Igor Lyadov's amazing garden

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-15 07:49

Using a personal example, the author shows the natural farming system. Thanks to it, the soil fertility is not only preserved, but also restored, and the yield increases. Mineral fertilizers are not used, which preserves the purity of Nature and preserves human health.

At the request of many of my friends, I will tell you how I grow vegetables. Many summer residents are already planting in this way. I will try to explain to you. I work, so I can go to the summer cottage only on weekends. In this case, you need to rest after a week of work, eat a barbecue, take a steam bath, and, well, do a little work on the ground.

There are several problems in horticulture today:

• Soil fertility is declining.
• The earth becomes dense, depleted and gray in color.
• A drop in fertility leads to a decrease in the harvest.
• The use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides leads to contamination of soil, water, air and food, which leads to human diseases.
• Traditional agricultural techniques used by most gardeners are very labor intensive. And this reduces interest in gardening among young people.

Nevertheless, all these problems can be easily solved if Natural is used instead of traditional farming. Such agricultural technology not only preserves, it also restores soil fertility. The consequence is an increase in the yield of horticultural crops. Mineral fertilizers are not used, which preserves the purity of Nature and preserves human health. A number of gardening operations in natural agricultural technology are used less often than in traditional ones. And some are completely absent from it. All this reduces the labor intensity of land cultivation and plant care.

In my opinion, it is more important to return to nature and forget the postulate that the soil should be stuffed with fertilizers, torn with shovels and sprinkled with pesticides. Natural farming is, first of all, gentle tillage, protecting it from temperature extremes, returning nutrients that the land has generously given to the plants.

Every spring, when we come to our summer cottage, we sow or plant vegetables in our beds. The size of the beds is from 1, 4 meters to 2 meters wide, the paths between them are from 20 cm to 40 cm maximum. This is called the traditional way of planting vegetables in the garden. The plant in such beds, especially in the middle, often gets sick, is subject to decay, it does not develop well, the vegetables are small, they are not stored for a long time. But for pests, a weakened plant and good nutrition, and offspring can be laid near it. To weed, to process such beds is one torment.

But on such a bed, I saw one positive side. The extreme plants, relative to those located in the middle, looked more worthy. The larger ones are not susceptible to disease and are easy to weed, thin out, etc.

I also thought about one more factor. A single tree along the alleys within the city, no one feeds it, the foliage that it throws off and then they try to remove it for appearance and beauty. Although this foliage could serve as a tree feeding. So how does this tree exist and where does it get its nourishment? In recent years, scientists have found that about 60% of the plant takes food from the air. It's interesting, of course.

The unpredictability of our Far Eastern climate, high temperature fluctuations, night and day, dry or rainy summers, excessive precipitation by the end of August and the beginning of September confirmed the methods of growing vegetables that I have chosen over many years of trial and error.

I came to the conclusion that we need to look for another method that is less time consuming, but at the same time with the ability to get higher yields. I have combined two technologies.

1. "Narrow ridges - a unique technology of vegetable growing for small areas."

2. "Agrotechnics of natural farming".

I have become firmly convinced that it is organic matter that can reveal all the possibilities of plants, saving time and energy. Only on good compost can one see and evaluate the quality of Western and domestic varieties: most of them are created for organic soil. I am sure: we cannot get away from organic matter. All in all, business: learning how to compost and also arrange stationary beds - once for many years.

Vegetable growing on narrow ridges was developed by J. Meatlider in the 70s of the last century and brought by the author to Russia in 1989.

But blind copying of techniques and advice, even the best, will lead nowhere. There must be a creative approach to understanding the biological laws of the culture itself, and the processes occurring during its cultivation. Meatlider has one drawback (this is my opinion) when using mineral fertilizers, the taste of the fruit is unnatural. To fix this, instead of mineral dressings, I use humus, ash, manure, herbal infusion, etc. (I am a supporter of organic fertilizers). I am for a clean ecological product.

But one should not perceive mineral fertilizer as a poison. The only thing is to keep the dose. It is better not to feed the plant than to overfeed it.

