Tools and Devices
* Individual tools & devices highlighted in bold text
* Place cursor over images in galleries to read caption
* Click on images to enlarge
Getting Our Feet Wet
On our Grow Biointensive® page we outline the seven principles for growing a lot of food in a small area (image to the right). John Jeavons has summarized this method in his world-famous book, "How to Grow More Vegetables," published in many editions and translated into many languages.
After a workshop led by Jeavons in 1997 we double dug our first bed and planted it to greens -- lettuce, spinach, arugula and mizuna among other crops. All we required were a spading shovel, a spading fork, a wheelbarrow and compost. In 100 sq.ft. we grew much more than we could possibly eat, and gave surplus to neighbors and friends.
We were so impressed we continued double digging more beds and within three or so years were growing 70% of our vegetables. When we expanded our garden in 2007 we added fruit -- trees and shrubs -- and within a few more years were raising 95% of our vegetables and 85% of our fruit. This translated to 16% of our calories and 20% of our protein (vegetable). We report on our experiences in our biointensive minifarming tutorial, which you will find in two parts: Biointensive Minifarming PART A, and Biointensive Minifarming PART B.
In this page we focus on the tools and devices which we found useful. Over the years the time and effort saved allowed us to grow more food -- both amount and diversity. We added tools and devices one at a time as our experience practicing the seven principles indicated. If you are starting out, you will not all of these at the outset.
After a workshop led by Jeavons in 1997 we double dug our first bed and planted it to greens -- lettuce, spinach, arugula and mizuna among other crops. All we required were a spading shovel, a spading fork, a wheelbarrow and compost. In 100 sq.ft. we grew much more than we could possibly eat, and gave surplus to neighbors and friends.
We were so impressed we continued double digging more beds and within three or so years were growing 70% of our vegetables. When we expanded our garden in 2007 we added fruit -- trees and shrubs -- and within a few more years were raising 95% of our vegetables and 85% of our fruit. This translated to 16% of our calories and 20% of our protein (vegetable). We report on our experiences in our biointensive minifarming tutorial, which you will find in two parts: Biointensive Minifarming PART A, and Biointensive Minifarming PART B.
In this page we focus on the tools and devices which we found useful. Over the years the time and effort saved allowed us to grow more food -- both amount and diversity. We added tools and devices one at a time as our experience practicing the seven principles indicated. If you are starting out, you will not all of these at the outset.
Principle 1: The Permanent Double Dug Bed
The double dug bed is the essence of Grow Biointensive. A standard bed is 5'x20' (100 sq.ft.), but Jeavons advises us to adjust dimensions to your personal and site conditions. Too long a bed encourages stepping on the bed to get to the other side, and this compresses your soil. You should be able to work the center of the bed from the edges, so adjust the width to your reach. Shorter gardeners may do better with a 4' wide bed. Two of ours are 4.5'.
Our five main beds are 5'x30' which we divide into three 8' sections and one 6' section. Depending on the crops we are growing, we further subdivide the 8' sections into smaller 4' sections. Tomatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, beans, corn and cukes get 8' sections. Onions, peppers, basil, broccoli, lettuce and other crops get 4' sections. Still others get smaller areas. Strawberries get 100 sq.ft. The area of each section reflects the amount of that crop we want to eat or preserve in some way. Figuring out what you want to grow, and how much of each takes experimentation. Settling on these dimensions allows you to plan and build trellises and cages you can use annually (more on these later).
To double dig a bed you will require a spading shovel and a spading fork. If you have hard, rocky soil, you will require a pick. As we are on rocky limestone, we acquired two galvanized buckets (2.5 gallons each) to carry rock to our rock pile.
A spading shovel has a blunt edge. Get the best one you can afford. Cheap ones at your big box garden center are made of sheet steel and will bend or deform under load and not last. The shaft may snap. Ours are forged steel that ring like a bell when tapped. You will find tutorials on preparing a double dug bed at https://www.growbiointensive.org/ and print instructions with diagrams in Jeavons' book How to Grow More Vegetables.
Start small. Jeavons says, "Start with one bed and get the principles down." We know someone who dug five 5'x40' beds (1,000 sq. ft. of growing area) with a backhoe. He became overwhelmed and now these beds lie buried beneath the weeds.
An important habit is to avoid stepping on your beds. A digging board distributes your weight. You will find a digging board useful in preparing your bed, aerating your bed annually, and transplanting seedlings into the bed. Use 3/4" exterior plywood. A good dimension is 3' x 4'. One of ours is 3.5' by 4' and is actually lighter than its smaller cousin owing to a lighter sheet of plywood. Cut a slot along the long edge so you can carry it easily. Sand the edges to remove splinters and roughness. Finish with 2 coats of exterior polyurethane or linseed oil. Make sure the plywood you get is not warped. We get plywood from a local lumber yard, as big box stores in our experience do not store plywood properly.
Edging. A well organized low maintenance garden distinguishes beds from paths and other open areas. Edging helps realize this, and should be part of your initial infrastructure. Raised bed gardeners use boards to make boxes. While we are not raised bed gardeners we have used boards in limited circumstances where a hard, visible and sturdy boundary helps. We use plastic edging on all our perennial beds to prevent grass rhizomes from taking over, and to provide a clean mowing edge. We like the look of grass and grass paths. Mulch paths require annual replacement of mulch and weeding. Straw on paths harbors slugs, requires repeated additions, is slippery when wet, and blows around in the wind, and winds up in the beds. We find straw unattractive and messy. Our wood edging, hemlock, lasts 5-6 years before it succumbs to rot and has to be replaced. In the spring of 2025 we replaced the edging shown in the second picture, installed in the spring of 2019. Hover over the images below to read captions and click to enlarge.
The double dug bed is the essence of Grow Biointensive. A standard bed is 5'x20' (100 sq.ft.), but Jeavons advises us to adjust dimensions to your personal and site conditions. Too long a bed encourages stepping on the bed to get to the other side, and this compresses your soil. You should be able to work the center of the bed from the edges, so adjust the width to your reach. Shorter gardeners may do better with a 4' wide bed. Two of ours are 4.5'.
Our five main beds are 5'x30' which we divide into three 8' sections and one 6' section. Depending on the crops we are growing, we further subdivide the 8' sections into smaller 4' sections. Tomatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, beans, corn and cukes get 8' sections. Onions, peppers, basil, broccoli, lettuce and other crops get 4' sections. Still others get smaller areas. Strawberries get 100 sq.ft. The area of each section reflects the amount of that crop we want to eat or preserve in some way. Figuring out what you want to grow, and how much of each takes experimentation. Settling on these dimensions allows you to plan and build trellises and cages you can use annually (more on these later).
To double dig a bed you will require a spading shovel and a spading fork. If you have hard, rocky soil, you will require a pick. As we are on rocky limestone, we acquired two galvanized buckets (2.5 gallons each) to carry rock to our rock pile.
A spading shovel has a blunt edge. Get the best one you can afford. Cheap ones at your big box garden center are made of sheet steel and will bend or deform under load and not last. The shaft may snap. Ours are forged steel that ring like a bell when tapped. You will find tutorials on preparing a double dug bed at https://www.growbiointensive.org/ and print instructions with diagrams in Jeavons' book How to Grow More Vegetables.
Start small. Jeavons says, "Start with one bed and get the principles down." We know someone who dug five 5'x40' beds (1,000 sq. ft. of growing area) with a backhoe. He became overwhelmed and now these beds lie buried beneath the weeds.
