have spent gardening learning about gardening. After a thorough Google Search, I learned there was a no dig, no till method called the Lasagna Garden. It sounded pretty easy, so I ordered the book and read it in a matter of days. It was so exciting!

The premise is that you layer sheets of compost on the ground without any digging or tilling. Once you have piled 24 inches worth of sheet compost, you cover the garden with black plastic and let it "cook" all winter long. When spring rolls around you will have rich, loomy garden soil that the earth worms have spent the winter working on for you. In addition, the ground beneath the Lasagna Garden will be loosened from all that earth worm activity and will allow plenty of space for plant roots to grow.

If your new to Gardening or not looking to invest a lot of time in the Garden, I highly recommend this method. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes to set up a 35 square foot Lasagna Garden and takes very little gardening knowledge to create and maintain. To get started, order the book here

I had a lot of success with the Lasagna Garden and ended up creating four 35 sq ft garden beds in 2011. We grew Tomatoes, Peppers, Potatoes, Basil, Summer Squash and Watermelon successfully in the Lasagna Garden.

Although, I noticed that our plants did not get very large and the fruit was rather small. I believe our hard clay soil was to blame and despite all of the earth worm activity, the roots could not get down as far as they needed to to grow to their full potential. I still highly recommend this method and was impressed with the results, unfortunately I have rock hard soil - seriously, I broke a shovel last year while digging.

GROW BIOINTENSIVE

(Ecology Action)

By middle of last summer I realized I had to do something about my soil. I happened to be interviewing a Gardener for an opening and she kept mentioning the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method. I immediately went to Google and checked it out. I came across a YouTube Video that mentioned the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method and how it has been used in 3rd world counties to grow food in drought conditions. Interesting.

Considering us North Texans were experiencing our own drought last year and some of the photos on the GROW BIOINTENSIVE website reflected poor soil before setting up the garden, I decided to order the book, How To Grow More Vegetables - By John Jeavons.

I have to admit, The Broccoli Test sold me on this - The one on the right was grown using GROW BIOINTENSIVE methods.

(Ecology Action)


How to Grow More Vegetables was PACKED with plenty of research and information gathered over the last 40 years in Ecology Action's research gardens. I studied it for months and slowly began to learn the principles of this method.

Double-Dug, Raised Beds
Composting
Intensive Planting
Companion Planting
Carbon Farming
Calorie Farming
The Use of Open-Pollinated Seeds
A Whole-System Farming Method

I would not call this method easy by any means. Its a whole system method and it is important to use all of the principles of this method in order to be successful. After adding more sheet compost layers to my four Lasagna Beds, I began to map out two new 35 sq ft beds for the 2012 season. I plan to use the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method for the new beds and compare the two at the end of 2012. So far, I have completed the double dig portion of new bed #1. Actually, new bed #1 should actually be called a Single Dug bed since my clay soil made it VERY difficult to dig. I spent the majority of the time removing small boulders from my bed and finally reached the point where I decided that 12 inches beneath the soil plus an additional 24 inches of raised bed equaled a nice start for 2012. Don't let this deter you, unless you happen live in an area with HEAVY clay soil. I am determined to use this method and report back on the results later in the year.

What Gardening methods do you use?