Biodynamic Gardening
(Page 2 of 4)
January/February 1980
By the Mother Earth News editors
First, since the growing areas are wider than are "normal" garden rows (approximately five feet ... in order to allow the gardener to each plants in the middle without stepping on, and compacting, the soil in the bed), less space must be wasted on walkways. The rectangular beds are raised from four to 10-inches above the original ground level, too, and their edges are angled down at a 45* slope ... effectively providing more (curved) surface area than if the same piece of ground were left flat.
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Most important of all, though, the beds are "double dug" to a depth of two feet (see the accompanying photos for step-by-step digging instructions). Because of the resulting deep "cushion" of well-worked soil, plants can more easily send their tiny root hairs down to gather in the water and nutrition (supplied by compost, ashes, bone meal, and other such organic plant foods) that are necessary to healthy, insect-resistant, nutritious, delicious vegetables.
The arrangement of the plants on the bed is a bit unusual, too ... at least to anyone accustomed to more common gardening techniques. The seeds (or flat-started plants) are placed in such a way that the foliage of each mature vegetable will just barely touch that of all its neighbors ... creating a leafy cover (known as "living mulch") which keeps weeds down, helps to moderate the swings of soil temperature, and improves the bed's ability to retain water. And, of course, such "close quarters" planting is another reason for the gardening technique's incredible yields.
It's difficult to give a rule of thumb for plant placement in a biodynamic/ French intensive bed. Actually, the spacings recommended on seed packets will often work out fine, since the heartier "method" —grown adult plants tend to spread farther than do their conventionally raised cousins. It's best to simply estimate the diameter of the adult vegetable's "leaf ball" and use that figure to mark the distance between your plants.
Of course, a technique that can enable an average homeowner to raise a cash crop in a small back yard involves more than merely digging deep beds and planting vegetables close together. Further preparation of the soil includes [1] the use of a specially prepared (for at least three months) compost consisting of —by weight-1/3 dry vegetation, 1/3 wet vegetation or kitchen scraps (you can include bones but not meat), and 1/3 earth ... [2] an organic fertilization program that's specifically designed to meet the needs of each crop ... and [3] daily light waterings with special hose nozzles and cans that simulate the gentle fall of rain. (For more information on the specifics of these and other aspects of biodynamic/French intensive gardening, consult one of the volumes listed in the accompanying sidebar.)