An important habit is to avoid stepping on your beds. A digging board distributes your weight. You will find a digging board useful in preparing your bed, aerating your bed annually, and transplanting seedlings into the bed. Use 3/4" exterior plywood. A good dimension is 3' x 4'. One of ours is 3.5' by 4' and is actually lighter than its smaller cousin owing to a lighter sheet of plywood. Cut a slot along the long edge so you can carry it easily. Sand the edges to remove splinters and roughness. Finish with 2 coats of exterior polyurethane or linseed oil. Make sure the plywood you get is not warped. We get plywood from a local lumber yard, as big box stores in our experience do not store plywood properly.
Edging. A well organized low maintenance garden distinguishes beds from paths and other open areas. Edging helps realize this, and should be part of your initial infrastructure. Raised bed gardeners use boards to make boxes. While we are not raised bed gardeners we have used boards in limited circumstances where a hard, visible and sturdy boundary helps. We use plastic edging on all our perennial beds to prevent grass rhizomes from taking over, and to provide a clean mowing edge. We like the look of grass and grass paths. Mulch paths require annual replacement of mulch and weeding. Straw on paths harbors slugs, requires repeated additions, is slippery when wet, and blows around in the wind, and winds up in the beds. We find straw unattractive and messy. Our wood edging, hemlock, lasts 5-6 years before it succumbs to rot and has to be replaced. In the spring of 2025 we replaced the edging shown in the second picture, installed in the spring of 2019. Hover over the images below to read captions and click to enlarge.
Principle 2: Compost for Soil Fertility
You will require organic matter to improve your soil. If you are just starting out, you may have to purchase compost until you master this second principle. You can produce organic matter by using cover crops and making your own compost. As urban dwellers, these activities were foreign to us. We cover these two steps in our Organic Gardening Primer, starting on page 12 for cover crops and on page 16 for compost, which link you will find on the Organic Gardening page in our drop down Growing Food menu.
To give you a sense of how quickly you can implement the practice of using cover crops, we show below the 4 image sequence capturing the two years after returning from the Jeavons workshop in March of 1997. Hover over images to read caption, and click to enlarge.
You will require organic matter to improve your soil. If you are just starting out, you may have to purchase compost until you master this second principle. You can produce organic matter by using cover crops and making your own compost. As urban dwellers, these activities were foreign to us. We cover these two steps in our Organic Gardening Primer, starting on page 12 for cover crops and on page 16 for compost, which link you will find on the Organic Gardening page in our drop down Growing Food menu.
To give you a sense of how quickly you can implement the practice of using cover crops, we show below the 4 image sequence capturing the two years after returning from the Jeavons workshop in March of 1997. Hover over images to read caption, and click to enlarge.
Next we show a recent year with a 3-image sequence for growing, cutting and skimming cover crops. I use shears for cutting cover crop, and Tania uses her Felco pruners. I kneel on a digging board with knee pads to protect my knees and use a spading shovel to skim the sod. We stack the sod, keep it watered, and use it in making our potting mix (more on this later). Place your cursor over the images to read the captions, and click to enlarge.
Below we show a 3-image progression for making compost. We turn our compost twice, turning in cover crop greens and spritzing with water if dry during the first turn (left), turning a second time onto a tarp (center), and then covering with a tarp to control moisture (right). We turn the second time onto a double layer of weed barrier in the center to prevent root invasion from nearby Norway maples. The weed barrier consists of 6 mil plastic on the bottom, and a large woven tarp on top which is stronger and will protect against punctures. The plastic is a moisture barrier and prevents roots from sensing moist organic matter. The tarp is a woven fabric and as it ages the weave weakens and roots easily penetrate it. Of course, if you do not have trees nearby, you will not require a weed barrier. Get quality tarps. We use http://www.tarpsupply.com/ . The plastic is clear 6 mil greenhouse film we use to cover our main greenhouse and Jeavons mini-greenhouse, available from Farm-Tek.
You will also require a water supply, related distribution lines if your garden is extensive, and hose. The water should be filtered from chlorine and the hose should be drinking water quality. Chlorine kills the soil bacteria required to break down your organic matter. Cheap hoses leach plastics and kink in use. You can find high quality hoses at https://waterrightinc.com/.. We use https://www.purewaterproducts.com/ for quality filters and cartridges. Scroll down to Garden Hose Filters on their website. A multi-pattern hose attachment at the end of your hose helps distribute water. Later you will require a watering wand on your hoses to water your plants. Buy quality. We bought the cheaper devices initially and they didn't last. The roses corroded and clogged with metallic debris or minerals and the handles leaked.
For Phase 1 of our 7 bed garden we installed pvc pipe underground to bring water from a house spigot to a central standpipe, from which we ran a secondary distribution line with valves, each of which had a hose with watering wand attached to water two adjacent beds. When we expanded to Phase 2 we added a four valve manifold to the standpipe shutoff to accommodate additional hoses to new beds. We replaced the old house spigot with a frost-proof spigot. The chlorine filter was attached directly to the house spigot at one end, and the underground distribution line at the other.
Filters are rated by number of gallons of water treated. To track water consumption we installed a water meter inside the cellar on the line serving the spigot. As there is an uphill slope from the house to the garden, it is simple to drain the distribution line prior to winter frost and freezes. Remember to take in the filter so that it doesn't freeze. We also painted above ground pvc components with (green) latex paint to protect against UV degradation.
For Phase 1 of our 7 bed garden we installed pvc pipe underground to bring water from a house spigot to a central standpipe, from which we ran a secondary distribution line with valves, each of which had a hose with watering wand attached to water two adjacent beds. When we expanded to Phase 2 we added a four valve manifold to the standpipe shutoff to accommodate additional hoses to new beds. We replaced the old house spigot with a frost-proof spigot. The chlorine filter was attached directly to the house spigot at one end, and the underground distribution line at the other.
Filters are rated by number of gallons of water treated. To track water consumption we installed a water meter inside the cellar on the line serving the spigot. As there is an uphill slope from the house to the garden, it is simple to drain the distribution line prior to winter frost and freezes. Remember to take in the filter so that it doesn't freeze. We also painted above ground pvc components with (green) latex paint to protect against UV degradation.
How much compost to use? You may be wondering how much compost to use during the double dig. It depends on how good or poor your soil is. We're on heavy clay and limestone once we get past the top inch of turf. We required a lot of compost to mix into the heavy clay and turn the color from yellow to something resembling soil. If you're just starting out and planning your first 100 sq.ft. bed you may require 6-8 big bags from your local garden center. Of course, you will require compost to add to your beds at the beginning of each season. You may find useful our one-page Garden Metrics summary which includes information on compost amounts, cover crop seed, and a recipe for potting mix.
Let's suppose you want to be totally self-sufficient and "grow" all your compost. Jeavons has developed the 60-30-10 rule (right). 60% of your garden bed time is in carbon-rich cover crops (green). Food crops are 30% and 10% would be for crops you sell and "export." Absent export, food crops could climb to 40%. Spatially, the diagram to the right gives you a sense of how much of your bed crop time must be allocated to growing your compost. Keep in mind you must double dig your beds before planting cover crops. You can't just remove the turf and sprinkle rye and clover seed on the top and expect anything to grow. You can find an excellent selection of cover crop seed from Fedco and Peaceful Valley. On Fedco, click on "Supplies" to get the drop down menu, and then click on Farm Seeds. On Peaceful Valley place your cursor on "Cover Crop Seed."
