Do-it-yourself “correct” beds
I have my own house and personal plot 7 acres. We have been using the garden for 20 years. So, in last years I began to notice that the earth was becoming heavy, water- and air-tight, and the harvests were getting poorer and poorer. In the fall, it became a shame that so much effort, time and money had been invested, and the result was almost zero.
Something had to be done, but I didn’t know what. That’s when B.A.’s book fell into my hands. bagel “Vegetable garden in a new way. The revolutionary method of “doing nothing.” This book changed my entire thinking and allowed me to take a new look at cultivated plants, on weeds, on pests, on the soil and in general on mother nature. In nature, everything is interconnected: one with another, another with a third, and so on along the chain. And then I looked on the Internet, saw a lot of interesting, smart, instructive things, and in the spring I decided to implement the basic principles of organic farming in my garden.
With the onset of spring, my husband and I divided the garden into “Right” beds – 90 cm wide and 8 m long(although the length can be arbitrary), row spacing is 60 cm. The width of the bed should be such that you can reach the middle with your hand, because you cannot step on the ground either when planting or when weeding.
Row spacing should be wide to provide plants with good air exchange and light, since scientists have long proven that plants take only 30% of the required energy from the soil in the form of nutrients.
We also chose a width of 60 cm because of its convenience when mowing with a lawn mower. The brought soil and compost were poured onto the top of the beds and everything was mixed together with garden soil. The beds turned out to be slightly raised, but not high. Several beds were fenced wooden planks– there wasn’t enough material for everything.
One bed contained 4 rows for planting seeds of onions, carrots, beets, and radishes. I planted seedlings of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and cabbage in two rows in a checkerboard pattern. Vegetables were planted according to the principle of “good neighborliness”, i.e. compatibility of cultures. For example, onions along with carrots and beets (along the edge of the bed). In general, beets are considered an “extreme” crop; their place is at the edge of the garden bed. She planted tomatoes with peppers, cabbage with celery and beets.
Combined plantings are good because the plants (at least three species) do not oppress neighbors, but help each other.
Don't expect a harvest without mulch!
Further, following the principles of organic farming, I mulched the plantings, but did this only when seedlings began to appear (late spring - early summer). Mulched with mowed grass, but always dried a little in the shade. The mulch was watered with a solution containing effective microorganisms and water was poured on top again. Beneficial microorganisms begin to work when established warm weather with an air temperature of at least 25°.
Throughout the summer, I added more and more mulch (about once every one or two weeks). Ideally, the mulch layer per season should be at least 5 cm.
And with potatoes we did this: the bushes came up after the first weeding and hilling by the whole family mulched with straw and hay. Of course, we had to work hard, but then throughout the summer we no longer weeded, and the Colorado potato beetle appeared much later and in smaller numbers. The area under potatoes was small, about 4 acres. The strawberry bed was also mulched with mown grass, where clean berries were then collected, and there were no rotten ones at all. Weeds grow through the mulch, but very little. To avoid them altogether, you need a dense layer of mulch of at least, as I said, 5 cm.
Mulching is especially important in hot weather, but in rainy weather you need to be careful, as mulch can rot, especially on heavy soils.
And yet it has many more advantages: protecting the soil from drying out, reducing labor costs for weeding, enriching the soil due to the decomposition of organic matter by soil microorganisms and bacteria.
Wormwood instead of chemistry
Separately, I would like to dwell on ways to control pests and diseases in organic farming. To combat pests, I planted plants in the beds that repel them. For example, next to the cabbage I planted marigolds, hyssop, sage and a lot of dill.
White butterflies circled and circled over the cabbage, but I never noticed any pests on the leaves. I added basil to the tomatoes and peppers, which not only repels insects, but also improves the taste of tomatoes and the structure of the soil. I planted onions and carrots close to each other because onion fly repels carrots, and carrots repels onions. Wormwood repels many pests, especially the Colorado potato beetle. I have several wormwood bushes growing in my garden in different places, but off to the side, not in the beds. With the help of wormwood, I saved eggplants from the striped pest. In the summer, when all my spicy plants and flowers bloomed, there was such beauty in the garden, and the smell was amazing!
I fertilized only once, in the spring, and only foliar. Next season we plan to use our own solutions and fertilizers.
In the fall, we plant the vacated beds with green manure (white mustard). The use of green manure is another principle of organic farming. They enrich the soil with macro- and microelements, their long rhizomes loosen the soil and increase the humus layer of the soil.
When using organic farming, the land before winter should always be covered with greenery and in no case bare.
And in conclusion, I want to say: in order to carry out “perestroika” in the garden, my husband and I had to work a lot, but the whole family is very pleased with the results of this work! In addition, next season there will be much less work, since the beds will already be permanent, all that remains is to loosen them (up to 5-7 cm) and plant the plants.
If you follow the principles of organic farming, the humus layer in the garden bed will increase every year, as a result of which the yields will increase significantly, and (most importantly!) they will be absolutely clean from an environmental point of view.
Dear gardeners, switch to organic farming! It really works - tested by practical experience. Believe me, this is a very interesting process, because Mother Nature has long taken care of everything for us, we just need to watch her and try to disturb her as little as possible!
