Garden Types
When researching how to grow low energy input food online - 100s of sites came up! Growing food crops in pots, square foot gardening, spin farming and weed-less water-less gardening all came to my attention. I've been a "dig a hole and put in a plant" gardener for over 35 years and had no idea there were so many different methods to garden.
Mel Bartholomew s Sq Ft Gardening and Spin Farming
Weed-Less Water-less gardens consists of putting down layers of layers on top of layers of whatever you have from the lawn, garden or compost. . . and letting it compost where its at. To build the pile to 8" or more is ideal. Then let the earth worms do all the mixing (and they will). As you get a good pile going, weeds aren't a problem to put out since the ground is so soft. I found its best to make a pile in the fall so it settles a bit by spring planting. I've found that holding off planting the weedless waterless gardens is best to wait until after all weeds have sprouted so a quick rake or hoe over the area cleans them up before planting. This method became popular by an old woman in New York who apparently built her garden garbage up to over a foot and it got better every year with layer upon layer of household scraps. The mulched pile heats the ground early in spring so planting like this extend the growing season by a few months!
I'm not so patient to wait until I have built that pile so I use layers of other materials then add to the soil where the plants go.
A helpful website to keep from growing the same crops in the same spot, year after year and to collect data on seed lists and amounts, I use: GrowVeg.com it's free for 30 days and it has a reasonable yr-yr fee.
Permaculturing the woods seems to be the solution to Zero Energy Farming since we plant once and harvest forever (in theory) with only minimal maintenance. We have started permacultured areas in the veggie gardens that seem to cut down a large portion of planting in the spring. We've planted cauliflower, brocolli, cabbage and brussels sprouts with good success as they have come up a few years in a row and provided for an early harvest.
Mushroom production technology is no longer a highly prized secret so we do several types of spore innoculating types of mushrooms. After 4 years after the innoculation, we are starting to see whiting of the logs so it will only be a few more years before they atart to produce for the rest of our lives.
Orchards are also a great low-energy food source. There is so much written about them I won't get into that now.
And finally, the crown jewel of food production - off-the-grid water gardening for food production. But there is no other way to get fresh water chestnuts or a few other goodies.
As time progresses and we get more and more gardens "finished" with the layers, we will reduce our weeding in many of the higher maintenance areas. The weed-less water-less gardens take care of themselves and the row crops of corn, beans, peas an root crops will all get cardboard over their walk-ways. The reason I use cardboard over those areas is because I want to be able to till the soil every few years and the card board deteriorates. The weed-less gardens and row crops will eventually cover a few acres, the field crops are for grains of oats, wheat and bird seed. The latter crops are hayed or hand scythed, dried and stored as is until they are used. Finally, I have a glass greenhouse to put up to give us fresh salads winters and greenhouse gardening is a whoe other subject left to podcasting.
I did find my soil improves every year and so does the production of the crops. That encouraged me to see if there was something I was adding that was giving me more fruit per plant and I'll add more of that!