For which I am especially grateful to J. Meatlider - for the development of narrow beds. Although Meatlider does not recommend placing the box on narrow beds, I did put together boxes. Nature itself told me this. In the spring, many suburban areas are flooded, the water does not have time to drain, there is water in the passages. We have the same problem in late August and early September - it rains day and night. And in the middle of summer it can rain for 2 - 3 days, or it can fill the whole garden in half an hour.

Therefore, raising the bed 15-25 cm above the path solves this problem. The width of the ridge is 60 - 100 cm, the length is arbitrary. The gap between the beds is 60 - 80 cm. It only seems that the earth in the aisles is walking without benefit. It is the passages that work, and how!

A vegetable container is a high bed, the walls of which are made of bricks, logs, beams, boards, stone, slate … The beds stretch from north to south. The passages between them can be covered with sand, sawdust, roofing felt, etc. I preferred the lawn, which I cut once a month with a trimmer. I covered some of the aisles with sawdust. The beauty of the garden leaves no one indifferent. There are no weeds, the site is clean and beautiful.

Box - the box is filled with organic matter. Plant residues (grass, straw, foliage) are put down, then compost or manure, or spill with herbal infusions and the like; in the top layer, earth is put from the aisles. Thus, the box is filled.

Each bed is 2 rows of vegetables, planted along the edges in a checkerboard pattern between the vegetables. In this geometry, a huge productivity reserve is hidden, it has long been noticed: the extreme plant develops almost twice as well as those in the middle - they have much more light and space for growth. And here - all the plants are extreme. A wide row spacing is needed in order to give them light and space. A small area of organic matter gives more than a large area of soil. Anyone who has worked on narrow ridges for at least one season is convinced of the enormous possibilities of this method and simply cannot return to traditional technology. Working on the ridges, a person experiences joy not only from a good harvest, but also from the very process of growing vegetables.

The beauty of the vegetable garden, which looks more like a park, leaves no one indifferent. There are no weeds, the site is clean and beautiful.

In two rows in a checkerboard pattern, I plant cabbage, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, etc.

In four or three rows, I plant onions, garlic, beets, salads, radishes, carrots, etc.

Flaws:

Requires material costs in the first year to build a garden. This tiny flaw makes the container inaccessible to most summer residents.

Advantages

• Such a bed works for several years, one might say forever (to replenish it with waste, plant residues, foliage, etc.). After digging, sow green manure. When planting, you do not need to add compost or rotted manure to the hole. Such a bed is itself compost.
• The humus is not washed out, since the garden bed is fenced.
• According to many agronomists, 60–80% of the plant is fed from the air, therefore large passages play a significant role in the biological process of the plant. The culture receives good light and sufficient air flow.
• About 30% of the plant gets its nutrition from the ground. Naturally, for a narrow bed, the consumption of organic and mineral fertilizers is 2 times less than a standard bed. At the same time, you will get a much higher yield from a narrow bed. I've tested this for several years and you can see it in my photos.
• Contains a large amount of nutrients, moisture reserve:
• Watering is convenient.
• No stagnant water.
• Does not require hilling.
• Does not require weeding - if the bed is mulched.
• Does not require digging, only loosening by 7 - 10 cm.
• You can plant early, as the beds in the spring heats up faster than usual.
• It is easy to rotate in narrow beds. Where you planted onions last year, this year you can plant carrots or cabbage. The beds are all the same width.
• The yield increases by 100% or more.
• Tubers, root crops are clean with no visible signs of disease.
• Beautiful and easy to use.
• Takes up a minimum of space, does not create dirt and clutter.

It is very convenient to make a shelter with plastic arches, which are sold in seed stores. We put 2 pegs on both sides of the bed and put an arc on them. The distance between the arcs is about a meter. Depending on the length of the bed, you set the required number of arcs. Covering material or film can be used over the arcs until the threat of frost has passed.

It is this system of narrow beds that allows me to get constantly high yields, independent of the vagaries of the weather and the conditions of the site itself.