Seedlings in diapers
I really love experimenting in the garden. I'll take it plastic bag for a sandwich measuring 20x30 cm, without unfolding it, place 1 tbsp on the left edge. l. (with a heap) of prepared moistened soil, then I place a seedling in the middle of the lump of earth, and on top another 1 tbsp. l. earth, and I roll everything up in the form of a roll - I “swaddle” the seedling, like swaddling a baby. I wrap the edge of the bag (you can tighten it with an elastic band). The leaves of the seedling should protrude above the film.
I put the formed rolls in a kiwi container (you can use a cake container), 13-15 bags fit. In short, in three containers I got 42 seedlings, and they all fit on one windowsill. I place the containers themselves in small trays from semi-finished products.
Then, when the seedlings grow up (after several weeks), you need to unroll the rolls again and add 1-2 tbsp. l. land. Regular care: watering, lighting.
The seedlings grow remarkably well, and by the time they are planted in open ground I have healthy and strong tomato seedlings with an elongated root system.
With this method of picking, the most important thing is that you do not get injured. root system when transferring to permanent place, and the tip of the root is not pinched, which promotes further root growth deeper, where the plant will find more moisture and will not depend on watering.
Having planted my tomatoes in two rows in a checkerboard pattern in a narrow box bed, I mulch them with hay and straw (but not fresh!). A bed with ripening tomatoes looks so beautiful that it’s simply impossible to describe! And the harvest is so large that until the New Year, my whole family eats fresh tomatoes.
By the way, this picking method is very well suited for apartments where there is little space for seedlings, and much less land is used. You can pick other vegetables and flowers in this way. Try it, you will definitely like it. It really works!
ORGANIC FARMING GARDEN – MY REVIEWS
Vegetable garden "for sloth"
The most interesting thing about organic farming is that increasing soil fertility can be transferred to a constant and almost autonomous mode of operation. And another article - the best for that confirmation.
It's not like that, guys...
At the beginning of my gardening journey, I used the experience of my parents, that is, I first dug up the entire vegetable garden, and then created beds up to a meter wide, leaving 30-40 cm gaps between them. Then, of course, I struggled with weeding the plantings, taking out all the grass torn out of the site. But every year it became clear to me that I was doing something wrong, because the work was constantly being added and added.
This became especially noticeable after I started growing seedlings of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers on my own. At first, I only bought it at the market, but when I was once cheated there with the varieties, I decided that now I had to take this matter into my own hands (now I have already compiled a pretty good garden collection, but every year I test one - two new varieties or hybrids).
When I was finally convinced that there was no longer any possibility of doing agricultural technology in the old way, I began to study the works of advanced gardeners. The one that made the greatest impression on me was the Meat Tlider. Thanks to his articles, I fully realized that the wisest thing to do is to abandon the “nomadic” beds, replacing them with boxes installed in once and for all selected places, thereby eliminating trampling of the earth, which leads to deterioration of its structure. But at the same time, I left the width of the beds themselves as usual (about a meter), but increased the passages to 70 cm.
Practice has shown that if you fill the surfaces of the beds with organic matter in the fall, then under this “coat” by spring you can get moist and loose soil, which you don’t have to dig, but simply loosen it with a hoe.
But where can you get so much mulching material? I began to grow green manure before winter, collect leaf litter along the clearing along which I walk to my plot, and stopped disdaining weeded weeds. Why wear them? compost heaps? It is wiser to leave it in place, increasing the thickness of the mulch layer, which will serve as extra food for various worms, bugs, fungi and microbes. In addition, in the ground “under a fur coat” the passages made by worms and empty
you are from rotten organic matter through which water passes with air and nitrogen dissolved in it. In other words, soil fertilization occurs almost “automatically”! It is generally accepted that nature independently creates 1 cm of humus in about 100 years. If we help her, then this process can be accelerated significantly.
Correct timing
My next step was to switch to ridge planting of potatoes, which also saved me from the need to shovel the entire area of the plot. By creating parallel trenches 10 cm deep and a spade bayonet wide at intervals of 70 cm, the soil only has to be laid to the right of them. Very convenient and economical. I called this method of planting “under the sloth”. Using the same method, I now plant corn (the distance between the rows of this crop is 1.2 m, and between the rows I place cucumbers or pumpkins), sunflowers and climbing beans. The only difference is that I don’t dig trenches for these plants, but loosen strips of earth 30 cm wide.
As for cucumbers, I came to the clear conclusion that in the southern regions they should be grown in three periods. And only so!
First, I plant the seedlings in the greenhouse between April 25 and May 1 and get a good harvest in early July. I plant the second batch of cucumbers with seeds in open ground on May 15, and they give me their fruits from mid-July to mid-September. And I plant the third wave of cucumbers in mid-August, which allows me to enjoy the green ones almost until the end of the season. At the same time, cucumbers of the first and second terms can be either varietal and hybrid, or parthenocarpics. But the third term - only parthenocarpic. The fact is that by September 1, figs ripen, the flowers of which simply ooze with nectar, and therefore bees, flies and hornets race to them, pollinating the cucumbers at the same time. At the same time, I note that cucumbers can be grown from stepchildren, but their survival rate will be worse than that of tomatoes.
