Beds and passages in organic farming. Narrow ridges - advantages of technology

New and old - why is this topic so painful for us? Some people use new techniques and get fantastic results, others look at them with envy for years, but are in no hurry to say goodbye to the old days...

It’s better not to dig your garden!

Five years ago, I came across a book by B.S. at a kiosk. Annenkova “Give a shovel to your neighbor! Gardening without problems." The title intrigued me and I purchased this book. In it, the author very popularly explained why you should not dig the ground. Another academician V.I. Vernadsky said that the German industrialist Krupp, with the release of all his weapons, caused less harm to humanity than a man with a shovel and a plow!

However, so far the Russian peasantry has not listened to this statement and TO THIS day they plow the fields with tractors, more than once a year and at least 35 cm in depth, turning over the layer of earth, destroying all living things that are in the soil.

Since the 50s of the last century, farmers in most countries of the world have abandoned plowing and digging of fields and vegetable gardens, switched to gentle and zero tillage and the use of organic composts. At the same time, they receive harvests that are several times higher than those in the fields and gardens of Russia.

There the blockade of bad traditions was broken, but in Russia this still needs to be done. This article confirms this: I tried to plant just two hundred square meters in a new way using narrow ridges and immediately noticed the difference in the amount of effort expended and the resulting harvest.

At first I also broke the constants narrow beds only for vegetables, and planted potatoes the old fashioned way. When the vegetables were just starting to grow, it seemed that there was too much free space left, and all my relatives condemned me for using the land so irrationally and planting so few vegetables, they were afraid that we would be left without a harvest.

By mid-summer the picture had changed. Due to narrow ridges and wide aisles, vegetables receive more light, grow well and over time occupy almost all the available space. There was no longer any free land in sight. Cabbage did especially well in narrow beds; the leaves grew large, and in order to water it, you even had to look for a place to step on. Accordingly, the harvest was pleasing – and so it is with all crops. My relatives no longer said that I had started the narrow beds in vain.

The next year, I already divided the entire garden (and I have 10 acres) into beds 45 cm wide with row spacing of 65 cm. We also planted potatoes in two rows on narrow beds in a checkerboard pattern. To my surprise, it turned out quickly; we finished it in two hours. And before?..

They planted it like this: they pulled synthetic twine onto pegs on both sides of the bed, then they started planting: me and my son on one side, and my daughter and son-in-law on the other. First, the son dug shallow holes, about half a shovel deep. I put the removed soil in the center of the bed, and then I laid out the potatoes, sprinkling them with a handful of ash. Next, the son-in-law on the other side began to dig holes, and filled our holes with the excavated earth; his daughter was also laying out the potatoes behind him. When we finished the bed, we moved the twine to the next bed, and used a rake to level the remaining holes with soil from the center of the bed. Due to the wide passages, the potatoes had enough light, and they did not stretch out.

After planting, a week later I harrowed the beds with a rake; this was easy to do, since the beds are clearly visible from the paths. About 10 days later, when the paths were covered with a green haze of weeds, I walked along them with a flat cutter, grabbing single weeds that had emerged from the beds on both sides. I got the job done several times (!) faster than before when landing in the usual way– after all, there was no need to weed each bush separately.

When it was time to hill up, I stood on one path and used a hoe to roll the soil to the opposite row of potatoes. Then she did the same, standing on the path from which she raked the earth, and hilled up the second row in the garden bed. Previously, my daughter and I used to hill potatoes together, since it was hard for me to cope with it alone, but now I manage to do everything myself, without waiting for my daughter, although I am already 58 years old!

Is your habit of digging your garden stronger?

The harvest was also pleasing. Even the neighbor looked with envy, although he continues to plant the old fashioned way: he is already 70 years old, and, apparently, his habit is stronger than himself... Now, thanks to the narrow beds, I can manage my garden without outside help. They only help plant and dig up the potatoes. Therefore, I advise you not to be afraid and transfer the potatoes to narrow beds - you will be pleased with the harvest, and it will take much less effort to process!

