French intensive biodynamic gardening
Noble Rot
by John Mackenzie
August 17, 2005
Sadly, I received the following update from a subscriber across he pond in the UK.
Hi John,
Looks like the press briefings by London police after the shooting of the Brazilian was all lies.
He did not run, they didn't challenge him (they said they challenged him and he ran).
He paid for his ticket and used the auto-entry machine (they said he vaulted the barriers).
He entered the train, sat in a seat, was grabbed by an officer.
Another officer then, while he was restrained, shot him in the head (they said, he fell on the floor after the chase and they shot him). They said he had a thick padded jacket (he had a thin shirt and light jacket).
Chris
Last night we visited with the neighbors as my daughter has somehow taught their dog to dive into the pool in perfect synch with her. I needed to see this first hand after hearing her description.
Of late, I’ve found myself in a race against time, or at least that has become my overwhelming perception. Every day is spent focused solely upon preparing for the future as the timeline held open for three years comes into its final chapter.
‘Money’ or what is perceived as such is plowed into resources that will allow for further independence and greater self sufficiency. I find myself shopping nearly every day, buying resources that are becoming increasingly scarce and certainly wholly reliant on fossil fuels for their manufacture and distribution.
After a good deal of experimenting, I’ve settled on the French Intensive / Square Foot method of farming. It took some tweaking for our latitude, but has been en enormous success. So much so, I find it far more rewarding than anything else I have ever done.
Building raised Cedar Beds is straight forward; they’ll last for 20 years or more and contain no Copper Arsenic to prevent rot and insect infestation. Stainless Steel screws as opposed to nails work wonders and cut down on splitting in the wood, no matter what species you choose. After experimenting with Cypress, White & Yellow Pine as well as Oak and other hardwoods; Cedar won hands down. It is a soft wood, which cuts down on weight; I wheel these things around by my lonesome with ease.
They will remain 4 feet by 4 feet or 16 square feet. Every person, in order to sustain a proper diet and caloric intake, should have 20 of these or 320 square feet. In my opinion 4x4 is the most efficient size. The reason is quite simple; the average person can easily reach into the bed from any side.
Each one costs approximately $65 including hardware and takes about an hour to carefully assemble. I pre-drill holes for the screws in order to avoid splitting the wood. The boards were purchased at the local Lowe’s home improvement center. They measured 2 inches by 6 inches by 16 feet. I simply cut each board into just under 48 inches. Two lengths of board in addition to one length of 2 inch by 4 inch by 8 foot board completes the materials. I cut the 2 x 4 @ 24 inches for the vertical support.
The reason for the extra height in the vertical supports is pretty slick; if your climate requires covering your square, simply tack up some plastic sheeting and you have a mini greenhouse. I use painters drop plastic and bought a mountain of them for nothing at the local paint store. They staple on with ease and can be cut with an exacto knife for you graphic artists, or a razor blade to prevent tears.
I have always cut my own grass; it’s one of those very rare moments where I can be entirely lost in nothingness. It’s as though I’ve gone into a deep state of meditation, complete with exercise.
My neighbors and friends thought I was completely nuts, ‘hire a lawn care service John’ they’d say.
No thanks, I’m happy, at ease and comfortable doing it.
The grass clippings are very high in Nitrogen and need to be dried in the sun; I pile them up and toss them in a cheap trash 35 gallon trash can. Two of which get dumped into each bed first, then a bag of 2 cubic foot Canadian Peat Moss goes on, after that I’ll put six bags of high quality 40lb topsoil on top of the grass and peat, leaving it in the bag and carefully covering the peat and grass to compress it overnight. The next day the topsoil bags are opened and dumped on top, then soaked with water. I leave these for about two weeks before transplanting vegetables into them.
As the grass on the bottom begins to decompose the level usually drops about 4 inches, which is fine. Typically I’ll propagate my veggies in flats and transplant them to small 3 inch pots prior to hardening them off for a week. After that, they go into the beds, potting soil and all.
A few shovels full of compost gets spread in a layer to add further nutrients. If you do not compost, you should. All I can say is this… the only food we toss is animal proteins and bones. The rest ends up in the composters and they make amazing nutrient rich humus. I added some earth worms to each bin and keep them well watered, when I want to check up on the worms.
Earthworms do best in temperatures of between 65 to 75 degrees. However, they do fine in colder and/or hotter climates providing they have a way to escape the heat and cold. If they live in a composting bin, above ground, and there is very little material between them and the heat and/or cold, they are not going to do very well. If your bin is wide and deep with material, they can burrow down to find a comfortable temperature and should do just fine. Our composters are 54 inches high by 48 inches square.
As far as living in a composting pile, this is where worms excel. Here again, your compost pile cannot be heating up or the worms will be killed by the heat. It also needs to stay very damp for the worms to survive. If you want to move the worms or use some in another compost pile, you need to feed them something they really like, bread has worked amazingly well. Place a piece of carpeting or cardboard over a section of your compost pile. The worms are attracted to the food source as well as the damp area under the carpet or cardboard. In a few days when you pick up the carpet, the area below it should be loaded with worms.
Worms eat one half of the weight each day, so you need to plan accordingly. You can use peat moss to move them, just keep it moist. I have found the composting process goes from months to mere weeks using worms. It was a fairly stunning discovery for me and closed the loop on self sufficiency and any dependence of outside sources of nutrients. Most fertilizer is Petro based and we know where that finite resource is heading.
I keep a 35 gallon trash can with a lid outside; all left over food immediately goes in there from a bowl we keep on the counter. Once the can fills up one quarter of the way, I drag it over to the composters and dump it in; tossing a few handfuls of grass clippings I keep on the ground nearby over the top. The next day I’ll add some water and viola, the process begins in earnest.
It’s amazing to me I never composted before.
Stunning, in fact as it is the most efficient disposal of food waste there is. The rewards are on of the highest quality soil additives one could want. In Florida, it’s worth its weight in GOLD.
Watermelons tend towards overtaking about everything, even compost bins. :~)
Enjoy the pictures that follow as I fully intend to inspire some of you.
Lead by example.
GOLD is fine, I rarely worry anymore about where it’s heading and you shouldn’t either.
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