A week before planting cucumbers and tomatoes, I water the beds well and immediately cover them with film, pressing it tightly to the ground along the entire perimeter. Under it, the moist soil warms up well, and the evaporation of moisture is practically eliminated.
When planting, I use hydrogel, which I carefully place in the holes around the plants, which allows me to forget about watering for 10 days.
It is also important that when watering, water can turn barely hatched seeds upside down in the soil, and then they will certainly die. To prevent this from happening, after planting I always compact the soil slightly. And if the weather is hot and windy, then all watering is done only through a non-woven material, and from a small watering can and in small portions.
I urge all readers to dig as little as possible. Do not destroy its structure! Don't walk on it unless necessary. Take care of her. Switch to simple loosening with a depth of no more than 5 cm. After all, back in Soviet times, agronomist T. Maltsev proved in practice that no-till cultivation is the most promising and correct. Deep loosening deteriorates its structure and leads to overgrinding.
After rain or irrigation, such land turns into a swamp with the formation of a soil crust when it dries. And I also urge all gardeners not to get carried away with weeding: do not keep the soil bare, something should always grow on it! After all, vegetation reduces soil temperature and significantly delays water evaporation. Mulching is shading the soil. Take care of this in advance. I wish everyone health and good luck in their dacha and personal work. And human happiness!
V.A. GIANTS. Sochi
I am glad for those who strive to live with the times, for those who are mastering the new science of agriculture, for those who are not afraid to admit their mistakes and are looking for new ways to communicate with the earth without sacrificing nature. But in almost every issue there are also letters that are simply upsetting.
About traditions...
Why can't people see their mistakes? Why don’t they feel guilty before future generations? They are destroying the earth, leaving no chance to restore its fertility and create a sustainable balance in nature! Moreover, without thinking, they also harm the health of themselves and their loved ones. Who exactly do I mean?
And those respected gardeners who are engaged in the “traditional” (or even worse, “old-fashioned”) way of running their farms. Do you think I'm being too categorical? Yes, I myself worry about these fellow summer residents! But still, let's think about it in detail.
So, what do people usually mean by “traditional farming”? Here's what:
suitable digging of soil with a shovel in autumn and spring, weekly weeding in summer, application mineral fertilizers, as well as processing of plantings in gardens and vegetable gardens chemicals protection from diseases and pests. But can this really be called a tradition? Yes, one of the main agricultural tools of the peasants was the plow, but who said that they plowed their gardens from top to bottom?
They did this selectively and plowed shallowly, without disturbing the fertile layer. But the main thing is that before this they transported manure to the plots, embedding it in the ground.
It will be objected to me that at that time everyone had a large farm, and no one had any problems with the presence of such organic matter. And I don’t deny it, I just want to draw your attention to the fact that digging itself is not only pointless, but also harmful.
Go ahead. After the Great Patriotic War There were devastated villages and villages in which there was no livestock or poultry. To speed up development Agriculture, a number of forced measures were taken. Forced! In particular, chemists developed and introduced mineral fertilizers, thereby dramatically increasing the yield of almost all crops.
But the whole point is that the “mineral water” only replenishes chemical composition soil, and its balance is constantly disturbed. But the amount of humus from adding chemicals does not increase. Moreover, it is gradually decreasing! As a result, the land is increasingly depleted, plants, due to a lack of one or another nutrient, grow frail (at first glance this may not be noticed) and therefore become easy prey for pests and diseases. If you have depleted soil, increase its fertility, but not with the help of “mineral water”! Yes, of course, it will not be easy, you will have to work hard and be patient, because the earth needs time to recover. But almost any soil can be cured; don’t believe that there are “lazy” gardens! Get away from old stereotypes. I was wrong?
...and about innovations
Many summer residents often think that natural and organic farming- It is the same. But in fact - no. In the first case we're talking about about the coexistence of different plants in a certain unit of area, and each of them plays its role. For example, tall ones shade short ones from the sun and protect them from the wind, wild ones attract beneficial insects, helping to rid their cultivated neighbors of pests, etc.
Organic farming means running your own farm using waste products of flora and fauna. Here our helpers will be not only the plants themselves, but also everything that can move: from the simplest microorganisms to lizards and birds. I understand how difficult it is to evaluate, understand and accept all this.
Moreover, having taken the first step and not receiving good result, many return to their usual methods. But everyone must go through this difficult and long path, because each generation must contribute to the restoration of the fertility of the earth.
My dears, try to start with a simple thing: sow the plots with green manure in the fall, do not leave the soil bare anywhere - neither in winter nor in summer. In the spring, simply loosen it shallowly, cutting off the grown grasses, and mulch your plantings with them, covering the beds from the sun, winds and showers (they wash humus deep into the ground). And the covered soil will always be moist, which will create a favorable climate in the area.
Believe me, at one time I also stood at a crossroads, and not everything worked out for me at once. And even now I am looking for more and more new ways to get closer to nature. But I haven’t been digging or weeding for five years now, I just cut the grass and use it as mulch. Every autumn I fall asleep with leaves tree trunk circles trees and shrubs.
