Make-shift Hydroponic garden beds using experimental substrates (not sure what?)

 
Hydroponic Gardening in raised garden beds supported by cut bamboo

The seminar, held in the Woodmen of the World banquet room in Dayton, VA, was 3 long days of more information than I can easily assimilate in 3 long days, but luckily it  included a take home booklet for self study on my own time. There were about 30 farmers and gardeners from all around the country in attendance. Most seemed to have been avid farmers for years, supporting themselves with their farms, and were just at the conference to brush up on the cutting edge sustainable growing methods; others, like myself, were just setting out on this path towards gardening self reliance.

GROW BIOINTENSIVE conference, Dayton, VA

Jeavons is truly an intense man. He opened the workshop with a lecture about Peak Soil and the future necessity of recycling our own fecal waste to replenish the soil for our gardens. Having myself just experienced a couple seasons living in a Treehouse with a new composting toilet, and now knowing first hand the specific feeling of pride that comes from ‘giving back’ each time you do your business, I wasn’t totally blown away by the notion. However, I am completely aware that there would have to be a mammoth psychological shift in our culture before this type of widespread recycling is achievable.

My Treehouse Composting Toilet in South Carolina

‘Peak Soil’ was also a new concept to me. Basically, Jeavons has broken down how much space it takes to grow enough food per person per year within a few different methods of agriculture. Apparently in Conventional Agriculture, 6 pounds of topsoil is lost for every 1 pound of soil created. Since 213,000 people are added to the planet every day (births- deaths),  one can see where the possibility of actually running out of topsoil may come in. According to Jeavon’s studies, it takes 22,000 to 42,000 square feet to grow all the food for one person/year using conventional agriculture methods. Jeavons claims that using the GROW BIOINTENSIVE  method, all the food a person needs for one year can be grown in as little as 3,403 square feet AND the soil that is lost from the harvest is replenished by the compost crops grown in the garden, which means that same area can be used to provide the same amount of food year after year.

The other impressive news about GROW BIOINTENSIVE is that this method makes it possible to use 99% less energy, 80% less water, and 100% less fertilizer to grow much more food in less space than conventional agriculture. Less water is used because the double digging process plus the continuous adding of compost eventually creates a perfect soil, like a living sponge-cake that retains the ideal amount of water. Less fertilizer is used because the gardener is growing most of their fertilizers in the form of “compost crops.” Less mechanical energy is used because everything is done by hand, and Jeavons even went on to demonstrate at the conference how to use less energy while doing it by hand! In double digging the garden beds, which is the most physical part of the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method, Jeavons practices what he calls the ‘Akido Double Dig.’  In the martial Art Akido, the martial artist uses the energy around him, namely the opponent's, rather than his own, to win the battle. The goal with the Akido Double Dig is to beat down the resistance of the soil using smarts rather than sweats. Jeavons called on many volunteers to practice the Akido double dig and it was a long, slow, extremely detailed process of watching each volunteer stand corrected, again and again, until they had fine tuned the nuances of each angle in the movement. As a visual learner, I opted to just watch from the sidelines rather than participate physically. But practice does make perfect and I'm sure those volunteers wont be wasting any energy on their next double dig!

John Jeavons instructing young North Carolina farmer in the "Akido Double Dig."

Jeavons also told us a story about a time he had started a garden in a faraway land and how each day he and his assistants would go out to the garden to check the resistance of the soil. The locals were there shovels in hand, anxious to begin the digging. But each day Jeavons would say, “today we will water the soil.” The locals looked at him like he was crazy. But on the 4th or 5th day of repeating this process, he and his assistant returned to the garden and said “today we dig.” The soil had been so broken down by the water that the double digging was an effortless, enjoyable experience.
 
It seems that there is common thread in all of Jeavon’s teachings. More thinking, More ease.  I am personally very fond of his suggestion that better technique will yield less work and more relaxation, and also of his discovery that more food can be grown in less space using less resources using GROW BIOINTENSIVE.

John introduced another man named Steve Moore who led part of the seminar. Steve seemed to be well known and respected by the farmers in attendance. He was known for his innovated "hoop houses" and his ability to sustainably grow food year-round in Pennsylvania. Apparently he has figure out how to use compost to heat his greenhouse! I was personally very partial to the pink polkadotted hat he sported at the workshop (He is a burly farmer man and the iconic contrast was splendid!) Steve had worked with John on studying the precise amount of energy used in Biointensive farming (read article here) and is working himself on creating a rating system for the sustainabilty level of every farming method in real energetic and environmental terms. As popular culture continues to grow exited about the notion of "going green" and supporting sustainable foods, this rating system is likely to become a very useful, and necesary, tool.