Since I switched to narrow beds, the soil has become better and earthworms have appeared.

If I come across any “sub-standard” crops or in the spring there is crops left unused during the winter, I do not throw them in the trash, but use them in compost. I only take out things that don’t rot into the trash: iron, glass, cellophane, etc. For cleaning, I have a separate bucket in the kitchen, where I put all the waste and egg shells, and everything into the compost.

Somehow I came across advice to prepare compost in iron barrels, and I immediately took it into account, now it takes up less space. So I advise everyone not to be afraid of the new, because in our magazine for several years now people have been writing about narrow beds, and only good things.

A beautiful and fertile vegetable garden is the dream of any summer resident and many owners of private houses. Unfortunately, for many, the garden turns into a source of headaches and brings more problems than good.

If you are tired of constant gardening chores or are just thinking about installing own garden, the narrow beds technique will help you acquire a vegetable garden that will bring only pleasure and a rich harvest.

What are narrow beds?

The innovative technique of narrow beds was developed by the American J. Mittleider in the 70s. The essence of his idea was to narrow the beds while simultaneously expanding the passages between them. Without exaggeration, this approach can be called revolutionary if you look at traditional vegetable growing and farming, which strives to sow every free piece of land.

At the same time, agronomists themselves recognize the fact that from 60 to 80% of plants receive their main nutrition from the air, this is the secret of the narrow beds method. Essentially, by reducing the area planted, you increase the yield of your garden.

However, today the beds according to Mittleider have been significantly modified. IN Lately this technique has gained a new round of popularity thanks to the amazing approach of Igor Lyadov.

The difference between Lyadov’s and Mitlider’s methods lies in the following points:

1. According to Mittleider it is assumed to be used mineral fertilizers, while Lyadov’s technique involves organic fertilizer.
2. According to Mitlaider, it is not recommended to use boxes, while Lyadov uses exclusively raised or high boxes. How they look in I. Lyadov’s own garden, see the photo below.

It is worth saying that in the West, where organic farming and vegetable growing are very popular, and narrow beds do not surprise anyone, growing in boxes is especially widely used.

You can learn more about arranging a vegetable garden according to Mitlider from the video and article on our website.

Advantages and disadvantages of narrow beds

Advantages:

• ease of care, planting and harvesting;
• narrow beds will not be washed away by rain, and in winter they are easy to insulate;
• the number of weeds and pests is reduced to a minimum;
• easy to control crop rotation;
• due to the fact that the soil in high boxes warms up faster, seeds and seedlings can be planted earlier than usual;
• you don’t have to wade deep into the garden for ripe vegetables, trampling young roots, leaves and compacting the soil along the way;
• plants receive enough sunlight;
• plants are well ventilated, this ensures good growth and reduces the risk of disease;
• High or slightly raised beds combined with wide aisles will make you forget about the dirt on the site.

The high yields of such vegetable gardens are a generally recognized fact. Igor Lyadov himself speaks of a 100% increase in yield.

What else does I. Lyadov tell about his garden, watch the video:

The only drawback of such a garden is taking the first step. If a new garden does not require any special material costs, then you will have to spend time and effort. However, it is worth considering how much effort and time you can save in the coming years. Such a garden, without a doubt, will bring only joy, and vegetable growing will turn into a family hobby.

In addition, narrow beds are not just more convenient, they appearance they are not much inferior to decorative flower beds, you can see this by looking at the photo below.

We are setting up narrow beds on our site. Features of care

Making a vegetable garden using the narrow beds method is quite simple. The choice of location depends on your site. First of all, the selected area must be cleared of everything unnecessary and leveled.

Boxes can be made from any available material:

• tree,
• bricks,
• building blocks,
• slate, etc.

Moreover, materials can be combined: narrow side walls can be made of bricks, and oblong ones from boards. In a word, you can use everything that is available on the site. According to Igor Lyadov’s method, the width of the bed should not exceed 120 cm, although according to Mittleider wider rows were allowed.

