AMERICAN INTENSIVE SOLAR GARDENING

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Yet another method for determining the layout of growing areas within the garden involves the various solar appliances. For example, we use the Solar Cones as a germination aid to start our climbing peas and beans early in the season. Growing areas for these crops must then be 3 feet wide to allow for the width of the Cones. If we plan to use the Cones over growing plants for frost or insect protection, we plant or transplant the crop into a corresponding configuration. For example, we space our eggplant seedlings in the spring so we can set the Cones over them in early fall to provide frost protection.

The most important determining factor for figuring the size of growing areas is the amount of vegetables you plan to grow. Compare the quantity of a particular vegetable you want to harvest with the yield information in the accompanying Storage Harvest Yield Chart bellow, then calculate the size of growing areas for various crops based on this information.

If you're starting from scratch, we recommend a ballpark size of 200 square feet (one l0-by-20-foot bed) per person. We feel this garden is the ideal size in which to learn and practice the American intensive system. To maximize yields in this modest-sized area, you would need to plant intensively and use the appropriate solar appliances to ensure a continuous capacity. As your gardening skills increase, the size of your open bed will grow proportionally.

If you're a supplemental gardener engaged in improving and augmenting your family's diet, you can easily meet the fresh harvest needs of a family of four on a 20-by-40-foot garden area. If, on the other hand, your goal is to provide food self-reliance, your garden area will need to be at least 40 by 40 feet and will require additional growing space for major staple and storage crops like potatoes, dried beans, winter squash, fruits, and grains.

If you are a reasonably skilled row gardener, by converting to an open-bed American intensive system, you can easily quadruple the yield of your growing area. One reason for this major increase in productivity is that, in the transition to an open bed, some 90 percent or more of the pathway space in the conventional row garden is converted to growing space for vegetables. By using solar appliances, you can grow more food in succession crops and, inside the appliances, vegetables are continuously producing, easily doubling yields.

We recommend that you convert your existing growing areas to open beds one section at a time. The beds can be any comfortable square or rectangular size. Access pathways can segment larger areas within the open bed. These access paths are necessary in a larger garden for delivering humus-building materials to the growing area. One way to make access pathways is by laying down cardboard or several sheets of newspaper covered with mulch hay or straw. These materials will decompose and can later be turned into the soil.

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