Intensive horticulture is now amply mainstream .
Sure , you may still see the occasional backyard single row garden … but they ’re nowhere near as omnipresent as they used to be .
Bestseller for dear reason !
Most home horticulture is now intensive gardening , whether the nurseryman knows it or not .
solid fundament gardening , container gardening , biointensive horticulture – all are methods of packing as much yield into as pocket-size a distance as possible .
What ’s the first matter most new gardeners do when they resolve to make their very first plot of veggies in the back 40 ?
Bestseller for good reason!
Build a nurture bed !
Today I ’m going to take a look at the pros and cons of intensive horticulture . It may be the dominant method acting right now … but there are likely as many reasons to skip it as there are to encompass it .
The Pros of Intensive Gardening
More food for thought – less space . That ’s difficult to argue with !
With a well - planned intensive garden , you’re able to maximise your issue with minimum fabric . Unlike a single row garden that takes up lots of blank space , you’re able to establish vegetables tightly in a little straightforward foot garden seam or a Equus caballus trough converted into a raised layer .
you’re able to also pile high fertility into a lowly place by stack up lots of nutrition rather than seek to spread compost over a gravid country like you would with a traditional garden .
When you have a small backyard , why would you irritate with a great big run-in garden when you’re able to grow your peppers , sweet-flavored corn whisky and bush bean plant in a lot less distance ?
I ’ve used motley combination of Mel Bartholomew’sSquare Foot Gardeningand John Jeavons ’ methods fromGrow More Vegetablesin my intensive bed and have had quite skillful success .
There’san excellent clause from Mother Earth Newsthat takes the same tack , explain the great results that fall from the author ’s experimentation with combining both popular intensive gardening method acting .
I own it and like it
I own it and like it
Another welfare of intensive horticulture is that it ’s usually base on lasting bed you could protect from concretion easier than you could a bighearted row garden which requires walk between the rows so as to weed , preserve and harvest .
Intensive gardening lets you grow a sight of food for thought in a perfect small space – what ’s not to love ?
Like many things in living , the initial picture does n’t give you the whole story . For illustration , when I was a teenager I used to have a crunch on this really cute redhead , and then later …
( ahem )
permit ’s just say I end up with a serious option . It ’s time to look at the bunco game . ( Of intensive horticulture , not redheads ! )
The Cons of Intensive Gardening
We have this idea that bring up beds are middling much the only path to garden at this point . Yet there are notable benefits to ditching intensive horticulture for wider row and in - ground non - elevated plot of land .
A span of years ago I grew a good - sized plot of corn whisky that was watered by rainfall .
See that sandy soil ? If I had planted my maize at intensive garden spacing , I would have had to water a few times a week – at least ! I get a nice harvest home of grain corn from that widely space row garden because of how much way the corn roots had to search out water , even in sand .
Our first straight foot garden beds five years ago needed a mountain of water compared to my edible corn . The spacing was very tight , as recommended in Mel Bartholomew ’s record book , so the roots ran out of moisture rapidly .
Water ! urine ! body of water ! When it got hot out , we were water every day … and the plants were still appear thirsty .
The yields on the space were neat , though , so I ca n’t complain too much .
Grown with rainfall, not soaker hoses!
It ’s just this : if there was ever a sustained period where the city water shut out off or your well quit forge , you ’d fall back all your harvesting for that year . In a widely spaced garden , you ’d likely still get some yield just because of the rain .
There ’s a reason the pioneers did n’t use tight piddling upgrade beds for their crop !
Another “ con ” of intensive gardening is the method ’s use of lasting beds .
I do n’t know about you , but I change my gardening arrangements all the time . I ’ve had one domain go from a huge mend of wildly seeded anarchy with stubble way of life to tight slight wooden layer to cinder block bed , to rows of double - dug beds and a few repeated beds to its current motley shape with quarrel of dwarf apple trees along one bound … all within five years .
If you build perfect piffling beds and fill them with perfect dirt , you ’ve made a commitment .
You ’ve married the Melanerpes erythrocephalus !
Intensive gardening in some spaces , row gardens in others , tight plots and spacious expanses of field crops … all have their position . It ’s simply a question of your predilection , your resources and your climate .
I encompass various intensive and non - intensive gardening method in - deepness in my Modern bookGrow or Die : The Good Guide to Survival Gardening . Everything from square foot horticulture to growing without irrigation is in there , so if you ’re attempt to blame a horticulture method acting for natural spring , I highly recommend you pick up a copy and get read . It ’s only $ 2.99 for the kindle version . Theaudio book versionis only $ 13.08 ( and it ’s read by me ) .
Either option is a lot crummy than making even one upgrade seam . And yes , the paperback version is on its fashion . The publisher is shoot to have it done by other March .
Conclusion
When everyone is doing something , it might be a good time to ask “ why . ” Intensive gardening has its appeal but is n’t a utter method acting . My stake is that its evolution is directly relate to our current tier of civilization and mellow energy employment . If there ’s a equipment failure in our complex Earth , wide , single - row gardening is likely to come back with a retribution as we turn to the heavens for our rain , rather than a spigot .
Grown with rainfall , not soaker hoses !
It really is fun to assay both method in the same class as I ’ve done . If you ’ve begin a wide unresolved patch of lawn , why not put in some wide spaced rowing of noodle or clavus and precaution for the plot of ground witha bicycle hoe ? It ’s like going back in sentence … and the yields may surprise you .
Give it a go with multiple methods and see if you observe the same pro and cons of intensive gardening that I have .
