Vegetable Gardening, Part 2: Gardening Methods
So you’ve made the decision that this is the year you’re going to start a veggie garden. But there are a few things to do first: choose a location and size for your garden (see Part 1 here), and choose the method to use. There are several methods depending on the size and space you have and personal preference. I’ve listed a few here with some advantages and disadvantages and a few details to get you started.
These are all methods that support organic gardening that’s so important for your health, the health of your family and for the planet. I hope you’ll make the commitment to keep chemicals out of your garden.
1. Traditional Till Method: For centuries our ancestors have tilled the land by hand, amending the soil with composted plant material, manures and natural minerals. I’ve grown large gardens at four different homes and have used this method, mostly because that’s what I grew up with and didn’t know any other way. I started gardening long before the information age of the internet. I learned through experience, often the hard way through trial and error.
For this method you’ll need access to a rototiller, or the soil can be turned by hand with a shovel. Cut grass or weeds short and dig up any shrubs or larger vegetation and roots. Note that some grass roots may grow back if left in the garden bed so you’ll want to pick out larger clumps. It’s best to bring a load of aged organic compost or manure and turn it into the soil to add nutrients and a lighter texture. It may also need other soil amendments depending on the quality of the soil. It takes some work to prepare your plot, and my experience is it takes a couple years of composting and mulching before the soil really starts to get rich and create lush, healthy plants. Every year it keeps getting better.
The disadvantage is there’s more maintenance: weeding, stooping and bending that’s hard on knees and back. Typically you’d shred the remains of the garden in the fall and rototill again in spring to prepare for the new season’s planting. But I’ve come to realize the last few years that tilling is not the best way. There’s a beautiful, symbiotic, delicate ecosystem under the surface of the soil that gets torn up every time you till. All the earthworms and beneficial microbes have to work hard to rebuild it again. Tilling causes loss of topsoil overtime, which is the precious, mineral rich soil the plants need to thrive.
2. Mulching: I learned early on that the earth doesn’t like to be naked; she’ll quickly cover herself with weeds and vegetation unless you provide an adequate cover. Mulching protects the topsoil, keeps weeds to a minimum, holds in moisture, and insulates the soil and plant roots from excess heat or cold. It adds nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil and feeds the earthworms and beneficial microbes. The more worms the better and my garden is always crawling with them!
I use layers of newspaper and cardboard between rows then cover with several inches of grass and yard clippings, veggie and fruit scraps, leaves and old bales of hay. Be sure to remove any tape, plastic and staples from the cardboard before using.
A word of caution about mulching:
· Do not use grass clippings that have been sprayed with chemicals. Weed killer will harm or kill your plants and is not good for you.
· Weed heads in the grass clippings mean more weeds growing in your garden. I have plenty of weeds in my yard but I still use the clippings. I pull the big weeds and throw on more layers of newspaper or cardboard and mulch.
· Do not mulch with wood chips, pine needles or straw if you plan on tilling (use for the no-till method only)!! These fibrous materials don’t break down well once tilled in and depletes nitrogen in the soil, preventing your garden from doing well for a year or two. Grass clippings and other materials mentioned above can be tilled in the spring before planting.
3. No-Till, Back to Eden Method: It wasn’t until just a few years ago I learned of the Back to Eden Method. This is currently the method I use and I love it, but it took a couple years of hard work to eventually save work, and there’s a learning curve. I’d recommend it for someone with a larger garden that has a little more experience than someone just starting out.
There’s a great documentary you can find on YouTube about it and its benefits. Paul Gautschi discovered that mulching heavily with mostly wood chips, including branches, leaves, and some green material has incredible benefits and you don’t till at all! It requires much less watering, weeding, fertilizing and soil amendments, protects the microbes and ecosystem in the soil, and creates healthier plants with fewer pests and diseases. The bottom layers of wood chips break down into rich soil as you add more layers to the top. You just rake back the chips to get to the soil to plant your seeds and seedlings, and then gently mulch around them once they get established.
Ideally, this method takes time to prepare several months before planting by layering newspaper or cardboard directly on the existing grass or weeds, and then cover with at least six inches of wood chips. Let it sit over winter to have time to break down the vegetation underneath and soften the earth.