In Part 2 of our Organic Gardening Primer, starting on page 32, we construct an example of the 60-30-10 rule for a small garden with a four year rotation using a specific list of crops. The actual cover crop ratio calculation is shown on page 40. This example is worth mastering if you are going to succeed in improving your soil. It has literally taken years to transform our soil from cloddy clay to nicely textured loam.
In our case, we have many deciduous trees on our lot, whose leaves we incorporate in our compost pile, allowing us to reduce our carbon-rich cover crop ratio target to 40%. We keep track of this on our Cover Crop Ratio chart.
We also monitor the organic matter content of our soil, which percentage we get from our soil test. Our levels are above 10%. Another measure of soil health is Cation Exchange Capacity. Ours are very good, ranging from 16-24 in recent tests. We are currently using a soil test from the University of Maine, sold through Fedco Seeds, which you can find on their website by searching for "soil test.".
Let's suppose you want to be totally self-sufficient and "grow" all your compost. Jeavons has developed the 60-30-10 rule (right). 60% of your garden bed time is in carbon-rich cover crops (green). Food crops are 30% and 10% would be for crops you sell and "export." Absent export, food crops could climb to 40%. Spatially, the diagram to the right gives you a sense of how much of your bed crop time must be allocated to growing your compost. Keep in mind you must double dig your beds before planting cover crops. You can't just remove the turf and sprinkle rye and clover seed on the top and expect anything to grow. You can find an excellent selection of cover crop seed from Fedco and Peaceful Valley. On Fedco, click on "Supplies" to get the drop down menu, and then click on Farm Seeds. On Peaceful Valley place your cursor on "Cover Crop Seed."
In Part 2 of our Organic Gardening Primer, starting on page 32, we construct an example of the 60-30-10 rule for a small garden with a four year rotation using a specific list of crops. The actual cover crop ratio calculation is shown on page 40. This example is worth mastering if you are going to succeed in improving your soil. It has literally taken years to transform our soil from cloddy clay to nicely textured loam.
In our case, we have many deciduous trees on our lot, whose leaves we incorporate in our compost pile, allowing us to reduce our carbon-rich cover crop ratio target to 40%. We keep track of this on our Cover Crop Ratio chart.
We also monitor the organic matter content of our soil, which percentage we get from our soil test. Our levels are above 10%. Another measure of soil health is Cation Exchange Capacity. Ours are very good, ranging from 16-24 in recent tests. We are currently using a soil test from the University of Maine, sold through Fedco Seeds, which you can find on their website by searching for "soil test.".
How to Add Compost to Your Beds? The essential tool for this task is the U-bar, also called a broadfork or a manual plow. Ours is based on a Jeavons design you can find in more recent editions of his How To Grow More Vegetables. including an online version 8th edition in Appendix 1. Use a U-bar only after you have double-dug your bed. It cannot be used to break new ground without damaging the tines. Do not force it to lift rocks or roots you encounter, as you will bend the tines. We have a welder friend who has repaired ours on two occasions by reinforcing welds in key locations.
In preparing a bed for planting, we clean the bed with rakes (garden or leaf,depending on debris), edge it, add minerals as recommended by a soil test, add compost (see our one page Garden Metrics), and then aerate with the U-bar. To avoid compressing the soil, we stand on a digging board. As our beds are on a slope, a second person uses a board to prevent soil from spilling downhill, and uses a spading fork to knock wet cloddy soil through the tines of the U-bar.
In preparing a bed for planting, we clean the bed with rakes (garden or leaf,depending on debris), edge it, add minerals as recommended by a soil test, add compost (see our one page Garden Metrics), and then aerate with the U-bar. To avoid compressing the soil, we stand on a digging board. As our beds are on a slope, a second person uses a board to prevent soil from spilling downhill, and uses a spading fork to knock wet cloddy soil through the tines of the U-bar.
Principle 3. Hexagonal Close Spaced Planting
With Grow Biointensive® we plant in beds, not in rows. We maximize yield (lbs per square foot) by spacing plants as you would find in a honeycomb. Jeavons has worked out optimal spacing between seedlings to maximize yields, and encourages us to experiment with different spacings. For example, we found we could get both larger beets and higher yields by going from 4" to 5". However, for bulbing onions, there was a tradeoff as we increased distance. We could get higher yields but smaller onions at 4" or larger onions offset by smaller yields a 5". We prefer larger onions so went to 5". On pole beans we were surprised to find a dramatic increase in yields by reducing the number of poles in a 5' x 8' bed section from 12 poles to 9 poles. We surmise this reduction allowed more light to get to the vines. You will find Jeavons spacing recommendations in the charts at the end of How to Grow More Vegetables. We have three editions, including the very first one Gene purchased in the late 1970s while living in California. Gene was living in an apartment and occupied with other activities, but hung onto it. Should you purchase one, get the spiral bound version, which allows pages and charts to lie flat, making for easier use. Charts in some recent editions are not well laid out. We like and use the 6th edition Revised, spiral bound.
Additionally, hexagonal planting produces a living mulch, which shades the soil from weeds as the plants mature and reduces water evaporation. An important tool is a set of planting triangles Gene cut from thin plywood. For peas, as the triangle would be tiny, we use corrugated cardboard "rulers" with marks every 3" on one long edge, and 3" on the other long edge but offset to simulate a small triangle. We line up a row with string pulled taut on two wires and put the cardboard ruler on one side of the string. We fit 600 pea plants in a 5'x8' bed section working together, Gene on one side and Tania on the other, each working from the center of a row to the edge (image below, 2nd row left).
We transplant seedlings using a narrow trowel called a hori-hori. We have several, including a stainless steel one which is extra sharp and useful for digging out tough weeds. The hori-hori is one of our three most important hand tools, the other two being quality shears and a quality (Felco) pruner. View the six images of hexagonal close space planting below. You can read captions by placing your cursor over the images; click to enlarge.
With Grow Biointensive® we plant in beds, not in rows. We maximize yield (lbs per square foot) by spacing plants as you would find in a honeycomb. Jeavons has worked out optimal spacing between seedlings to maximize yields, and encourages us to experiment with different spacings. For example, we found we could get both larger beets and higher yields by going from 4" to 5". However, for bulbing onions, there was a tradeoff as we increased distance. We could get higher yields but smaller onions at 4" or larger onions offset by smaller yields a 5". We prefer larger onions so went to 5". On pole beans we were surprised to find a dramatic increase in yields by reducing the number of poles in a 5' x 8' bed section from 12 poles to 9 poles. We surmise this reduction allowed more light to get to the vines. You will find Jeavons spacing recommendations in the charts at the end of How to Grow More Vegetables. We have three editions, including the very first one Gene purchased in the late 1970s while living in California. Gene was living in an apartment and occupied with other activities, but hung onto it. Should you purchase one, get the spiral bound version, which allows pages and charts to lie flat, making for easier use. Charts in some recent editions are not well laid out. We like and use the 6th edition Revised, spiral bound.
Additionally, hexagonal planting produces a living mulch, which shades the soil from weeds as the plants mature and reduces water evaporation. An important tool is a set of planting triangles Gene cut from thin plywood. For peas, as the triangle would be tiny, we use corrugated cardboard "rulers" with marks every 3" on one long edge, and 3" on the other long edge but offset to simulate a small triangle. We line up a row with string pulled taut on two wires and put the cardboard ruler on one side of the string. We fit 600 pea plants in a 5'x8' bed section working together, Gene on one side and Tania on the other, each working from the center of a row to the edge (image below, 2nd row left).