1. The length of the bed is not of fundamental importance; everyone does it at their own discretion.
2. The most successful width is a 2-3 stripe fit (30-90 cm).
3. This is exactly what you should focus on when creating a box.
4. The height of the boxes can be from 15 cm to half a meter.

You can see how the author of the technique makes the beds in the photo below. The walls of the box are compacted tightly into the ground; you can deepen them a little for strength. The entire structure must be knocked down or twisted, again for strength. So, when the box itself is ready, the most important stage begins - filling it. The sequence of this process should be as follows:

1. Place cardboard at the bottom of the box. It will control perennial weeds.
2. Pour a thin layer of sand onto the cardboard.
3. Place small branches, stalks of corn or sunflowers on the sand; you can even use rotten apples or kitchen waste.
4. The penultimate layer is mown grass, tops or foliage.
5. The top layer of the box is earth or humus.

One of the main rules of Lyadov’s technique is wide passages. It doesn’t matter how you arrange these passages; you can sow them with lawn grass, cover them with sawdust, and even make paved paths. The minimum width of the passage is 40 cm. You can see what the finished beds look like in Lyadov’s own garden in the photo below.

If the territory allows you to make wide passages, do not regret that the land is wasted; it is the passages that ensure the high productivity of the garden.

Not everyone will risk completely redoing their garden. But a small experimental bed may change your mind. You just have to take the first step and arrange a small container box on a free piece of land. This will require a minimum of time and effort, but, having felt the difference in the effort expended and the result, you will probably take up the reconstruction of your garden.

How to make high bed boxes correctly, you will see in the video:

Compared to the huge plantations we are used to, narrow beds require minimal care.

1. If you mulch the bed, you won't have to weed it. Shallow loosening (7-10 cm) is sufficient.
2. If you prefer Mittleider beds, without boxes, the plants will need to be hilled. You will see how to do this correctly in a video on the Internet.
3. Watering such beds is also simple and convenient. Thanks to the high boxes, there is no stagnation of water.
4. Such a garden will require 2 times less fertilizer than usual. According to the method proposed by Lyadov, the beds themselves in containers will already contain a sufficient amount of nutrients.
5. When planting plants, you will not have to add compost or other fertilizers to the holes. Well, insulating for the winter will also not require much effort.

What can you plant in a bed that is only half a meter or a meter wide? This question will be asked by many who are accustomed to continuous sowing of the entire free area. You can plant almost anything in such a garden (as in the photo).

1. Potatoes, cucumbers and strawberries also produce excellent harvests.
2. You can plant cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants and peppers in 2 rows.
3. In 3-4 rows you can plant onions, beets, garlic, salads, radishes and carrots.

Vegetables are usually planted in a checkerboard pattern.

Growing labor-intensive crops like potatoes will no longer require you to labor dedicatedly in garden beds under the scorching sun.

The growing popularity of narrow beds using the method proposed by Igor Lyadov is closely related to the orientation of many towards organic vegetable growing. (You can find a video on this topic on the Internet). Thanks to this method, you can make your garden truly environmentally friendly.

Smart vegetable garden of Nikolai Kurdyumov

Many people discovered narrow garden beds thanks to N. Kurdyumov, who dedicated an entire book to this topic, “Smart Garden in Details.” What is it smart vegetable garden according to Kurdyumov? His technique has much in common with Mittleider and Lyadov, but he is mainly known for his warm, narrow beds.

According to Kurdyumov, greenhouse cultivation vegetables is not some kind of emergency measure, but a completely natural, uncomplicated process. Look at the photo below to see what the author’s garden looks like.

So, let's consider in order how to build warm beds according to Kurdyumov.

First of all, you will need tall boxes, which are filled with several layers of different compost. They are made in the same way as described above.

However, the difference between these boxes is the presence of holes for water drainage.

Please note that the boxes that Lyadov uses are completely sealed. Whether to make holes or not is your choice.

The set of layers with which boxes are filled according to Kurdyumov is as follows:

• 1st layer: branches and reeds that will perform a drainage function; if you plan to grow cucumbers or tomatoes, support sticks should be installed at this stage;
• 2nd layer: unripe compost, which is covered with another layer of already mature humus;
• 3rd layer: soil, it is poured 10-15 cm.

