AMERICAN INTENSIVE SOLAR GARDENING

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In 1979 we started an experimental and demonstration garden that measured 40 by 40 feet. Instead of building several raised beds, we made the entire surface a raised bed. Instead of limiting growing areas to strips of beds, the whole garden became a potential growing space. When needed, eight-inch-wide boards provided temporary pathways between planted areas. The growing areas could be any length or width needed. Trellising plants became more of an aesthetic option than an awkward dilemma. We planted most of the garden in the basic four-by-eight-foot areas to accommodate our standard appliances.

Since the whole garden was now open for cultivation, we called this new system "open-bed gardening." Our old raised beds had eliminated some of the wasted space we had when gardening in conventional rows, but with the open-bed approach we found we could grow on virtually the entire surface of the garden. In the fall, we could top the whole surface with horse manure and rototill the entire garden. That constituted most of the landscaping needed for the year. If we got started early in the spring, we did a shallow tilling to turn under annual weeds. Then we set up our trellises, dropped our frames and boards to use as walkways, placed the Cones or Pods over the beds, and away we'd go into the main growing season.

This new system was a piece of cake! We happily decided that in our older age we weren't getting lazier, just smarter. And we were achieving our goal of growing more food with less work and less space.

A Lifetime of Improvising

In our older age, we decided that we weren't getting lazier about gardening, just
smarter.

Layout and Size

American intensive gardening will accommodate almost any gardener's goals. Different gardeners can achieve different objectives simply because, within the framework of the system, there are so many possibilities as to when and where a particular crop can be grown. Since you can lay out an open bed into any configuration of intensively planted crops, the system offers flexibility.

Setting down drop frames is the easiest way to define individual growing areas. If you place two drop frames on the ground, 4 feet apart, they will define three separate 4-by-8-foot growing areas. Another way to define individual growing areas or beds is with boards that are at least 8 inches wide and 8 feet long. Laying down these boards creates temporary pathways between growing areas. We call these movable wooden paths "boardwalks." In addition to delineating bed size, they give us access to all parts of the open-bed garden, spreading out our weight as we step on them and reducing soil compaction. Using boardwalks, we can divide the open bed into growing areas of any size.

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