We transplant seedlings using a narrow trowel called a hori-hori. We have several, including a stainless steel one which is extra sharp and useful for digging out tough weeds. The hori-hori is one of our three most important hand tools, the other two being quality shears and a quality (Felco) pruner. View the six images of hexagonal close space planting below. You can read captions by placing your cursor over the images; click to enlarge.
Principle 4. Companion Planting in Time and Space
Part 1: the General Case Applicable to All Biointensive Gardeners
At this point you have double dug your bed and arranged for securing or making compost. You now want to plant your crops. Everything we have discussed so far applies to you whether you purchase your plants as seedlings from a nursery or grow these from seeds yourself. With this principle we dig into two important questions: when to plant and what to plant next to any given crop. You may have heard of companion planting. This is companion planting in space -- what crop to plant next to another crop to attain certain benefits (or avoid certain disadvantages). There is also companion planting in time -- what to plant before (or after) another crop.
For example, onions and carrot are reciprocal beneficial companions in space. The onions repel the carrot fly whose maggots cause damage, and the carrots repel the onion leaf miner fly. Planting barley or mustard before carrots repels the carrot root nematode, which causes forked roots, illustrating companion planting in time. The chart on page 15 of our Organic Gardening Primer summarizes this principle nicely. Study this carefully.
After planting your crops, there are two next steps for you to consider:
(1) making trellises to enable easy maintenance, care and convenient harvesting. Here we focus on the horizontal trellis.
(2) protecting certain crops from pests and critters. We have an entire page, Pests & Diseases, that addresses this topic. Here we focus on one device we use to protect crops from insect pests -- tutu net cages. The image to the right shows both trellises and cages. Clockwise from the left: Trellises and cages for sweet potato, pea, onion, collards, cucumbers, Brussels.sprouts. We have since upgraded the sweet potato and cucumber trellis, as you will see below.
Trellises
The Horizontal Trellis for Irish Potatoes. Some years ago the Ecology Action newsletter suggested making a web of garden twine tied to corner stakes to hold up potato stalks, The object is to keep the stalks vertical as long as possible, as bending of the stalks signals tubers to stop storing food. When the season is over, you collect the tangled mess and toss it into your compost pile. As we chop our garden debris into 3"-6" pieces to speed breakdown, dealing with this tangled mess was a royal pain crying for another approach. .
We had already been using 7" square nylon mesh on our vertical panels for our pea trellis. This mesh comes in long lengths 5' wide, the width of a standard Jeavons bed, so the application was convenient. We built a horizontal frame for the potatoes and stapled the mesh to the frame which was fastened to four wooden corner legs. This worked out well. We stored this at the season's end for reuse in succeeding years (see image below left).
The Horizontal Trellis for Sweet Potatoes. Wood legs rot in our wet and heavy clay soils. In making another trellis for our sweet potato bed we improved the design by using electrical metal tubing -- emt -- for the legs (see image below center). We close the bottom end with a sledge hammer to make a sharp edge. We also cap the open pipe tops with bicycle tubing folded and stapled at one end to keep rainwater out of the pipes. At season's end, we hang up these and other horizontal trellises under the garage roof overhang (image below right). Water sometimes leaks in from the bottom, so drain on storage. You can find emt at Lowes. We used 1/2" emt for our winter greenhouse, and now use the tubing for a variety of devices. We use a pipe bender for 1/2" emt to make smooth bends. Hover over images to read captions and click to enlarge.
Part 1: the General Case Applicable to All Biointensive Gardeners
At this point you have double dug your bed and arranged for securing or making compost. You now want to plant your crops. Everything we have discussed so far applies to you whether you purchase your plants as seedlings from a nursery or grow these from seeds yourself. With this principle we dig into two important questions: when to plant and what to plant next to any given crop. You may have heard of companion planting. This is companion planting in space -- what crop to plant next to another crop to attain certain benefits (or avoid certain disadvantages). There is also companion planting in time -- what to plant before (or after) another crop.
For example, onions and carrot are reciprocal beneficial companions in space. The onions repel the carrot fly whose maggots cause damage, and the carrots repel the onion leaf miner fly. Planting barley or mustard before carrots repels the carrot root nematode, which causes forked roots, illustrating companion planting in time. The chart on page 15 of our Organic Gardening Primer summarizes this principle nicely. Study this carefully.
After planting your crops, there are two next steps for you to consider:
(1) making trellises to enable easy maintenance, care and convenient harvesting. Here we focus on the horizontal trellis.
(2) protecting certain crops from pests and critters. We have an entire page, Pests & Diseases, that addresses this topic. Here we focus on one device we use to protect crops from insect pests -- tutu net cages. The image to the right shows both trellises and cages. Clockwise from the left: Trellises and cages for sweet potato, pea, onion, collards, cucumbers, Brussels.sprouts. We have since upgraded the sweet potato and cucumber trellis, as you will see below.
Trellises
The Horizontal Trellis for Irish Potatoes. Some years ago the Ecology Action newsletter suggested making a web of garden twine tied to corner stakes to hold up potato stalks, The object is to keep the stalks vertical as long as possible, as bending of the stalks signals tubers to stop storing food. When the season is over, you collect the tangled mess and toss it into your compost pile. As we chop our garden debris into 3"-6" pieces to speed breakdown, dealing with this tangled mess was a royal pain crying for another approach. .
We had already been using 7" square nylon mesh on our vertical panels for our pea trellis. This mesh comes in long lengths 5' wide, the width of a standard Jeavons bed, so the application was convenient. We built a horizontal frame for the potatoes and stapled the mesh to the frame which was fastened to four wooden corner legs. This worked out well. We stored this at the season's end for reuse in succeeding years (see image below left).
The Horizontal Trellis for Sweet Potatoes. Wood legs rot in our wet and heavy clay soils. In making another trellis for our sweet potato bed we improved the design by using electrical metal tubing -- emt -- for the legs (see image below center). We close the bottom end with a sledge hammer to make a sharp edge. We also cap the open pipe tops with bicycle tubing folded and stapled at one end to keep rainwater out of the pipes. At season's end, we hang up these and other horizontal trellises under the garage roof overhang (image below right). Water sometimes leaks in from the bottom, so drain on storage. You can find emt at Lowes. We used 1/2" emt for our winter greenhouse, and now use the tubing for a variety of devices. We use a pipe bender for 1/2" emt to make smooth bends. Hover over images to read captions and click to enlarge.
Other Horizontal Trellises.
1. Onions. Each green onion spear is tied to one layer of the onion. If that spear is damaged or diseased, any subsequent infection spreads to that layer alone. This explains why we find onions with only one layer that is rotten. Therefore, it is important to keep the spears erect. A horizontal trellis using nylon mesh does this.
2. Herbs. Cilantro and dill are valuable both for the green leaves and fern during the early season, and for the seeds later. Caraway is great for its pungent seeds. At the later stages the plants can get tall, heavy, and flop over during a rainstorm. To keep these erect and organized we use a horizontal trellis made from welded wire mesh for concrete with a 6" square grid 48" by 84" (6 squares by 14 squares). We hang these from 1/2" emt using hooks attached to the pipes at two levels so we can raise the trellis as the plants grow. Lowes carries these mesh panels and emt.
3. Asparagus. This is another vegetable whose fern gets quite tall -- up to 7' or so in our garden. We use the same welded wire concrete reinforcing panels. As the width is a bit shy, we spliced another two rows of squares from a separate panel.