(workshop photos by Kathleen Lidbetter Lawrence)

In this method, each bed is divided up visibly into square feet before planting. Each crop then gets its own designated square foot.
 

Example of prepared Square Foot Garden bed.

Having grown successfully in containers in my NYC past, this seemed like a pretty natural way to go for me. Square Foot Gardening is a great choice, especially for beginner gardeners and those who live in cities or deserts where there either isn’t any ground to grow in or where the ground is too contaminated.

On my search for the best gardening method, however, it was quickly suggested to me that I also check out John Jeavon’s “GROW BIOINTENSIVE” method of growing food. Apparently he had spent over 30 years developing this technique of growing more food in less space, and has taught it all over the world.

In the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method, the soil is double dug, a specific method used to loosen and aerate the soil to facilitate root growth and improve water retention.
 

Double-dug beds, preparing to plant

The health of the soil GROW BIOINTENSIVE beds is constantly improved by the addition of compost. The plants are spaced closer together to create a “living mulch” with their leaves, which protects the soil and keeps weeds from growing. And a high percentage of the garden is dedicated to growing “compost crops”, crops that feed the soil. It basically becomes a closed loop system. Think about the nutrients you received from last organic tomato you ate. Those nutrients were once abiding in the soil that the plant was grown in, but now those nutrients are feeding your body, and more than likely ending up in a sewage treatment facility. All gardeners know that nutrients need to be put back into the soil once they are taken away, and most gardeners bring nutrients back to their garden in the form of fertilizers and compost that are taken from another ecosystem then brought into their own. In the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method, the gardener is very conscious of creating and replenishing all her own nutrients within the same garden, which ends up making a lot of environmental AND economic sense.

Didi Hoffman from South Africa, our current  "Featured Gardener" under the map,  asked me via the WFG messaging system, just what is my vision  for the World Food Garden website and how many Gardens do we want to collect on the World Map of Small Food Gardens?

After so many months spent focusing on all the details of getting the site finished, this question came as a great relief, enabling me to focus back on the big picture that got me started down this path!

The short answer is:

WorldFoodGarden Vision:  to offer a free tool to everyone on the planet to assist them in growing at least some portion of their own food. I am hoping that the site will be so useful that the people will want to spread it virally all over the world. (the other option would be that I receive a HUGE grant and an able to spread the site through google ads)

We are at a strange time in history, and things could go many ways. The environment is in peril, the demand for oil is beginning to outweigh the supply, food costs have risen, and more Americans have diabetes than ever before due to the processed diets that are predominate in our culture; and the average American meal is traveling 1500 miles before reaching the dinner table (adding a major toll on the oil supply and emitting lots of carbon into the environment along the way.)  But, this is also a time when a lot of cultural change can occur. We have a new US president on the horizon exemplifying a big cultural shift -  some people have very high expectations of this man, some may be worried about the changes that will happen, but if there is one thing we all know- there WILL be changes  and these changes will likely effect each of our lives, personally.

At the same time that many current issues make it seem like we are going down a doomed path of destruction, there is also a stronghold of people growing a movement that is very constructive, if not flat out healing- this is the organic movement, the local food movement, and the "Victory Garden" movement.  I had the priviledge of meeting some key players in this movement at the Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco back in August.  "Victory Gardens" were the gardens that were grown across the US, Canada and the UK during the WWI and WWII era to ease the strain on the public food supply. At the time, the governments were campaigning for the people to start their own gardens, and as a result, 40% of all the produce consumed in these nations was grown in small gardens at home. Just imagine how much a campaign like this could end up easing the strain on the public oil supply in this age!

Well, the fact is, we've done it before, we can do it again. And with the help of the internet, we can do it all over the world. The goal of WorldFoodGarden.org is to help make the trip back to (and beyond) that 40% precedent smooth and convenient, everywhere in the world. By visually showcasing people around the world who are already growing their own food, we hope to inspire others to join. By offering a network for experienced gardeners and new gardeners to find and connect with each other, we hope to strengthen the movement. And by offering all the climate, plant and planting information for every location on the earth, we hope to make it easier for more people to start gardening.

We have entered a new era- one that is bright, hopeful, and filled with creative problemsolving potential to deal with today's tough issues.  This website is a free tool for YOU to use to help change the world. So please do add WorldFoodGarden your collection of garden tools, and spread the word that we are growing a World Food Garden. Let's let this Age become the Garden Age!

SIncerely,

Eve Sibley

founder

World Food Garden