Today Simon took the kids out to collect pine cones for a few hours, so I had the house to myself to do as I pleased. My perfect day alone is usually being able to potter around at home rather than having to leave. The day was quite nice and sunny (albeit a little chilly), but I still managed to sit out on my porch with a cup of tea and read a few books.
One of them was a library book I got out last week that I'd forgotten about under the pile of other books.
It's called How to Grow More Vegetables (than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine) by John Jeavons. He is the director of Ecology Action, an environmental research and education organisation in the US. It is based on organic methods, intensive planting, companion planting etc - so pretty much what I've been doing with my Permaculture gardening along with the big focus on sustainable gardening/mini-farming. It has gardening plans and suggested amounts to plant out to feed a family of four.
Interestingly, they discuss planting out a higher proportion of root crops compared to other books I've previously read because of their calorific production per unit of area. It's an idea I'm all over at the moment with the rise in the price of grains (not to mention needing to import them into our country) so is right up my alley. Their model suggests using your land in a 60:30:10 ratio. 60 being carbon and calorie crops (grains, broad beans, sunflowers, grapes/raisins); 30 being the high calorie root crops (potatoes, leeks, garlic, parsnips and jeruselum artichokes); 10 being vegetable crops for vitamins and minerals.
I won't be focusing on growing grain crops this year, but do want to increase the beans/peas I grow for drying so will take this into account.
So, I'll be poring over this more before it goes back and decide whether it is one that would be worthwhile purchasing (although a lot of information in it seems to be what I studied in my course along with the few other books I already have on permaculture gardening).
5 comments:
oo that's one i've wanted to read for ages! i see JJ quoted SO often :) i'm going to try the 60% grain thing this year, probably with corn, quinoa & amaranth.. do let us know how you find the rest of the book!!
Well, I'm not sure it has too much to offer on top of what I've already read (I'm not a word by word reader unfortunately so have only flicked through the chapters and gleaned what looks interesting *blush*). I dont' think I'll buy it, but will definitely borrow it from the library again. Problem is, I have about 10 books on the go for about 4 different topics and I want to devour all of them - right now! LOL. You know that feeling.
There is a man here in the Naki, Jodie, who has studied with John Jeavons - fasciniating to talk to and totally AWESOME to see one of these gardens IRL. A totally closed system, he grows his own carbon crops for composting even. Jodie is in process of starting up his own reservoir of heirloom seeds - his site www.seedkeeper will be going live anytime soon. He is planning to run a 3day course on the 'grow biotensive' method for later in the year.
Nikki, I enjoy reading your blog, and have given you a blog award, please see my bog for details
Thanks Maisie! :)
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