I don’t burn the branches left after pruning, but I process them with a chopper and scatter the resulting sawdust in the garden. I bury all food scraps (as well as paper and cardboard collected over the winter) in the garden at the beginning of the season. I water all plants without exception with infusions of herbs and chicken manure, I spray baking soda, infusions of garlic, birch tar, I practice treatment with whey and vermicomposts. And all my plantings survive the winter without loss, even if there were frosts of -30°, and in the summer I always remove good harvests, even if the heat was 40°. That's it!
: GROWING EARLY ZUCCHINS IN MOBILE...
When engaged in gardening and gardening, many farmers are faced with the problem of lack of space, as well as sometimes inexplicable incompatibilities between different plants. Which, in turn, leads to a decrease in yield and various diseases that impair plant growth and the quality of the resulting fruit. Mixed plantings of vegetables, the schemes of which are drawn up taking into account all the features, can solve many problems.
The Science of Mixed Plantings
Allelopathy is a science that studies the influence on each other and the ability of them to coexist together. The proximity of vegetables in the greenhouse and mixed plantings are determined taking into account the influencing factors. Every plant secretes through its leaves and roots various substances, which, when released into the soil, can either be absorbed by other plants or cause harm to them.
Some species tend to stimulate the growth of accompanying plantings and have a protective effect on them from pests, but at the same time they can also be oppressive. Besides the obvious, there is another reason to create mixed plantings - to save space.
Schemes of mixed and compacted vegetable plantings
It is very important when drawing up a plan for future plantings to consider:
- Climatic conditions in a particular area may vary, as some places are drier and others wetter. The effects of wind, precipitation and frost must also be taken into account in the calculations.
- It is necessary to know the characteristics of each specific site, its soil composition, impact sunlight to this area, as well as its protection from the aggressive influences of nature.
Planning
These parameters should form the basis of the garden planting strategy to obtain the highest results from each meter of area. Drawing up a plan begins with studying the characteristics of the site and the characteristics of each individual meter of land. Schemes of mixed beds (planting vegetables in a garden bed, as is known, vary in purpose) must be drawn up taking into account all climatic and agrotechnical parameters of the soil.
Advantages of the method
Advantages mixed plantings:
Smart combination
Alternation of crops with different requirements for nutrition and soil composition allows you to avoid partial or complete depletion of the land and the destruction of any individual elements nutrition needed by plants.
Planting vegetables together can improve the quality of life of neighboring crops and can also affect the taste and nutritional value of the fruit.
Main and accompanying plants
Mixed plantings of vegetables, their arrangement patterns and the principles that guide the gardener when composing them are based on simple knowledge. In the practice of this method, there are such concepts as a companion plant, or accompanying plant, as well as the main crop. The main plant is the target of planting, and the satellite plant is used to fill gaps and produce larger yields.
Mixed planting tactics
In the role of accompanying plants, aromatic green fertilizers are more often used, a number of which can benefit their neighbors. The main crops are usually vegetables and are slow-ripening, small-sized specimens, with fast-ripening species in between.
This tactic is very effective. While the main culture is slowly growing and developing, the accompanying culture has time to grow, making room for sufficient development of the main one. That's what it is main principle drawing up a plan and diagram of mixed plantings.
Preferred neighborhood
In order to organically fit into your plan various mixed plantings of vegetables and their arrangement on the site, you need to know the properties of each plant and its compatibility with others. It is convenient to consider the properties inherent in individual garden crops in the form of a table. Mixed plantings of vegetables in the garden must be made taking into account the needs of each crop.
Correct Neighborhood Table
| Name of culture | Good neighborhood | Undesirable neighborhood O |
| Basil | All crops, especially tomatoes and lettuce | Ruta |
| Eggplant | Beans, thyme | - |
| Beans | Cucumbers, potatoes, spinach, corn, radishes, buckwheat and mustard. If beans act as the main plants, then lavender, rosemary, yarrow, oregano, and borage will be good neighbors for them. | Any garlic, wormwood, marigold |
| Grape | Corn, potatoes, radishes, beans, radishes, rye | Onions, soybeans, barley, cabbage |
| Peas | Goes well with carrots, rice, various salads, cucumbers, turnips | Onions, garlic, tomatoes |
| Cabbage | All varieties are excellent neighbors for bush beans, salads, buckwheat, celery, beets, borage, carrots, and spinach. | Does not go well with grapes and strawberries |
| Potato | Gets along with legumes, cabbage, radishes and various salads. Potatoes will help in repelling pests: tansy, marigolds, nasturtium, coriander | It is highly not recommended to plant sunflower and celery next to each other. |
| Strawberry | It is good to plant spinach, sage, and parsley nearby. The mutual influence with beans, cucumbers, pumpkin, peas, and soy is especially favorable | Cabbage |
| Corn | All cultures | Beetroot, celery |
| Onion | The best combination with beets, strawberries, cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, spinach | Beans, peas, legumes, sage |