4. Peppers. Pepper plants get heavy with fruit and can flop over. We grow 15 plants in a 4; x 5' bed section. Yes, we could use stakes, but you have to frequently re-tie the plants as they grow. A horizontal trellis with two levels of hooks makes this a simple task and holds the plants securely in place. You can see our hook design in the last image in the gallery below.
5. Echinacea angustifolia. This is a tall, bushy plant with multiple stems whose roots we use to make an antiviral tincture. We have a 4'x5' patch of several plants which we keep organized using the same wire mesh panels, again with two levels of hooks. We also use the same arrangement on Echinacea purpurea flowers.
6. Japanese Anemone. This spreading perennial blooms in the fall with multiple white blossoms on tall stems 5' to 6' tall, As these lean toward the sun, the welded wire mesh keeps them organized and erect, creating an attractive display. This stand is outside the fenced area, so the mesh keeps the deer from running through the plants.
7. Asiatic lilies. We have a large stand of these that benefits from a horizontal grid to keep the heavy blooms erect and well organized.
Gene once came across a commercial flower grower whose beds were 5'x100'. Each bed had different cut flowers growing in them. The operator had stretched nylon mesh horizontally across each bed making for easy harvesting of straight-stemmed flowers.
Below are images for some of these trellises. The first two rows show the trellises in use. The foliage nicely hides the metal mesh trellises. The third row shows two of these in winter so you can view these more clearly. Hover over the images to read the captions and click to enlarge.
1. Onions. Each green onion spear is tied to one layer of the onion. If that spear is damaged or diseased, any subsequent infection spreads to that layer alone. This explains why we find onions with only one layer that is rotten. Therefore, it is important to keep the spears erect. A horizontal trellis using nylon mesh does this.
2. Herbs. Cilantro and dill are valuable both for the green leaves and fern during the early season, and for the seeds later. Caraway is great for its pungent seeds. At the later stages the plants can get tall, heavy, and flop over during a rainstorm. To keep these erect and organized we use a horizontal trellis made from welded wire mesh for concrete with a 6" square grid 48" by 84" (6 squares by 14 squares). We hang these from 1/2" emt using hooks attached to the pipes at two levels so we can raise the trellis as the plants grow. Lowes carries these mesh panels and emt.
3. Asparagus. This is another vegetable whose fern gets quite tall -- up to 7' or so in our garden. We use the same welded wire concrete reinforcing panels. As the width is a bit shy, we spliced another two rows of squares from a separate panel.
4. Peppers. Pepper plants get heavy with fruit and can flop over. We grow 15 plants in a 4; x 5' bed section. Yes, we could use stakes, but you have to frequently re-tie the plants as they grow. A horizontal trellis with two levels of hooks makes this a simple task and holds the plants securely in place. You can see our hook design in the last image in the gallery below.
5. Echinacea angustifolia. This is a tall, bushy plant with multiple stems whose roots we use to make an antiviral tincture. We have a 4'x5' patch of several plants which we keep organized using the same wire mesh panels, again with two levels of hooks. We also use the same arrangement on Echinacea purpurea flowers.
6. Japanese Anemone. This spreading perennial blooms in the fall with multiple white blossoms on tall stems 5' to 6' tall, As these lean toward the sun, the welded wire mesh keeps them organized and erect, creating an attractive display. This stand is outside the fenced area, so the mesh keeps the deer from running through the plants.
7. Asiatic lilies. We have a large stand of these that benefits from a horizontal grid to keep the heavy blooms erect and well organized.
Gene once came across a commercial flower grower whose beds were 5'x100'. Each bed had different cut flowers growing in them. The operator had stretched nylon mesh horizontally across each bed making for easy harvesting of straight-stemmed flowers.
Below are images for some of these trellises. The first two rows show the trellises in use. The foliage nicely hides the metal mesh trellises. The third row shows two of these in winter so you can view these more clearly. Hover over the images to read the captions and click to enlarge.
Tutu Net Cages
Growers who plant in rows use row covers as physical barriers to protect crops from insects. Being somewhat opaque, these reduce sunlight to the plant and require lifting the cover to see what's going on underneath. By contrast, we grow intensively in small areas. What we required was a rectangular cage open at the bottom. Our first effort was to cover our cucumber seedlings with tulle. It worked to keep off the cucumber beetle, but its light fabric tore easily. Searching for different fabrics, we came across tutu net, the polymer fabric used to make ballet skirts. Worked like a charm, and had a life under UV as long as the commercial UV resistant fabrics. Gene creates a a pattern and sews these up in the winter using an old Necchi sewing machine he had required decades ago. The fabric comes in different colors, widths, and is sold by the yard or the bolt. We use Ivory. It allows us to see through the fabric without the distortion of another color.
Initially we supported these cages with four wooden poles topped with old socks to protect the fabric from tearing at the corners. Eventually wind loads tore holes precisely at these points. Secondly, wood rots. We graduated to emt, bending the pipes to make frames that distributed the loads over a longer area. We curved the corners to prevent tearing through.
We use cages and their supportive emt frames on brassicas against the cabbage moth (collards, kale, broccoli, and Brussels), on beets against the beet miner fly, on spinach against the spinach leaf miner, and on cucumbers against the cucumber beetle. We have reduced insect damage to almost zero, do not have to spray, and largely eliminated having to scout for insects. This coming season we will try a cage on eggplants, which we gave up growing years ago due to heavy flea beetle damage. The openings on the tutu net mesh are slightly smaller than the size of a flea beetle, so we will give it a try. Flea beetles also go after turnips and rutabaga, but we don't grow those anymore. We're not keen on turnips. Despite the high caloric yields of rutabagas these did poorly in our soil -- low germination and horrible powdery mildew.
We install the cages immediately on transplanting seedlings into their bed sections, checking each seedling to remove any eggs. The bottoms are slit at the corners allowing for flaring out of fabric so that we can hold the fabric to the ground. We use a variety of objects for this -- stones, metal pipe, lengths of 2" x 2" wood --- but not pins which would puncture the cloth. At the end of the season we role up the cages, tie with string, label, and store in a large contractor bag in our garage for protection against mice, who like to chew holes and make off with nesting material. Just a heads up.
Below are images for some of these cages. Hover over the images to read the captions and click on the image to enlarge.
Growers who plant in rows use row covers as physical barriers to protect crops from insects. Being somewhat opaque, these reduce sunlight to the plant and require lifting the cover to see what's going on underneath. By contrast, we grow intensively in small areas. What we required was a rectangular cage open at the bottom. Our first effort was to cover our cucumber seedlings with tulle. It worked to keep off the cucumber beetle, but its light fabric tore easily. Searching for different fabrics, we came across tutu net, the polymer fabric used to make ballet skirts. Worked like a charm, and had a life under UV as long as the commercial UV resistant fabrics. Gene creates a a pattern and sews these up in the winter using an old Necchi sewing machine he had required decades ago. The fabric comes in different colors, widths, and is sold by the yard or the bolt. We use Ivory. It allows us to see through the fabric without the distortion of another color.
Initially we supported these cages with four wooden poles topped with old socks to protect the fabric from tearing at the corners. Eventually wind loads tore holes precisely at these points. Secondly, wood rots. We graduated to emt, bending the pipes to make frames that distributed the loads over a longer area. We curved the corners to prevent tearing through.