The beds become warm precisely due to the decomposition of organic matter. Another feature is the mandatory covering of the beds. This is another difference between the beds according to Kurdyumov, the main thing is the abundance of coarse organic matter.

What the complete process of creating a bed for cucumbers looks like, look at the photo below.

Cucumbers generally have their own peculiarities of growing in narrow beds; here you must definitely use a trellis and not neglect insulation. Growing cucumbers according to Kurdyumov will significantly reduce the risk of them freezing and protect against various diseases. Cucumbers should be planted in 2 rows, in a checkerboard pattern.

Narrow beds play an important role in organic farming. If you want to get a good and healthy harvest without chemicals, then you need to know how to make narrow beds and why they are effective. But first, let’s figure out why you should abandon wide beds.

Look at Figure 1 and 2. They show wide and narrow vegetable beds. For greater clarity, I took the same area occupied by the site.

Along the edges of the beds, both narrow and wide, there is no way to do without a path. I assumed that the path would be 40 centimeters wide. Oh yes... All dimensions in the pictures are in centimeters.

The area of ​​one such track is 2 square meters with a 5-meter bed length (yours may be shorter or longer, and 5 meters is taken only for demonstration). Here you can calmly walk, run, jump... There is another path between two wide beds. But what do we get? In a narrow bed you can easily reach the middle, so the trampling area there is only 10 square meters. Here we do not stand on the aisles, but only on the paths.

A wide garden bed is another matter. She can only dream about it. It can be said that they are trampling on it all season long. At least 3 times a season you will walk along the rows. And what kind of walking is this!.. There is so much harm from it! Well, from this point on I’ll tell you in more detail.

Imagine, you came to a wide garden bed and saw a ripe cucumber or tomato somewhere in the middle. What will you do? Of course you will stand in the garden!

What to do when you need to pull out a weed that is about to give seeds or suddenly it’s time to spud up potatoes? There is nothing else to do but stand in the garden. So I say that at least you will walk through the garden bed 3 times a season. But this is the minimum!.. In fact, there are usually more than three such walks.

It would seem, so what? We don’t stand on the plant. But plants can be compared to an iceberg, because what we see on the surface is not the whole picture. The secret life of plants is hidden underground. Why am I telling you, you yourself know very well that without roots not a single plant will grow. But the roots of plants are located not only where the stem is. In addition to the main root, the plant also has a whole series of small roots, and when we step between the bushes, we tear them off.

What difference do you think? Just think, the spine is bigger, the spine is smaller... Well, don’t tell me. Why then do plants get sick and produce low yields? Why didn't they add enough mineral water? No. This is due to the weakness of the plants, since they “survive” the breakage of small roots. Have you ever had a thin heel step on your almost bare foot on the subway or bus during rush hour? The plant experiences almost the same thing. If it survives, it will survive, but it will “limp” and be sick. And in the end it will also give a small harvest.

Remember that each step in the row spacing is accompanied by:

1. a large number of torn plant roots (you have already read about this);
2. compacted soil. In a compacted place, moisture evaporates from the ground very quickly;
3. broken stems and torn leaves of vegetables.

Narrow beds for vegetables are much preferable to wide ones. You can also grow potatoes on them. Why not? You'll see, potatoes in narrow beds will yield very good harvest. It is also easy and convenient in such beds.

But the fact that they are constantly trampling on wide ridges does not help at all big harvest. Little of. The spaces between the rows of wide beds still need to be weeded, loosened, watered, and after walking over them, the soil needs to be loosened again... And so on all season. The question is, why do extra work? Don't have anything to occupy your time? It’s better to sit once again with your children or grandchildren, or just relax and look at the beauty around you.

The big advantage of narrow beds is that they only need to be made once. And while some of your neighbors will be forming their wide beds in the spring, trampling on them and carrying dirt (in the spring you can’t do without it), you can already sow or plant something with might and main, or just relax.