| Carrot | Peas. Loyal to the neighborhood with potatoes, onions, lettuce | Dill, fennel. Also, there is no place for it under an apple tree, as the root vegetables will be very bitter |
| cucumbers | Good companions for beans, beans, beets, garlic, onions, radishes, spinach, as well as dill and chamomile | Undesirable proximity to tomatoes, since their maintenance conditions are very different |
| Pepper | Basil | It's hard to get along with beans. Bad neighbor fennel for him too |
| Parsley | Pairs well with strawberries, peas, tomatoes, asparagus, salads | - |
| Radish | Salads, beans. Radish plantings can be combined with tomatoes, onions, parsley, garlic, strawberries and peas | Planting next to hyssop is highly discouraged, as this imparts great bitterness to the fruit. |
| Turnip | Goes well with peas | Doesn't go well with mustard and asparagus at all. |
| Beet | It is an excellent companion for cabbage, radishes, radishes and salad. Next to the beets you can also place beds with garlic, strawberries, celery, and cucumbers | - |
| Celery | White cabbage. Feels great next to cucumbers and tomatoes, soybeans, beans and peas | Neighborhood with corn, parsley, potatoes and carrots is extremely undesirable |
| Tomatoes | They go well with basil, celery, parsley, spinach and beans. Planting next to cabbage, corn, garlic, carrots, beets is neutral in its influence | Do not place next to kohlrabi cabbage, fennel and dill, potatoes, eggplants |
| Pumpkin | A responsive neighbor for peas and beans. Coexists favorably with corn | Next to cabbage, cucumbers, salads, onions, carrots |
| Beans | Friendly with almost all cultures | Onions, fennel, garlic, peas |
| Spinach | All cultures | - |
| Garlic | Friendly neighborhood with tomatoes, beets, strawberries, carrots, cucumbers | Negatively affects the taste of peas, beans, cabbage |
Today you learned about what mixed planting of vegetables is. Schemes for their composition are created taking into account the preferences of each individual plant, as well as the conditions of its maintenance, which should be the basis for calculating future beds. Using this progressive method provides many advantages, which are especially important to take advantage of when striving to obtain maximum benefits and large yields from each square meter area.
This danger awaits almost any gardener - everything seems to be fine and the harvests are big, but... it’s boring.
It's boring to grow the same thing in the same beds year after year.
But there is a way out!
Combined plantings in the country house and in the garden
I started experimenting with combined plantings, and the result exceeded my expectations. Firstly, the garden has become much more colorful and interesting. Secondly, plants actually protect each other from pests. And the most important thing is that from one bed I now get a harvest of 3-4 crops with less labor. Having tried it once, I simply don’t want to go back to the old monoculture beds.
However, I would not say that the yield from combined plantings has increased significantly - by approximately 10-20%, when compared with traditional rows.
And this is due to the fact that plants are less sick and affected by pests, that is, more healthy, undamaged fruits remain. True, they are much tastier than traditionally grown ones.
Check it out for yourself! Tomatoes growing next to parsley or celery have a brighter and richer taste. Cabbage next to dill suffers less from cabbage cutworm or white moth. Basil, growing close to sweet peppers, makes its flesh more juicy and especially crunchy.
And these are just some examples. When you get into a creative impulse, you want to plant three, four, five crops together. Moreover, choose them so that they replace each other throughout the season.
The most interesting thing in such a garden is designing the plantings. This is what I'm doing right now, while I still have it. free time. For more than 10 years now, I have been using two tables as a guide: compatibility (which crops are friendly with each other) and crop rotation (what to plant after what). I compiled them myself, summing up information from all possible sources.
I immediately determine which crops and in what quantities need to be planted.
For our family of 3 people, 10-15 heads of early cabbage are enough, but we need a lot of leaf lettuce: we grow about 30 bushes, removing up to 0.5 kg of fresh leaves every day. If you do conveyor planting, then you need to sow 10 bushes with a break of a week.
We eat eggplants not only fresh, but also dry them for the winter, so I plant about 40-50 plants.
A sufficient amount of green beans, not only for food, but also for freezing, is provided by 4-5 varieties of bush beans (15-20 bushes each) and a couple of climbing varieties (10-15 bushes each). Here a lot depends on preferences in preparing for the winter. But don’t plant a lot of what you only consume fresh! If you don’t eat it, it’ll be a shame to throw it away.
An example is chard.
For a family of 3 people, you don’t need more than 4 bushes.
Having planned the amount of harvest, I draw a plan of the site. I indicate what grew in what beds last season. And then, using a crop rotation reference table and a list of necessary vegetables, I determine where the main ones will grow. I plan the plantings so that one or two more crops fit nearby. I select which ones from the compatibility reference table. This is how the planting plan gradually emerges.
Many plants help each other resist insects and are more resistant in certain pairs. These are potatoes and beets, carrots and onions, cabbage and dill, corn and cucumbers, spinach and tomatoes or tomatoes and cabbage, strawberries and garlic, eggplant and beans.
I also use more complex combinations. For example, cucumbers grow quite successfully after cabbage. If you install a trellis in the middle of the bed, then on both sides of the bed you can sow carrots and plant onions on the turnip. I’ve been growing this well-functioning trio for ten years now! The main thing is to sow carrots in time and grow cucumber seedlings ahead of time.
