Sustainable Vegetable Gardening

67 Pages·2015·5.45 MB·English

Sustainable Vegetable Gardening

Let’s Grow Great Vegetables!
Part 1 Planning and Soil Preparation
Paul Gibson, Thomas Bolles, Jean Meink
And Master Gardener Volunteers
VCE Prince William – 703 792-7747
[email protected]
Chinn Library, Jan 24, 2014
Web page: www.mgpw.org Facebook Master Gardeners of Prince William
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Sustainable Vegetable Gardening
• Organic, environmentally sound
– Use nature as a guide to manage ecological and
biological processes
– Feed the soil, not the plant; no synthetic fertilizer,
herbicides, pesticides
• Acceptable nutrition, protection from pests, disease
• Reduce external input; get renewable resources
locally
• Conserve non-renewables (soil, energy, minerals)
• Biointensive – high yield from small space
Scientific systems approach: understand the parts, how they work,
the connections and dependencies among them, and
harmonize them. Depends on feedback mechanisms.
Nature as a Guide
• Old myth – nitrogen from an inorganic source is the
same as nitrogen from an organic source; plants don’t
care.
• Science – microbiology, bacteriology, study of fungi,
study of ants, chemistry, agriculture – came together to
focus jointly on understanding the world of soil since
1990
• Truth – Inorganic nitrogen, pesticides, and herbicides
(the mainstay of 20th century industrial farming) destroy
essential soil organisms.

“Nobody fertilized the old growth forest”
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Planning
• Situating the garden
• Preparation of the beds
• Crop and variety selection

• Arranging crops
NOTE
• When to start it, plant it, harvest it BOOK

• What goes in next

• Using sustainable practices
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Start a Garden Notebook
• Objectives • Weather
• Garden Map • Soil Test
• Crops • Ideas
• Companion Planting • Questions
and Rotation
• Garden Pictures
• Seeds
• Insects, good and bad
• Planting and Harvest
• Extra sheets
Times
• Etc. Make it work for
• Harvest Records
you
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Binder Handout List
• Planting calendar (1)
• Plant harvest time chart (1)
• Crop rotation (2)
• Companion planning (2)
• Composting publication (2)
• New Gardener Quick Start Guide (3)
• Planting density/spacing handout (3)

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Homework

• Create garden map
• Soil test results
• List of what you want to grow
• List of seeds you have or need
• Tools and structures you have or need

• Your garden’s planning calendar (SVG-3)

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Situating the garden
• Objectives - How much time? land? resources?
• Sun – 6 hours, between 10am and 4pm
• Orientation – direction (N-S, E-W)
– Slope – run beds crosswise; south facing is a +
• Water – is it nearby, too much, drainage?
• Garden size, bed size, pathways
– Width for access; equal size (16 / 50 /100 sq ft)
– Keyhole pathways
• Sketch it, name the beds
– Plan: proposed – actual – amendments
• Options: Raised & Bordered, Containers
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Garden layout -- Plot size 15 x 20
Permanent beds and permanent pathways. Reach into beds is 2 feet.
Uses –
1 2 The center bed for herbs and flowers;
or vegetables; or lawn chair, umbrella.

The 4 larger beds can be rotated each
5 - 3x8
Year using the Penn State crop
rotation plan.
4 3
Corn
Peas
Squash
4 large beds are 4’ wide. The center Beans
Cucumber
Bed is 3’x8’.
Paths are 2’ wide, mulched w/ wood chips Greens Tomato
4 outer beds are each 52 sq ft. Cabbage Pepper
Total plot 300 sq ft Lettuce Potato
Total bed area 232 sq ft
Total path area 68 sq ft 9
Others: carrot, onion, beets go anywhere
Crop and Variety Selection
• Grow what you like to eat; . . should, . . want kids to eat
• Select some from all the major crop groups (variety, diversity)
• Choose organically grown seed/plants; open pollinated ahead
of hybrid, non-genetically modified (non-GMO)
• Consult VCE pubs, MD HGIC, local growers (SESE), Master
Gardeners, horticulture help line (703 792-7747)
• Start simple and add each year
– A. Pick a couple varieties to learn
• Beans: Bush, Pole
• Tomatoes: Determinate, Indeterminate
• Timing - Garlic: nine month crop, Sept 15 – June 15
• Sustainability –grains - cover, compost, mulch
– B. Jump in with both feet: The Sustainable Vegetable Garden,
Jeavons and Cox; VCE - PW New Gardener Quick Start Guide
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