Notes on Gardening

John Chang

Concepts

Horticulture (“gardening” of fruits and vegetables, typically on a smaller scale) ⟷ Agriculture (“farming” of “field crops” e.g. grains, cotton, tobacco plus “livestock” i.e. animals, typically on a larger scale)

Organic/Ecological Philosophy

• Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) (e.g. F.H. King, 1911, book: Farmers of Forty Centuries: Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and Japan)
• Organic farming and Biodynamic agriculture (Rudolf Steiner, 1924, Austria) - in response to artificial fertilizers and pesticides
• Agroecology (K.H.W. Klages, 1928) = ecology of food systems
• Natural farming a.k.a. “do-nothing farming” (Masanobu Fukuoka, 1975, Japan, book: The One-Straw Revolution)
• Permaculture (David Holmgren and Bill Mollison, 1978, Australia) = sustainable ecosystem design (note: incorporates intensive production as “zone 1”)

“Sustainable” vs. “Organic” - organic is not necessarily sustainable and vice versa; truly “sustainable” requires closed-loop (circular) systems

Land Use

• Earth’s surface area: 510 million km²
  • Earth’s land area: 149 million km² (~30%)
    • Earth’s arable land: 14 million km² (~10%) - note: shrinking
• Human population: 7.7 billion persons (2019) - note: growing
• So 14 million km² ÷ 7.7 billion persons = ~2000 m² = ~0.5 acre per person (“Our fair share”)

Systems and Methodologies

Intensive (high yield from small space) ⟷ Extensive (low input over large space)

Intensive (Small-Scale) Methodologies

• French intensive gardening (1890s, France)
• Biodynamic-French Intensive (Alan Chadwick, 1930s, California)
• GROW BIOINTENSIVE® Sustainable Mini-Farming (John Jeavons and Ecology Action, 1972, California, book: How to Grow More Vegetables) - all measurements in terms of “100 sq ft”, e.g. 4×25’ beds
• Square foot gardening (Mel Bartholomew, 1981, USA, book: Square Foot Gardening) - standard 4×4’ beds
• SPIN-Farming and SPIN-Gardening (Wally Satzewich, Roxanne Christensen, 2005, Canada and USA) - “S-mall P-lot IN-tensive”, standard 2×25’ beds

Exemplary market gardens:

• Urban Homestead (Jules Dervaes, 1985, California, 1/10 acre = ~400 m²)
• Wally’s Urban Market Garden (Wally Satzewich and Gail Vandersteen, 1990, Canada, “sub-acre” (<4000 m²) ) - developer of SPIN-Farming
• Les Jardins de la Grelinette (Jean-Martin Fortier and Maude-Hélène Desroches, 2004, Canada, 1.5 acres (~6000 m²), book: The Market Gardener) - “biologically intensive” approach

Extensive (Large-Scale) Methodologies

Exemplary farms:

• Polyface Farms (Joel Salatin, 500 acre = 2 km²) - featured by Michael Pollan

Site Design and Crop Selection

• Hardiness zone
• last frost (spring) – first frost (fall)
• Sunshine duration
• Companion planting

Techniques:

• Double digging
• No-dig gardening and No-till farming
  • Sheet mulching
  • Raised-bed gardening
    • Hügelkultur (1900s, Austria etc.)
    • Keyhole garden (1990s, Zimbabwe)

Soil

You feed the soil, which feeds the roots, which feeds the leaves.

Soil = (minerals + organic matter) + (water + air) + microorganisms

Soil texture: sand (coarse particles) ⟷ silt ⟷ clay (fine particles)

Composting

• Aerobic decomposition i.e. composting - emits heat
• Anaerobic decomposition i.e. digestion, fermentation (e.g. Bokashi) - emits greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane) and odors (due to organic matters containing sulfur)
• Vermicomposting - uses worms

Composting = “greens” (nitrogen inputs e.g. food waste) + “browns” (carbon inputs e.g. dried leaves) + oxygen (for aerobic bacteria) + time

“Hot” composting (intensive) vs “cold” (passive, no-turn) composting

• “The Rapid Composting Method” (Robert D. Raabe, 2001)

Soil Health

• Crop rotation
• Cover crop - don’t leave the soil bare!
  • Green manure

Plants

Lifecycle and Nutrition

Primary macronutrients: N-P-K (note: human urine has ~11-1-2.5 NPK ratio)