Another option: I plant winter onions or garlic along the edge of the bed in the fall, and stepping back 10 cm from it, I sow carrots. My beds are stationary, with trellis posts installed, so I do this on both sides. I leave the middle free: later I will plant cucumber seedlings here.
Third option: I sow radishes along the edge of the garden bed. When the time comes to harvest it, I make a selection and plant seedlings of early cabbage.
By the end of June, the cabbage is harvested, and in the second half of July you can sow daikon. I remove it and plant winter garlic.
And there are also beds where in the spring I sow lettuce along the edges. But so that pepper seedlings can be planted later between its bushes. At the same time as the peppers (in May), I sow spinach in the center of the bed, also in double steps. And at the height of the salad crop harvest, I plant tomato seedlings in the center, and sweet peppers between the salad. When the leaf crops fall off, I simply cut them back at the root. And at the beginning of autumn, I plant winter shallots between the peppers - they will give fresh greens at the beginning of spring.
Of course, these are just a few examples of combining vegetables in garden beds.
But even they will be enough to make the time spent on the site more interesting. And by the way, such beds require less care. After all, part of your routine work will be done by the plants themselves! They will scare off some insects, knocking them off their path to " dining table”, or spoil their appetite, forcing them to leave the beds. For example, the Colorado potato beetle avoids beds with eggplants and beans planted together. A trellis of climbing asparagus beans at the border of a plot works as a camouflage net, reliably protecting the same eggplants from alien Colorado potato beetles. Basil and flowering dill attract a lot of pollinators, whose larvae clean cabbage and peppers of aphids. And this is just one of the advantages!
In addition, combined plantings allow plants to create a special microclimate (like lettuce and sweet pepper seedlings), shade each other from the midday heat (cucumbers and corn), and rationally distribute moisture and nutrition (winter garlic and carrots).
By intelligently organizing watering, I immediately provide moisture to 2-3 crops. I make sure to mulch the plantings - this can significantly reduce the number of waterings and weedings. Often caring for my beds consists of timely harvesting and planting other crops to replace those that bear fruit. Beauty!
You begin to fully feel like a creator who doesn’t just plant tomatoes and onions, but creates his own unique symphony of plants, and everyone has their own, special one.
Combined planting of vegetables photo
COMPATIBILITY AND CROPE ROTATION OF SOME VEGETABLE CROPS - TABLE
Refusal from deep cultivation of the land, from the use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides sometimes causes a skeptical smile on the faces of some gardeners. Indeed, it is easy to stigmatize shovels and plows and refuse chemical services. But where are the guarantees that good fruits will grow in the garden, and pests will share the harvest with us?
One more important point One thing that needs to be taken into account when intensively planting plants is the concept of allelopathy, which I would like to talk about separately.
Allelopathy - compatibility of crops in the garden
Throughout its life (from the development of the seed to the formation of decomposing residues), each plant constantly secretes environment various biologically active substances, thereby creating a protective biochemical sphere around itself.
Gardeners who are thoughtful and attentive to the growing process often notice that different crops growing nearby affect each other differently. One plant can inhibit another, or, on the contrary, have a beneficial effect and help with the growth and ripening of fruits. Scientists became interested in this phenomenon, and in the process of scientific research it turned out that cultures influence each other in various ways:
- through root secretions;
- distributing various physiologically active substances from leaves or stems;
- forming toxins during the decomposition of plant residues.
Based on these studies, such a subsection in the study of plants as allelopathy appeared. In agricultural science, this term is understood as the effect of one plant on another through the release of special substances by each of them (antibiotics, colins, phytoncides, other enzymes) that affect the life processes of the garden bed. Substances released by plants can affect neighbors at any stage of development, be it seed germination, flowering or fruiting.
There are practically no plants in nature whose secretions do not contain toxic substances, and a third of all species are capable of producing fairly strong toxins. However, it should be noted that allelopathy in many cases is not negative, but positive, which contributes to better growth neighboring culture. Some substances secreted by plants can protect “cohabitants” from diseases and pests, increase productivity and improve the taste of fruits. And it is precisely these allelopathic properties of crops that intensive planting in organic farming is based on.
Unfortunately, there are no precise rules for assessing the “livability” of different cultures. IN in this case careful attention can help life experience. For example, it has long been noticed that pumpkin gets along well with corn, onions with carrots, cucumbers with beans and peas, tomatoes with radishes, garlic and beets, and so on. The compatibility of most crops is described very accurately and in detail in the books of such famous agronomists who adhere to the principles of organic farming as Nikolai Kurdyumov, Natalya Zhirmunskaya, Boris Bublik.
Before planting plants in one bed different types, it is necessary to figure out what influence they will have on each other. When creating plant communities, it is necessary to combine crops that help each other and avoid joint landing oppressors.
Key Benefits of Intensive Planting
IN wildlife There are no such large patches sown with only one crop, such as potato fields. In our gardens, in most cases, instead of lush natural diversity, there is a dominance of monoculture patches and stripes. And hence, according to the majority of organic gardeners, all our problems arise, which intensive planting will help solve. Let's figure out what bonuses a farmer will receive by putting this basic principle into practice.