We use cages and their supportive emt frames on brassicas against the cabbage moth (collards, kale, broccoli, and Brussels), on beets against the beet miner fly, on spinach against the spinach leaf miner, and on cucumbers against the cucumber beetle. We have reduced insect damage to almost zero, do not have to spray, and largely eliminated having to scout for insects. This coming season we will try a cage on eggplants, which we gave up growing years ago due to heavy flea beetle damage. The openings on the tutu net mesh are slightly smaller than the size of a flea beetle, so we will give it a try. Flea beetles also go after turnips and rutabaga, but we don't grow those anymore. We're not keen on turnips. Despite the high caloric yields of rutabagas these did poorly in our soil -- low germination and horrible powdery mildew.
We install the cages immediately on transplanting seedlings into their bed sections, checking each seedling to remove any eggs. The bottoms are slit at the corners allowing for flaring out of fabric so that we can hold the fabric to the ground. We use a variety of objects for this -- stones, metal pipe, lengths of 2" x 2" wood --- but not pins which would puncture the cloth. At the end of the season we role up the cages, tie with string, label, and store in a large contractor bag in our garage for protection against mice, who like to chew holes and make off with nesting material. Just a heads up.
Below are images for some of these cages. Hover over the images to read the captions and click on the image to enlarge.
Part 2: The Case Where You Want To Grow Your Plants from Seeds
Before Grow Biointensive (GB) we grew our seeds in a makeshift manner, both indoors on benches using a variety of scavenged pots, and outdoors under recycled window panes. We grew mostly flowers, but also tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries on a three-tiered cone-shaped mound, parsley, asparagus, and black raspberries. Groundhogs ate the peas and slugs devoured the lettuce. We tried kiwi but failed. We lost two sets of 6 fruit trees to root rot because we did not know what we were doing. The tomatoes suffered from verticillium wilt. Though Gene had taken Master Gardener training in 1996, we doubt we would have progressed very far beyond this level had we not stumbled across Jeavons and taken his workshop. Jeavons was high octane fuel. That was in 1997. After that workshop we were motivated to up our game.
Growing your own plants from seed takes you to another level of complexity and exposes you to a broad range of tools, devices and gardening aides which fill the back pages of garden seed catalogs. Grow Biointensive puts most of this aside. Our main tools are a plant stand indoors for early planted warm crops (e.g., tomatoes, peppers, basil, stevia, zinnias); a Jeavons designed mini-greenhouse with wooden flats following a Jeavons example made from redwood, for which we substituted local pine.
Our Plant Stand
Ours is a three-tiered plant stand with a capacity to hold twelve 22" x 11" Perma-Nest plastic planting trays. We set up heating pads on the lowest level for tomatoes, peppers, basil and warm season herbs and flowers. The next two levels were for cool flowers and herbs, and for warm plants once these have germinated and had grown a little. We used readily available 4 or 6 celled black plastic cell packs which we had saved from nursery purchases but can also be bought separately. When seeds germinated and grew, and the weather warmed up outside, we potted these up and moved these to the mini-greenhouse.
The two most important points to keep in mind are moisture control and air circulation. We keep a small fan blowing on the trays to prevent fungal infections. We do the same outdoors in the mini-greenhouse. We also keep handy a spray bottle containing an antifungal spray of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide in water: To 1 pint of water add 1 T H2O2 and 2 T vinegar plus a couple drops of liquid dish soap as a sticker if necessary. Spray as a prophylactic for damping off on sensitive seedlings (especially spinach, beets, dill and carrots in our experience).
Each light fixture has four fluorescent tubes, all wide spectrum. The plant stand faces two large windows, facing south and west. We have the lights on a timer. The fan and heating pads are plugged into a power strip. The fan stays on all the time.
Before Grow Biointensive (GB) we grew our seeds in a makeshift manner, both indoors on benches using a variety of scavenged pots, and outdoors under recycled window panes. We grew mostly flowers, but also tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries on a three-tiered cone-shaped mound, parsley, asparagus, and black raspberries. Groundhogs ate the peas and slugs devoured the lettuce. We tried kiwi but failed. We lost two sets of 6 fruit trees to root rot because we did not know what we were doing. The tomatoes suffered from verticillium wilt. Though Gene had taken Master Gardener training in 1996, we doubt we would have progressed very far beyond this level had we not stumbled across Jeavons and taken his workshop. Jeavons was high octane fuel. That was in 1997. After that workshop we were motivated to up our game.
Growing your own plants from seed takes you to another level of complexity and exposes you to a broad range of tools, devices and gardening aides which fill the back pages of garden seed catalogs. Grow Biointensive puts most of this aside. Our main tools are a plant stand indoors for early planted warm crops (e.g., tomatoes, peppers, basil, stevia, zinnias); a Jeavons designed mini-greenhouse with wooden flats following a Jeavons example made from redwood, for which we substituted local pine.
Our Plant Stand
Ours is a three-tiered plant stand with a capacity to hold twelve 22" x 11" Perma-Nest plastic planting trays. We set up heating pads on the lowest level for tomatoes, peppers, basil and warm season herbs and flowers. The next two levels were for cool flowers and herbs, and for warm plants once these have germinated and had grown a little. We used readily available 4 or 6 celled black plastic cell packs which we had saved from nursery purchases but can also be bought separately. When seeds germinated and grew, and the weather warmed up outside, we potted these up and moved these to the mini-greenhouse.
The two most important points to keep in mind are moisture control and air circulation. We keep a small fan blowing on the trays to prevent fungal infections. We do the same outdoors in the mini-greenhouse. We also keep handy a spray bottle containing an antifungal spray of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide in water: To 1 pint of water add 1 T H2O2 and 2 T vinegar plus a couple drops of liquid dish soap as a sticker if necessary. Spray as a prophylactic for damping off on sensitive seedlings (especially spinach, beets, dill and carrots in our experience).
Each light fixture has four fluorescent tubes, all wide spectrum. The plant stand faces two large windows, facing south and west. We have the lights on a timer. The fan and heating pads are plugged into a power strip. The fan stays on all the time.
The Jeavons Mini-Greenhouse
We followed the Jeavons design, which is available in more recent editions of How to Grow More Vegetables. You can find the design in an online version of the 8th edition in Appendix 1. It is a challenging project, but the instructions are clear, and the materials and hardware so carefully detailed, that a person who can use a skill saw, pencil, straight edge, drill, and other hand tools will come out on top. We ended up building two in the beginning. Two fellow gardeners to whom I gave the design also built one each. Another couple who were living in an intentional community had a local carpenter build several for their Grow Biointensive community garden. On visiting them we noticed a mistake and an omission. The carpenter substituted ordinary flat metal hinges for the hinges Jeavons used. He also forgot to install four pegs in the four corners of the frame which, when slotted into four holes in the four roof panels, prevented the roof panels from splaying out. Consequently, the roof was not airtight and heat escaped.
The mini-greenhouse holds 14 wooden flats. Each flat is is 22"x14" and holds about 300 seedlings spaced 1" apart. You can also find this design in the 8th edition in Appendix 1.. We found 1"x4" pine board work well and last a long time, as pine contains resins that delay decay. One of the bottom boards may have to be ripped. Leave a small space (design recommends 1/8") between bottom boards so water can drain. In use, line the bottom with paper. We formerly used sheets from an 18"x 24" art pad we purchased at a local store. We then realized that the long strips of brown paper used as stuffing in mail order boxes fit perfectly. The perforations typical to some of these allow easy tearing at every third perforation. We then fill with potting mix. You can find our recipe near the bottom of our one page Garden Metrics. You can plant more than one crop in a flat; just leave a blank row. We run a length of masking tape on a long edge and mark the crop and date with a black Sharpie t. Burnish the tape with your pen to make a stronger contact, as the tape tends to loosen over time as you water the flat.
