Every year worldwide erosion, loss of organic matter, desertification, salination, and loss to marshlands takes an area of almost 20 million acres ( See reference 11 ). This is largely caused by man's interference, with some of it being due to the practice of monoculture cultivation techniques with subsequent failure to replenish the soil regularly with organic material.

In this case, an unnecessary use of land as a driveway is to be reclaimed as a vegetable garden. The author's aim is not to use man-made fertilisers, insecticides or herbicides, and so what system is likely to produce food and deter the non-human life from eating it before my family?

From academic research, Companion Planting with Organic Gardening may help.

Companion Planting

Companion planting cultivation is concerned with which plants will respond well to a certain environment, and in which environment, pests can be discouraged and diseases prevented. In order to make such mixed vegetable cultivation possible, monoculture in beds is replaced by row-crop cultivation, in which the right plants will be properly spaced. The companion-planted garden has to be considered not only in relation to its plant material above ground, but also the affects on the soil and the biomass of that plant's roots. Ten ways that companion planting works is provided in the garden design section. Provision is then made for the continuous nourishment of plant life, via chopped organic plant matter covering the surface where there are no plants growing ( sheet surface composting ).

Companion Planting can also be used for pest control rather than chemicals.

Gertrude Franck's Companion Planting Method.

The selection of suitable beneficial plants, the seasonable preparation of suitable beds as well as soil composition and organic pest control to provide healthy food for yourself or a family in a way that will be helpful to the environment and the animals therein, is shown by this book:-

"Companion Planting - successful gardening the organic way" by Gertrude Franck

(based on her 35 years of practical experience in Germany) Thorsons Publishing Group 1983, ISBN 0-7225-0695-3 .

Spinach is sown in spring in rows 50cm apart over the whole vegetable garden area for the following purposes:

• these rows divide the vegetable garden up for the whole year,
• the spinach roots prevent erosion, so the usual paths between beds are omitted,
• young spinach plants provide protection and shade for the vegetable crops to be grown between them,
• spinach provides ideal material for sheet surface composting, which becomes an intermediate space, a footpath, and
• it is in between these lines of spinach that the other vegetable varieties are arranged.

The Garden Layout on the next page shows that the rows are given letters. The main crop in the A rows is planted in May, but can follow an early crop almost immediately. They are 2 metres apart and are intended for:-

tomatoes,
runner beans,
cucumbers,
late cabbage,
broad beans,
potatoes and
courgettes.

 

Halfway between 2 A rows there is 1 B row, which is intended for plants which are going to require this space either in the first half or in the second half of the growing year. Each of these rows will yield at least 2 full crops. These are:-

leeks,
onions,
black salsify,
cauliflower,
celeriac,
kidney beans,
spring beans,
beetroot,
peas and
parsnips.

Halfway between the A row and the B row there is the C row, which is set with short-lived plants with a comparatively small, low growth. Each of these rows will produce 2 or often 3 crops one after another. These are:-

carrots,
lettuce,
endives,
kohlrabi and
fennel.

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