Plant self-defense
As you know, pests mainly find their food by smell. The cabbage cutworm, for example, always flies to the smell of mustard oil released by cruciferous crops. In social planting there are some effective ways protection from harmful insects, the main of which is repelling by smell. In onions and carrots this happens on mutual basis, in other neighboring plants - in unilaterally. The smell of tomatoes cannot be tolerated by the cabbage fly, and the aroma of basil is not at all to the liking of the hornworm, which loves to feast on tomatoes and corn. Some plants can provide excellent camouflage and confuse the pest. For example, marigolds successfully protect cabbage from caterpillars.
Intensive planting can simulate the diversity and ecological balance that exists in the wild. At the same time, neighbors in the garden protect each other from diseases and pests, everyone gets involved in the work - flowers, spices, technological crops and even weeds.
Biomass for compost and mulch material
This principle of organic farming, such as intensive planting, allows the farmer to almost completely abandon the “import” of fertilizers. Thanks to intensive planting, right in the garden you can grow all the necessary components for preparing compost, which, as is known, is the most valuable fertilizer, improving the structure and fertility of the soil, protecting plants from diseases.
Way intensive planting will also provide the gardener with the lion's share organic materials for mulching. The benefits are obvious. Imported mulch must be mowed, moved or transported and spread on the beds. And for this, you see, you need time and effort.
Having grown right in the garden, the mulch does not need to be mowed, carried or laid out - it will completely independently fulfill its mission of structuring the soil and increasing the humus layer. The “living mulch” created as a result of intensive planting frees a person not only from the hassle of caring for it, but also from many worries about the crops growing under its protection.
Alternative to watering
Intensive planting dramatically reduces the need for watering, and in some cases allows you to completely eliminate it. This can be explained by the fact that organic-rich soil holds much more moisture than clean, bare soil. “Living” mulch reduces evaporation and promotes intensive dew formation. With intensive planting, the moisture required in the root zone can be maintained for weeks without watering.
It's no secret that watering requires a lot of time, effort and money, not to mention a constant source of water. Intensive planting, even in the driest period, maintains sufficient soil moisture, protecting it from overheating and drying out.
Improving soil structure and weed control
The roots of all plants living in the garden bed constantly loosen the soil during their life processes. And this most important function of the principle of intensive planting allows you to completely abandon deep cultivation of the land.
The more abundant the vegetation, the softer and airier the soil becomes. As they decompose, numerous roots enrich the earth with organic matter and leave behind many channels through which air and moisture penetrate deep into the soil. Root remains are excellent food for all soil inhabitants, which helps increase their population and, accordingly, increases the fertility of your site.
Intensive planting allows in some cases to control weeds. Probably, many people paid attention to how clean the land is after rye has grown on it. This plant poisons all its neighbors with its root secretions. They are also good at cleaning soil. white mustard, oats, buckwheat and barley.
An intensively planted bed always generates competition among plants, as a result of which even weeds may suffer. In this case, we are talking about their oppression, and intensive planting plays a by no means episodic role here.
Caring for the environment
Caring for the land, preserving and increasing its fertility is at the forefront of all the principles of organic farming. Intensive planting helps protect the soil from erosion and dust storms. Sheltered all year round and connected by roots, the earth is protected from weathering and washing away; it is not afraid of frost in winter and scorching sun in summer. Such a land is simply teeming with various beneficial organisms, which make it “alive” and fertile. Intensive planting helps restore ecological balance, which helps protect your garden from pests and diseases.
In those areas where the principle of intensive planting is applied, you will never see a dull black and potholed picture. The beds here shimmer in all shades both in spring and autumn Green colour, in the February-March windows, not gray thawed patches peek out from under the snow, but emerald shoots of rye and wheat. There is no need to talk about summer at all. At this time, replacing each other, all kinds of flowers decorate the area. Such beauty improves your mood, adds energy and health. Having mastered the principle of intensive planting, you can not only improve the fertility and structure of the site, not only grow an environmentally friendly rich harvest, but also significantly save energy and time, and get incomparable pleasure from working in the garden.
Video on the topic
You have, of course, more than once thought about how best to use the space in your garden, how to compact vegetables on them. Which cultures are compatible? How to organize a conveyor in a garden bed? All these issues can be solved by using mixed plantings of vegetables, the diagrams of which are given below.
Repeated and compaction sowing of vegetable crops
Compacted crops vegetable crops have been used since ancient times. This way it is used more intensively effective area, because in the garden it is the most fertile and loose. We don’t spare mulch there, water it with all kinds of weed infusions, and of course, enrich the soil with compost and green manure.
combined planting of vegetable crops - beans, cabbage, corn
Compacted plantings are very often used in practice natural farming. After all, green manure and organic mulch not only fertilize the soil, but also heal the microflora - there are no severe diseases or pests. One of the conditions that must be taken into account when compacting crops is the characteristics of the vegetative development of combined crops. In a short growing season (30-45 days), crops such as dill, lettuce, spinach, radishes, arugula, and onions have time to grow. Watercress grows even faster.