We use a framed screen of chicken wire to plant seeds. The wire cells are hexagonally arranged and 1" apart. Using a dibble stick, we drop seeds into the holes. On larger seeds (e.g. corn and beans) we plant farther apart. After placing flats into the mini-greenhouse, we water the flats gently. The brick patio holds heat for cool nights, though on late frosts or cold nights we put an electric radiator style heater inside and cover the mini-greenhouse with quilts or blankets. On windy nights (March winds) we put lengths of 2"x4" boards on the roof panels to hold the covers in place.
The four bottom panels of the mini-greenhouse are held together with bolts. In the fall we lift the roof off the bottom and store on a shelf in the garage. We unscrew the wing nuts from the bolts and store the four panels in the garage. Every now and then one or more of the panels degrades and requires replacement, usually from rot due to water intrusion. You might have difficulty getting redwood as the design states. We used local pine to good effect. We applied linseed oil to protect the wood. We found sacrificial lath in bundles at Home Depot.
The most difficult part to locate might be the tubular nylon webbing Jeavons uses for the hinges. We replaced the four hinges on the older mini-greenhouse this summer after 25 years of use. The product you want can be found at Strapworks. The design specifies 8' of 3/4" nylon webbing. We recommend 1". Get 10' in case you make mistakes in cutting. The small role we purchased cost only $13.14 (2025).
Hover over the images below to read the captions. Click on the images to enlarge. .
We followed the Jeavons design, which is available in more recent editions of How to Grow More Vegetables. You can find the design in an online version of the 8th edition in Appendix 1. It is a challenging project, but the instructions are clear, and the materials and hardware so carefully detailed, that a person who can use a skill saw, pencil, straight edge, drill, and other hand tools will come out on top. We ended up building two in the beginning. Two fellow gardeners to whom I gave the design also built one each. Another couple who were living in an intentional community had a local carpenter build several for their Grow Biointensive community garden. On visiting them we noticed a mistake and an omission. The carpenter substituted ordinary flat metal hinges for the hinges Jeavons used. He also forgot to install four pegs in the four corners of the frame which, when slotted into four holes in the four roof panels, prevented the roof panels from splaying out. Consequently, the roof was not airtight and heat escaped.
The mini-greenhouse holds 14 wooden flats. Each flat is is 22"x14" and holds about 300 seedlings spaced 1" apart. You can also find this design in the 8th edition in Appendix 1.. We found 1"x4" pine board work well and last a long time, as pine contains resins that delay decay. One of the bottom boards may have to be ripped. Leave a small space (design recommends 1/8") between bottom boards so water can drain. In use, line the bottom with paper. We formerly used sheets from an 18"x 24" art pad we purchased at a local store. We then realized that the long strips of brown paper used as stuffing in mail order boxes fit perfectly. The perforations typical to some of these allow easy tearing at every third perforation. We then fill with potting mix. You can find our recipe near the bottom of our one page Garden Metrics. You can plant more than one crop in a flat; just leave a blank row. We run a length of masking tape on a long edge and mark the crop and date with a black Sharpie t. Burnish the tape with your pen to make a stronger contact, as the tape tends to loosen over time as you water the flat.
We use a framed screen of chicken wire to plant seeds. The wire cells are hexagonally arranged and 1" apart. Using a dibble stick, we drop seeds into the holes. On larger seeds (e.g. corn and beans) we plant farther apart. After placing flats into the mini-greenhouse, we water the flats gently. The brick patio holds heat for cool nights, though on late frosts or cold nights we put an electric radiator style heater inside and cover the mini-greenhouse with quilts or blankets. On windy nights (March winds) we put lengths of 2"x4" boards on the roof panels to hold the covers in place.
The four bottom panels of the mini-greenhouse are held together with bolts. In the fall we lift the roof off the bottom and store on a shelf in the garage. We unscrew the wing nuts from the bolts and store the four panels in the garage. Every now and then one or more of the panels degrades and requires replacement, usually from rot due to water intrusion. You might have difficulty getting redwood as the design states. We used local pine to good effect. We applied linseed oil to protect the wood. We found sacrificial lath in bundles at Home Depot.
The most difficult part to locate might be the tubular nylon webbing Jeavons uses for the hinges. We replaced the four hinges on the older mini-greenhouse this summer after 25 years of use. The product you want can be found at Strapworks. The design specifies 8' of 3/4" nylon webbing. We recommend 1". Get 10' in case you make mistakes in cutting. The small role we purchased cost only $13.14 (2025).
Hover over the images below to read the captions. Click on the images to enlarge. .
Principles 5 and 6. Carbon Efficient Crops versus Calorie Efficient Crops
Fifth Feature of Grow Biointensive® – using carbon-efficient crops. Carbon-efficient crops produce a lot of carbon per unit area, and are therefore desirable for adding carbon to the soil and carbon for your compost pile. If these produce edible crops, you can grow food and carbon at the same time (e.g., sweet corn). From the Jeavons tables (low yields), we find the following carbon content per 100 sq.ft. for the top ten crops (see table below left). Keep in mind that annual grasses (oats, rye, barley) produce as much or more biomass below the surface in their roots as they do above the ground.
The way Jeavons incorporates this carbon within the soil is skimming the top or turf and composting that in piles, and letting the root mass decompose in the bed. For heavy root crops like rye, this takes about three weeks in the spring, and produces a wonderful loamy soil texture. For fall-planted crops such as oats, the winter kills the plants, and the roots decompose over the winter and early spring. The soil is ready for early spring crops such as lettuce and spinach.You can read more about cover crop seeds on the Fedco website here: https://www.fedcoseeds.com/supplies/farm-seed
Sixth feature of Grow Biointensive® – using calorie-efficient crops. Here, the object is to produce the most calories per unit area. The best crops for this tend to be root crops -- not grains, such as wheat, which comes in at 6,000 calories per 100 sq.ft (low yields). From the Jeavons tables, low yields, we find the caloric content per 100 sq.ft. for the top ten crops in the image below right. Earlier we mentioned rutabaga. We were led to try this because of its high caloric content. Notice that wheat doesn't come close to making the top ten. One season years ago we gave it a try on a 40 sq.ft. bed section. After threshing and winnowing we got only a half cup of wheat berries. We calculated the caloric content of our crop yields per square foot for in the last column of our 2017 CALORIES spreadsheet.
Fifth Feature of Grow Biointensive® – using carbon-efficient crops. Carbon-efficient crops produce a lot of carbon per unit area, and are therefore desirable for adding carbon to the soil and carbon for your compost pile. If these produce edible crops, you can grow food and carbon at the same time (e.g., sweet corn). From the Jeavons tables (low yields), we find the following carbon content per 100 sq.ft. for the top ten crops (see table below left). Keep in mind that annual grasses (oats, rye, barley) produce as much or more biomass below the surface in their roots as they do above the ground.