Sometimes gardeners use borders for beds, which improves functionality since the soil does not crumble around the edges. There are other benefits of using fencing for garden beds, which you can find out about.

By the way, yes, about the dirt. On the paths between narrow beds, sow lawn grass and then you won’t have to “carry” the dirt around the area. Everything will be clean and tidy. You can also fill the paths with mulch, but I like grass better because:

1. she looks more beautiful;
2. it’s more pleasant to walk on it;
3. mowing the lawn grass we get additional material For .

What is the optimal width of the bed? Here, as they say, it's a matter of taste. Starting from 90 cm and up to 110 cm. The main criterion is ease of use. Narrow beds will be effective if you can reach the middle of the bed without standing on the bed itself. They are very convenient to process. The width of the path between the beds should be at least 40 cm, and if the garden is large, then some paths can be made 70 cm wide. This will make it more convenient to move a wheelbarrow around the garden.

There is also an option to make narrow beds not rectangular, but oblique. In this case, the angles will not be 90°, but 60° and 120°. I myself have never had the opportunity to work on such beds, but they say that they are more convenient than rectangular ones.

I hope I was able to convince you of the effectiveness of narrow beds, and if you yourself are already working on the same ones, then tell us about it. I am very interested to know your opinion too.

Narrow beds ensure easy work in the garden. If you value time, health and strength, then make narrow beds for vegetables and you will see that most of work will disappear by itself. Good luck!

I advise, dear readers, not to miss the publication of new materials on this blog.

I made different beds in the garden (wide, square and others) and came to the conclusion that it is best to plant vegetables in narrow ones, even in joint plantings. Why?

Narrow beds are easier to maintain.

Since there are only 2-3 rows in the garden bed, all the plants are located at the edges, they are spacious, well ventilated and illuminated by the sun.

The soil is not trampled or compacted.

I made narrow beds several years ago and have not changed their position (I save myself by crop rotation). I marked the garden from north to south with pegs with stretched twine into strips of 45-50 cm (width of the bed). I leveled them with a rake, raked up sides 8-10 cm high. I made passes 60 cm long.

Under tall vegetables I place a trellis, with the bottom bar at a level of 25-30 cm from the ground. In the spring I attach a film to it to protect the plants from frost. Then, at a height of about 2 m, I attach the top bar, and the middle one between them. I water the plants inside the bed, and in the summer I always mulch them.

ADVICE! Instead of earthen borders, the beds can be fenced with boards, slate or plastic bottles dug in with their necks down close to each other.

Narrow beds: our help

According to Mittlider technology, all vegetables, regardless of plant size, are grown on narrow beds only 45 cm wide. This required element technologies.

The optimal width of the passages is 105 cm. If the area is small, they can be narrowed to 80-90 cm, and if absolutely necessary - to 60-75 cm.

The length of Mittlider's ridges is not regulated, but must be a multiple of 1-1.5 m. For example - 2 m, 3 m, 4.5 m, 6 m, 9 m.

If the site does not have a slope, it is preferable to orient the ridges from north to south. This way the plants will shade each other less. On small area It is better to place the ridges parallel to its boundaries.

Potato grower O.A. Telepov shares his experience.

In July of this year, an off-site, “field” seminar of the Omsk Potato Growers Club took place on my site.

After inspecting the site and a long conversation about my technologies and experiences, one of the authoritative members of the club asks the question: “Since you use the Mittlider system of dividing the garden into narrow beds, then why do you ignore the recommendations to make wide row spacing?”

I show everyone to my garden: “Look, the plants don’t interfere with each other...” It turns out that I kind of waved it off...

I wasn’t too lazy to answer, it’s just that everyone was already tired - three hours in the sun! This is not the first time this question has been asked, and it certainly won’t be the last.

Why did you make the passages as wide as the width of the bed - 50 cm, and not more? Yes, just out of greed. Let's do the math. Harvest winter garlic this year is good - 3.2 kg per square meter of bed. This fact was easy to establish: the weight of all the heads of garlic was divided by the area of ​​the bed. Most often they think so. But there is deceit in this. Why don't we take into account the area of ​​the tracks when we calculate the yield?