Middle period development in such cultures as early cabbage, garlic, onions for turnips - they leave the garden by the end of July-beginning of August. Autumn period harvested from vegetables such as late cabbage, carrots, and beets. Well, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants leave the garden late.
mixed plantings sometimes turn out to be very expressive
Repeated sowing of vegetable crops mainly refers to crops with a short and, less often, medium growing season. So, after the lettuce leaves the garden, you can plant grown cabbage in its place. By this point, it will no longer interfere with the previously planted cucumbers, which will climb the trellis. And after harvesting the garlic, you can plant it in its place. Chinese cabbage. This is an early ripening crop, and until frost, you can constantly pick juicy leaves from it for fresh salads.
Plant compatibility
Combined planting of vegetables is very effective if you choose good companions for the main crops. After all, plants can inhibit each other, or vice versa, stimulate growth, development, and even protection from pests. It has been noticed that when potatoes are compacted with beans, the damage from the Colorado potato beetle is significantly reduced. And compacting cabbage with marigolds reduces the risk of attack by the white butterfly. But even here you need to maintain a reasonable balance - too many marigolds will not help the cabbage, but will depress it.
Property to highlight organic compounds, inhibiting or suppressing the development of others is called the allelopathy effect. But no matter how hard they try to study and systematize this phenomenon, it is impossible to obtain reliable data - too many factors influence the plant during the growing season. Everyone's areas are different: temperature regime, humidity, lighting, prevailing winds, soil composition, etc. Therefore, successful combinations in some conditions may “work” completely differently in others. But that's not a reason to ignore someone's successes, right? We need to take such decisions into account and adjust the “combination” already in our beds.
When placing plants in a garden bed, you can take into account not only the compatibility of vegetables with each other, but also intersperse ornamental and herbs. Then the garden will become not only useful, but also beautiful. The compatibility of plants during planting, tested in practice in our conditions in Kazakhstan (Table 1), has so far collected little data. But they are all successfully used.
Table 1
| peas | eggplant, corn, calendula, cucumber, carrots |
| strawberries | lettuce, marigolds, beans, garlic, spinach |
| cabbage | onions, beets, celery, dill, marigolds |
| kohlrabi | onion, lettuce, beets, cucumber |
| onion | carrots, beets, tomato, celery, savory |
| carrot | peas, onions, lettuce, tomato, sage |
| cucumber | peas, radishes, beans, cabbage, peppers |
| pepper | cucumber, salad, beans |
| salad | carrots, cucumber, radishes, strawberries |
| tomato | parsley, beans, calendula, nasturtium, basil |
| beans | eggplants, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, cucumber |
Potatoes and cucumbers, beans and onions, strawberries and cabbage do not get along with each other. Carrots “do not like” all umbelliferous plants - dill, celery, parsley. Fennel is generally a pest, and it is better to plant it in tubs. It is also better for hyssop to find a place in the backyard.
Mixed planting of vegetables in the garden
Almost schoolchildren know about the successful “duet” of carrots and onions. Separately planted onions from 1 sq.m in our conditions yield approximately 2.5 kg, and carrots about 6 kg from the same area. And when they grow together, we collect 9 kg of vegetables from the same area of the garden bed! They protect each other from pests, so the efficiency of space use doubles.
And of course, mixed plantings in the garden need to be grouped taking into account the height of the plants, and the plantings should be layered. And also watch the growth - they grow differently, some quickly gain green mass, others slowly. It is better to plant compactors at a lower height than the main crops. Tiering creates favorable conditions for roots, and overall better use solar energy.
Mixed planting of vegetables: schemes
It is advisable to place combined plantings of vegetable crops on stationary beds. The soil in them is not dug up every season; its structure is improved annually due to the death of the roots of vegetables, flowers and green manure. Different cultures and crop rotation reduce soil fatigue, and working in such beds is much easier than in a traditional garden. Here are proven schemes for mixed vegetable plantings:
planting scheme (cabbage and beets)
- The scheme combines planting late cabbage and beets. Inside a square of 80 × 80 cm, seedlings of 4 cabbage bushes and 9 beet plants are planted. A handful of ground is placed into the hole eggshells and a glass of compost. Beetroot is harvested in September. The yield is 3-3.2 kg per sq.m. Heads of cabbage harvested in October increase in strength to 10.5-10.8 kg on average. Total weight is about 14 kg, not bad?
- Scheme of combined planting of tomatoes and beans. The distance between plants in a row is 30 cm. A line is installed along the rows of bush beans drip irrigation, and beans are planted near each dropper. The tomatoes are placed in the center of the bed in a checkerboard pattern with beans (between the drippers so that there is no excess moisture). Along midline the beds are missing a stationary trellis. In our conditions, beans produce 2 harvests and on average yield 1.6-1.8 kg per 1 sq.m., medium-sized tomatoes - 4-4.5 kg. For the winter, we don’t prune the bean bushes, but we remove the stems of the tomato bushes by cutting them low.
planting scheme for tomatoes and bush beans
And finally, a short lesson from Galina Ivanovna Kizima, who masterfully uses compacted planting of vegetables (video):
Mixed plantings of vegetables, the diagrams of which you have seen here, in no case cancel crop rotation in the beds. If, for example, you plant beets in the same place, then next year you will get root crops the size of a gulkin’s nose. But this is the topic of the next publications, so stay with us and subscribe to article announcements.