The way Jeavons incorporates this carbon within the soil is skimming the top or turf and composting that in piles, and letting the root mass decompose in the bed. For heavy root crops like rye, this takes about three weeks in the spring, and produces a wonderful loamy soil texture. For fall-planted crops such as oats, the winter kills the plants, and the roots decompose over the winter and early spring. The soil is ready for early spring crops such as lettuce and spinach.You can read more about cover crop seeds on the Fedco website here: https://www.fedcoseeds.com/supplies/farm-seed
Sixth feature of Grow Biointensive® – using calorie-efficient crops. Here, the object is to produce the most calories per unit area. The best crops for this tend to be root crops -- not grains, such as wheat, which comes in at 6,000 calories per 100 sq.ft (low yields). From the Jeavons tables, low yields, we find the caloric content per 100 sq.ft. for the top ten crops in the image below right. Earlier we mentioned rutabaga. We were led to try this because of its high caloric content. Notice that wheat doesn't come close to making the top ten. One season years ago we gave it a try on a 40 sq.ft. bed section. After threshing and winnowing we got only a half cup of wheat berries. We calculated the caloric content of our crop yields per square foot for in the last column of our 2017 CALORIES spreadsheet.
Principle 7. Open Pollinated Seeds
Jeavons endorses open pollinated seeds so that gardeners can save their own seed, and confidently plant succeeding generations and get the same results. This would not be the case with hybrids. You can read about this in a two-minute detour here. We save seeds from flowers, several vegetables, herbs, and medicinal plants. We also save seeds from some of our biennial vegetables such as large leaf tatsoi, Russian red kale, white kale, and collards. With these, we collect seeds from one of these per year to avoid crosses, e.g., getting kalards produced from kale and collard crosses which happened one year. We also save seed from isatis among the medicinal herbs (a biennial brassica).
With few exception, we use open pollinated seeds in our garden. Sweet corn is one of those. We grow 40 plants in our 5'x8' corn patch. We tried open pollinated corn early on but the tasseling was uneven in time leading to poor pollination and low yields. Might work for a larger patch
With roots, we have been using the same garlic variety since the beginning. We save four or so Beauregard sweet potato tubers to use the next season to grow out slips. There is no waste, as we eat the potatoes when we have achieved all the slips we want. This is not the case with Irish potatoes, where you require the tuber to plant.
We save our seeds in an airtight plastic container in which is nestled a packet of silica gel, a drying agent. We store the container in a cool cellar room. Below are three images. Hover over the image for the caption and click to enlarge.
Jeavons endorses open pollinated seeds so that gardeners can save their own seed, and confidently plant succeeding generations and get the same results. This would not be the case with hybrids. You can read about this in a two-minute detour here. We save seeds from flowers, several vegetables, herbs, and medicinal plants. We also save seeds from some of our biennial vegetables such as large leaf tatsoi, Russian red kale, white kale, and collards. With these, we collect seeds from one of these per year to avoid crosses, e.g., getting kalards produced from kale and collard crosses which happened one year. We also save seed from isatis among the medicinal herbs (a biennial brassica).
With few exception, we use open pollinated seeds in our garden. Sweet corn is one of those. We grow 40 plants in our 5'x8' corn patch. We tried open pollinated corn early on but the tasseling was uneven in time leading to poor pollination and low yields. Might work for a larger patch
With roots, we have been using the same garlic variety since the beginning. We save four or so Beauregard sweet potato tubers to use the next season to grow out slips. There is no waste, as we eat the potatoes when we have achieved all the slips we want. This is not the case with Irish potatoes, where you require the tuber to plant.
We save our seeds in an airtight plastic container in which is nestled a packet of silica gel, a drying agent. We store the container in a cool cellar room. Below are three images. Hover over the image for the caption and click to enlarge.
Additional Tools and Devices You May Find Useful
We finish with mentioning some additional tools and devices we have found useful, and list these here:
* Large barrels (e.g., 30 gallon Rubbermaid) for collecting leaves and debris and hauling to your compost pile).
* A dolly to do the hauling.
* A few 5 gallon plastic buckets to measure soil and potting mix, collect small amounts of debris and weeds, collect produce, carry small hand tools.
* A watering can to water seedlings in your mini-greenhouse.
* A drying rack to dry herbs, cure garlic and onions (see images below).
* A dehydrator for drying vegetables (Borghese tomatoes), fruit, herbs. Temperature control is important to preserve vitamins and enzymes. Many low end dehydrators do not have a thermostat; the control is off or on. We recommend top of the line Excalibur. In reviews we read that the most frequent failure is the thermostat, and the top of the line Excalibur has a high quality thermostat. Ours has served us for many years. You may wish to investigate brands for yourself, as equivalent or better brands may have come on the market since we purchased ours.
* Glass quart jars to store dried herbs, dried fruit and vegetables, dried roots.
* A garden notebook for keeping track and keeping on track. See our Keeping (On) Track, presentation at the PASA 2013 workshop on "Food With Less Fuel: The Low Energy Homestead," where we discussed how we used charts, tables and maps to keep track of growing tasks, and to keep ON track.
* Season extension using a winter greenhouse. Lastly, a winter greenhouse (image below). Our self-designed and built winter greenhouse 2.0 followed a prototype that turned out to be a disaster, but from which we learned a lot. We learned much on growing greens during the winter from Eliot Coleman, whose Four Season Harvest describes how to grow food in the late summer and fall to harvest throughout the winter. We show how we built our winter greenhouse in this photographic essay Winter Greenhouse which we presented at a PASA 2013 workshop, "Food With Less Fuel: The Low Energy Homestead." On our Videos & Pics page we have a photographic essay on Erecting the Greenhouse, which we do in the fall, and take down in the spring. We share additional details on dealing with Extreme Measures for handling low temperatures and Storm Damage.
We finish with mentioning some additional tools and devices we have found useful, and list these here:
* Large barrels (e.g., 30 gallon Rubbermaid) for collecting leaves and debris and hauling to your compost pile).
* A dolly to do the hauling.
* A few 5 gallon plastic buckets to measure soil and potting mix, collect small amounts of debris and weeds, collect produce, carry small hand tools.
* A watering can to water seedlings in your mini-greenhouse.
* A drying rack to dry herbs, cure garlic and onions (see images below).
* A dehydrator for drying vegetables (Borghese tomatoes), fruit, herbs. Temperature control is important to preserve vitamins and enzymes. Many low end dehydrators do not have a thermostat; the control is off or on. We recommend top of the line Excalibur. In reviews we read that the most frequent failure is the thermostat, and the top of the line Excalibur has a high quality thermostat. Ours has served us for many years. You may wish to investigate brands for yourself, as equivalent or better brands may have come on the market since we purchased ours.
* Glass quart jars to store dried herbs, dried fruit and vegetables, dried roots.
* A garden notebook for keeping track and keeping on track. See our Keeping (On) Track, presentation at the PASA 2013 workshop on "Food With Less Fuel: The Low Energy Homestead," where we discussed how we used charts, tables and maps to keep track of growing tasks, and to keep ON track.
* Season extension using a winter greenhouse. Lastly, a winter greenhouse (image below). Our self-designed and built winter greenhouse 2.0 followed a prototype that turned out to be a disaster, but from which we learned a lot. We learned much on growing greens during the winter from Eliot Coleman, whose Four Season Harvest describes how to grow food in the late summer and fall to harvest throughout the winter. We show how we built our winter greenhouse in this photographic essay Winter Greenhouse which we presented at a PASA 2013 workshop, "Food With Less Fuel: The Low Energy Homestead." On our Videos & Pics page we have a photographic essay on Erecting the Greenhouse, which we do in the fall, and take down in the spring. We share additional details on dealing with Extreme Measures for handling low temperatures and Storm Damage.
This brings us to the end. Feel free to contact us with your questions and comments. We love hearing from fellow gardeners.