3.2 kg per square meter of bed does not mean at all that the yield per hundred square meters is 320 kg! I have a hundred square meters - this is 100 meters of beds (50 cm wide) plus 100 meters of path (the same width). In reality, it turns out that the yield from a given hundred square meters is the yield from 50 square meters (100 meters multiplied by 0.5 meters) of a ridge - 160 kg. In one domestic cartoon, the hero exclaims: “But in parrots, I’m much longer!” So I can, without lying at all, say that my garlic harvest this year amounted to 320 kg per hundred square meters of ridge. But my “accounting” records after selling garlic on the market say something completely different - 160 kg were sold. Productivity turned out to be “in the monkey”!

Now let’s take a system of narrow ridges with wide, meter-long row spacing. On one hundred square meters of land there are no longer 50, but 33 square meters of ridge, which means that from one hundred square meters we get only 106 kg of the same garlic. The harvest is already “in the baby elephants”, with the same boa constrictor. Facts are stubborn things.

Proponents of narrow ridges with wide passages claim that wide passages are more comfortable to walk on. I completely agree with this! Moreover, it would be nice to have passages of 2.5 meters. Then you could drive along them on a walk-behind tractor or car. I'm not being ironic at all. It would be really convenient: I drove a trailer to the site, unloaded the organic matter; I put the harvest straight from the garden into a trailer... But, unfortunately, I have to be guided not only by convenience. There is an old joke about the “new Russian” who was bought by Zaporozhets. Friends are surprised: “Why do you need “Zaporozhets”? You have a luxury jeep.” He calmly replies that it is inconvenient to drive a jeep along the corridors of his new house.

Our limited plots in most cases require the use of every piece of land. Everything that has been said above is about economics, so to speak. But it is important to take into account other factors, the main one of which is the place in the sun for each plant. One of the Omsk newspapers literally says the following about the narrow paths on my site: “In principle, this is nonsense. Many experts argue that in this case there is not enough sunlight for photosynthesis.” But my plants do not crowd each other, but are just closing the tops in the phase of their maximum development, despite the opinion of many experts.

It turns out that the experts are wrong? In no case. But you can cheat and get around some problems. The first thing to do is place the beds from north to south. This will make the illumination of all crops much better. When thinking about the placement of crops for the next year, I try to take into account not only the requirement of crop rotation (bed rotation), but also the size of the vegetative mass of plants located in neighboring beds.

For example, if you place narrow beds with zucchini and cabbage next to each other, they will clearly shade each other. I have carrots growing next to the cabbage. Carrot tops grow predominantly upward, and therefore most of the area of ​​the path goes to the cabbage, and the carrots do not suffer either. You can find many such combinations if you look closely at the plants.

Potatoes do not fit into this principle. If you plant it not in a continuous mass, but place it in beds mixed with other crops, then you need to take into account that its stems will fall under their own weight. And if you consider that in some varieties these stems reach 1.5 meters in length, it turns out that they will block not only my narrow paths, but also the neighboring beds.

But we are solving this issue too. In reality, everything happens like this. Potato beds alternate with family bow or winter garlic. At the beginning of summer, onions and garlic grow intensively, and potatoes only gain strength. At the beginning of August, the potatoes become crowded. But at this time the onions and garlic are already ripening, we remove them. And the potato rows turn out to be spaced two meters apart. They have more than enough space. Thus, plants are not deprived of light, and important condition done - there is no empty land on which the sun's rays fall.

In August, on my site with a wheelbarrow you can only drive along the main paths located across the ridges; they are wide - 1-1.2 meters. You can walk along the aisles between the beds, but it is better to do it carefully. But in August there is no longer a need for frequent walks between the ridges. There are almost no weeds; loosening and watering are not needed.
I don't encourage everyone to do it my way, to each their own. My principle of setting up a vegetable garden is one of the options, and you choose.

Oleg Telepov, gardener, member of the Omsk Potato Growers Club