Mother's Minigardens Experiment

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SPACE

The most obvious differences between the minigardens were their respective sizes. We put in the same number of plants of the ten most popular home-gardener's vegetables in each plot, yet the BFI and RRB gardens each occupied a 4' X 42' bed . . . while the CR and DM gardens each took up a 10' X 42' area requiring 2-1/2 times as much room. Row gardens use as much as two-thirds of their area for pathways, while bed plots need just one-third of their area for that purpose. In an urban or suburban situation, where growing space is at a premium, this could be a critical difference.

SOIL

The four methods treat the soil differently and vary in their ability to promote good, overall soil health. In the BFI bed, the earth was dug to a depth of two feet. After rototilling the RRB area to a depth of six inches and then raking the pathway dirt onto the bed, we had loosened the soil to about ten inches in that bed. [EDITOR'S NOTE: For more information on creating "quick" raised beds, turn to page70.] The CR garden soil was turned to a Rototiller's "reach": merely six inches down.

The radically different DM garden was never dug or tilled; however, it would work best if established over a soil that has previously been well worked and improved. (Our test plot had been gardened for just one year, to raise a rototilled patch of wheat.)

The virtue of a deeply worked soil was most noticeable during a heavy rain. The biodynamic/French intensive bed was relatively immune to erosion, no matter how heavy the rain. The rototilled, raised-bed plot was also quite erosion-resistant, but did remain soggy in its lower layers longer than did the BFI bed. The conventional row garden definitely tended to puddle up and suffer runoff problems. The deep-mulch plot, though, showed no erosion effects: It soaked up water like a sponge.

Soil health was further promoted in the two raised-bed gardens by the fact that those beds were never stepped on, eliminating the root growth and drainage problems caused by soil compaction.

FERTILIZATION

We worked the same amount of compost into each minigarden. Since the two raisedbed gardens were 168 square feet each and the other plots 420 square feet apiece, the beds received 2-1/2 times as much compost per square foot as the row plots . . . resulting in a much more efficient use of compost. All that compost was readily available to the beds' plants; none of it was compacted in pathways, as was the case in the non bed gardens. The soil should also benefit from this higher ratio of organic matter, a fact which could make a significant difference over the coming years.

TIME

Of the four methods evaluated in this experiment, the DM system required the least time. Most of the work was done in the fall, when mulch materials were gathered and spread over the entire garden. There was no digging, weeding, or cultivating-tasks that require considerable time in the other methods.

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