Biointensive Gardening Plan

The term biointensive gardening refers to a form of gardening where the focus is on the maximum yield of crops from minimum area of soil. At the same time, the quality and fertility of the soil is sustained. This kind of organic gardening is used mainly for growing organic vegetables and fruits and has found wide acceptance by commercial farms as well as home gardeners. As you know when you plant a piece of land with a particular vegetable or crop, after you harvest it, the fertility and quality of soil decreases. But in biointensive gardening, the quality of the soil is retained and you can plow the soil and sow seeds in it immediately. In this method of gardening, the techniques are modified from French intensive gardening methods and English biodynamic methods as well as gardening tricks employed by ancient Chinese and Greeks. Biointensive gardening plan is a closed system whereby you can get larger yields in agriculture while retaining the fertility of the soil. Here we are going to discuss biointensive garden plan and how you can try this at home.

Biointensive Garden Plan

The biointensive gardening plan is a complex one, but I will try to simplify it so that you can apply this for your very own vegetable garden or herb garden at home. All you need is a small piece of land which receives plenty of sunlight for intensive gardening. Even if you have a few square foot of land, you can employ biointensive gardening techniques to grow organic vegetables to sustain your family. The main thing to remember while doing biointensive gardening is to pay special attention to the soil, the plants that you choose to grow and the composting.

It relies heavily on the technique of double digging and the use of raised bed gardening. In double digging, a 4 inch deep trench with a width of 1 foot is dug across the entire width of the patch of land. Next all the soil that has been just dug, is set aside. Now with a raking spade the soil beneath the trench is loosened and aerated to a depth of 4 inches. Next another 4 inch deep trench measuring approximately half a foot is dug, just adjacent to the first trench.

The soil that has been dug from the second trench is placed over the first trench and the soil beneath the second trench is loosened with a raking spade. Now a third trench is dug and the soil from the third trench is placed over the second trench. This will continue until you come to the third trench. Now the soil from the first trench that you have kept aside is placed over the last trench. This is the biointensive garden layout and with the help of this the soil bed is raised by several inches. Double digging allows better drainage of water and also lets the roots of the plants grow deeper into the soil. This helps the plant to get more nutrients and the plants can thrive and grow.

Once you are done tilling the land, the next step in biointensive gardening is planning how to plant the seeds or saplings. Traditionally, seeds or saplings are planted in rows. But in this technique of gardening, seeds and plants are grown in a triangular or hexagonal pattern. This maximizes the amount of land available for planting as well as locking in essential moisture. The plants are more closely spaced which conserves water and forms a living mulch over the soil. Crop rotation as well as the method of companion planting is used to increase yield of crops and fertility of soil. Planting corn with pole beans, carrots with iceberg lettuce, peppers with parsley and squash with radishes are examples of companion planting. All these companion plants thrive when they are planted next to each other and the quality of soil is also sustained. Natural compost as well as compost plants for nitrogen fixing is also used in biointensive gardening.

Biointensive gardening is one of the best gardening techniques that allows for maximum yield with a small strip of land. You can try this gardening technique for growing fruits and vegetables in your garden.