If you don’t have months to wait you could till it first to plant, using the till method described above to prepare the soil, then mulch around the plants once they get established using cardboard and wood chips. As mentioned, do not till after mulching with wood chips! We made that mistake once…trust me.
4. Raised beds: The biggest advantage to raised beds is being easier on your knees and back, not having to stoop, bend or kneel as much to plant, weed and harvest your veggies, but only if they’re tall enough. I recommend at least 18 inches to 2 feet tall for best back-saving benefits and no more than 4 feet wide in order to easily reach the center. Raised beds also make efficient use of space, eliminating rows for an intensive or square foot planting method. This keeps maintenance to a minimum and is a great way to go.
The disadvantages are the time and money to build the boxes and the added cost of hauling in enough soil to fill them. And if you build them out of wood, direct contact with soil and water will cause them to warp and rot within 3-5 years, unless you use redwood or cedar that will last 10-20 years. Avoid getting treated wood that could leach chemicals into the soil and into your food. Depending on your situation it could be well worth the expense and effort to do raised beds.
I have a raised bed built from landscape blocks for my strawberries. We’ve had a problem with gophers and moles so we laid chicken wire in the bottom before adding the soil. That stopped them from destroying my strawberries! It’s an easy solution to keeping critters out.
5. Lasagna Method: I recommend this if doing raised beds, and it can even be done starting a new garden without using raised beds. The “lasagna” is referring to layering materials that will decompose to build a rich and fertile soil, using an inch or two each layer. Start with cardboard or several layers of newspaper at the bottom, and then add a layer of straw and dried leaves, which is the carbon-rich brown layer. Follow this by a green layer, which refers to nitrogen-rich green plant material. It can be grass and yard clippings, veggie scraps, coffee grounds and crushed eggshells. Now a layer of finished compost and/or well-aged manure. Continue layering greens, browns and compost until it’s about 6-12 inches deep or more, depending on the depth of your boxes, if using. You want to keep it light and fluffy to allow air circulation. Spray with water between each layer to keep it damp. You can also sprinkle in some organic fertilizer. Now top it off with another 4-6 inches of good garden soil to plant in. Once you’ve got your garden planted and established, I’d still recommend mulching around the plants for the reasons listed above.
6. Vertical: The advantages of vertical gardening are: 1) it saves space and 2) it saves your back from having to stoop over as much. I use 6 foot chicken wire the length of my rows held up by T posts to trellis as much as I can. I have several and leave them in the garden year after year, rotating the plants I grow on them. Of course pole beans and peas need something to climb, but cucumbers, squashes and melons can also be grown this way which saves a lot garden space. They’ll need a little encouraging by guiding them where you want them to go or tying them up with string.
I also trellis my tomatoes this way, tying them up to the chicken wire as they grow. I pinch back all but a few main branches of my tomatoes which send energy to producing vigorous crops. Some heirloom varieties will grow well over 8 feet tall using this method so I need a good way to keep them supported and off the ground. This has been the best method of many I’ve used for my tomato plants.
Grow vining plants on a trellis to save space, get them up off the ground and easier on your back.
7. Intensive Planting: This is typically used in raised beds but doesn’t have to be. This is a great space saving method that I’ve incorporated in my garden. Instead of planting in rows, I plant in a foot wide swath. For instance, I plant about 4-5 onions across a foot wide area, staggering 3-4 inches apart all the way down my 20 foot row. So it’s like having 4 or 5 rows right next to each other, greatly condensing the space needed. I plant all my root veggies and leafy greens this way.
I use this same concept for bigger plants as well, such as broccoli, cabbage and pepper plants. I usually plant peppers about 18 inches apart, so I plant 2 rows next to each other and stagger them, keeping them all a uniform distance and eliminating all the space you usually have between rows.
8. Container: If you live in an apartment or have no space for a garden you can grow veggies in large containers and pots. Tomatoes, peppers, leafy greens, strawberries, radishes, onions and others all do well in pots. They’ll need good organic potting soil, plenty of sun, and regular watering and feeding with an organic fertilizer or compost tea.
I hope this helps in choosing a gardening method that works for you. These are all methods I’ve personally used and the way I’ve used them, but don’t be afraid to experiment! Watch for Part 3: Planting Tips, coming soon!
