by
Jonathan White B.App.Sci. Assoc. Dip.App. Sci.
High yielding, low maintenance vegetable gardening that’s perfect for our modern-day lifestyle
High yielding, low maintenance vegetable gardening that’s perfect for our modern-day lifestyle
When we
think of organic gardening and permaculture we tend to conjure up images of
bearded warriors dressed in overalls who dedicate their lives to working long
days in their vegetable plots. Whilst this may be a wonderful way to live
your life, it doesn’t suit the average suburbanite with a full-time job and a
hefty mortgage.
Growing
food is typically seen as either an art form or damned hard work. It’s no
wonder that very few people produce enough food to feed their family.
But
what if a technique came along that was so easy and so prolific that even the
busiest corporate executive could grow a significant portion of their family’s
food in less time than it takes to drive to the shops.
Ecological
gardening just might be the answer. In my experience, it’s the ultimate
modern-day convenience vegetable plot.
An
ecological garden is an ecosystem made up of edible plants, and it behaves in
exactly the same way as a natural habitat. Over time, you become more of
an observer than a gardener as you watch Mother Nature do most of the
work.
The
wonderful thing about nature is that she works tirelessly, 24 hours a day,
seven days a week. Nature follows very simple laws and works in the same
way, on any system, anywhere in the world.
To understand ecological
gardening, observing natural ecosystems can provide us with the answers we
need. A natural ecosystem is made up of thousands of living and
non-living components all coexisting in a given area. Each living
component occupies its own niche space and the role of the niche space is very
important to understand when creating an ecological garden.
Let’s
look at an example. Imagine a giant rainforest tree crashing to the
ground after standing tall for hundreds of years. Such a large tree would
have filled an enormous niche space. Lying in the soil, hundreds of
dormant seeds spring to life, desperately fighting for their opportunity to
occupy the best real estate in the forest - the empty niche space. The
niche space is quickly filled and harmony is restored.
When we
look at a traditional vegetable garden with this type of insight, what we see
is a very unnatural system. There is very little diversity and a lot of
empty niche spaces. Nature enforces her will on vegetable gardens in
exactly the same way she does a rainforest, and this means that empty niches
spaces will be filled as quickly as possible.
However, in a traditional
vegetable garden there are no desirable seeds waiting to fill the niches
spaces, so weeds fill them instead.
The
solution to this problem is to create a garden that has tightly filled niche
spaces so that weeds don’t have any opportunities. We can achieve this by
using a planting arrangement that mimics a natural ecosystem. This type
of planting arrangement also creates a range of highly protected
micro-climates.
This ideal growing environment causes your plants to last
much longer. Greens don’t bolt to seed as soon as a hot spell hits and
cold sensitive plants are more protected as well. The planting arrangement
also creates a natural form of pest management.
Managing
an ecological garden is different to managing a traditional vegetable
garden. With an ecological garden, there is far less to do. As you
become the observer and allow nature to take over as head gardener, you will
notice that the garden is in a continual state of gentle change, just like a
natural ecosystem.
It can be difficult for the traditional gardener to
stand back and observe, as many of us instinctively like to control
things. This style of gardening calls for a great deal of faith in
natural laws.
Absolutely
everyone from farmers to inner-city townhouse dwellers can create an ecological
garden. It may seem strange, but if you have never grown food before then
you are, in some ways, at an advantage.
Like all industries, the
gardening industry can get stuck in doing things a certain way and most
seasoned gardeners will inevitably over-work the garden. As a species,
human beings prospered when we learnt to cultivate food using tilling and other
traditional agricultural methods, so it’s difficult to turn back to where we
came from - nature.
It might even feel like a step in the wrong
direction. But if we can let go of our need to control every living thing
on the planet, and start to work with nature, we actually gain more control by
being able to grow food more efficiently than ever before. It’s a paradox
- but it works!
Growing
food is not hard work, especially when you have nature helping you 24/7.
A small area can provide you with a bounty of food, saving your family
thousands of dollars per year.
Most of us don’t have much time to spend
in the garden, including me. I only invest around eight hours per year to
growing my food, and although I live on a small farm, I only use a space of
around 6m x 6m. That’s an area that could fit into many suburban
backyards several times over.
The most wonderful thing about this method
is that I know I can ignore my vegetable garden for months and it won’t miss a
beat.
So, if you believe growing food is only for tough, bearded warriors
with a lot of time - think again. Ecological gardening could be just the
thing for you.
Jonathan
White is a
self-employed environmental consultant and landscape designer. He is the
author of an eBook and video package that shows the reader exactly how to set
up and maintain an ecological garden. For more information about
ecological gardening go to http://www.Food4Wealth.com
We certainly enjoy Food4Wealth ecological gardening method. Looking forward to continue our plans in building our own ecosystem around our home!
We would love to hear about your gardening plans and food growing success. Share your thoughts in the box below :-)
Allan & Heli
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