I've been intrigued for quite some time about the possibilities of growing different crops
mixed together rather than segregated into different rows, crops and fields.
Like many people, my first introduction to this was when I learned about the three sisters
that have been grown by some Indigenous cultures in North America.
This interplanting of the three staple crops of corn, squash and beans, with their mutually
beneficial interactions is a wonderful example, I just wish I could grow them here in the
maritime climate of Ireland. There are a number of different labels that
are used to describe this planting of different species all mixed together.
The term companion planting is often used, especially in small scale gardens where the
general focus is on enabling symbiotic or beneficial interactions between plants.
In larger field scale applications, the term intercropping is often used, where different
plants are sometimes grown in alternate rows. But, I also really like the phrase plant guild
which is commonly used in the Permaculture movement, and tends to incorporate more complex
interactions of a wider range of typically perennial plants, often including a structural
or organisational element as can be found in 7 layer forest garden designs.
The possible benefits of all these variations of mixing crops together can include reduced
susceptibility of pests, better use of fertility, suppression of weeds, better soil development
and improved biodiversity. But effectively it comes down to higher overall
yields by growing these crops all mixed together than if they had been separated into different
areas, even if if it does come at the cost of extra work, time and skill.
But if I was going to base one of my family scale gardens on the principles of integration
rather than segregation, I didn’t really know how to approach it.
How was I going to make it all work on a practical level with the diverse range of crops that
I want to grow and all the possible combinations and approaches?
When reading the book Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway I was introduced to the work of Ianto
Evans on what he calls Polycultures, and this really showed me the possible way to grow
many crops, and gave me a name for this garden. Evans developed an intensive method of integrating
a wide range of crops, based on the broadcast sowing of a mix of annual vegetable seeds.
With this Polyculture method, young fast growing plants are continually harvested and thinned
to make space for the remaining crops, and eventually leaving the longer season crops
in the bed to mature. Additional plants can be transplanted into
the bed as the space opens up, and from one sowing and a number of additions, a diversity
of crops can be harvested over a long season from one cultivated bed.
This polyculture method shows the way that you could almost throw everything and anything
in together, and through a process of selective thinning and filling in the gaps, you get
to eat what grows well. Some plants will thrive in these kinds of
conditions, but others won’t unless they are given a lot more attention and care.
In a way it's a process of letting the plants figure it all out through competition, and
if you're happy to accept the results, then this could work for you.
But I want to be more specific about the types of crops that I get out of the garden, and
this could be the most difficult part of any polyculture method.
It all comes down to figuring out what grows well together, and how to make it work in
practice so that some crops don’t dominate at the expense of others.
Sorting out symbiotic or beneficial relationships from the potentially antagonistic ones is
one issue. Working out an effective planting plan and
method for growing is another, and for this I’ve found that focusing on compatible growth
habits above ground is the best place to start.
When I first developed this garden I laid it out in 4 wide beds, that more or less matched
the 4 year rotation of the other gardens. I then changed it to 5, and now there are
6 beds, as I learned how to mix all the different plants together, as well as creating narrower
beds so that it was much easer to reach the centre.
I had originally mixed the lettuce and spinach in with brassica greens, to put all of the
leafy salad greens together in one sowing, but the lettuce really suffered with the more
aggressive brassicas. So now I have separated lettuce and spinach
in one bed and planted the brassicas on their own, which of course goes against the idea
that diverse integration is better. I broadcast sow beetroot and chard in with
the lettuce and spinach at the same time, as these crops have a more compatible growth
rates, and it offers a chance of harvesting from the bed over a much longer season.
The brassica greens are eventually replaced with transplants of larger brassica plants
as the season progresses, but I am not happy that this one genus of plants is grown separately,
and I would prefer to reintegrate this diverse group of crops with the other types of vegetables.
Another bed is dedicated to garlic, onions, carrots and parsnips, which seem to do really
well together, even though I‘ve given up in the idea that the alliums will effectively
deter the carrot fly. I originally had runner beans, peas, squash,
courgettes or zucchini all mixed together in one bed, but I found this to be too much,
and I've now combined runner beans and squash in one bed, and the peas and courgettes or
zucchini in a second bed. The 6th bed is for the potatoes and broad
or fava beans, which apparently make great companions, but I am still working on how
best to grow these together. There is of course the issue of how to fit
all these beds in together so that one can easily follow the other as the season rotates
from one season to the next. No doubt all of this will continue to evolve
over time, and in hindsight, I've gone through a process of segregation into simpler mixes,
for the most part so that I could get a better handle on things, but hopefully over time
I will develop more complex mixes that work well in this context.
A critical issue with all of these beds is plant spacing or density.
This can be hard enough with plants growing in separate rows or beds, but you’re growing
a big mix of plants in together this can be much more difficult, and I really only have
my intuition to start from. In the beds where specific numbers of plants
are growing, such as with the potatoes and broad or fave beans, this is easier as I can
rely on a steady process of trial and error. But figuring out spacing is more complex with
beds that are broadcast sown as it is difficult to thin to the right number of plants for
each crop. This is especially the case when plants that
are expected to reach a full size are mixed in with other plants that are harvested early
or when they are immature. While it is easy to get lots of greens in
the early part of the season from broadcast sowing, later crops have really struggled.
A lot of it seems to come down to being more aggressive with thinning early in the season,
and prioritising the slower growing crops. I have also learned that it is best to divide
some beds into sections that are broadcast sown 2 or 3 weeks apart.
This succession sowing makes it easier to adequately thin small areas of the bed at
a time, it spreads out the work of weeding, and it staggers the harvests over a longer season.
The other family scale gardens in this project are largely based on the experiences of other
growers, which tend to be well formed and articulated, even if they do need to be adapted
to this context. This Polyculture garden on the other hand,
is more a process of a scraping together bits and pieces of information and ideas, and trying
to make a whole integrated system or method out of them.
There really isn’t a lot of guidance out there, and the only way to figure out what
works well in this context is through a process of trial and error.
Of all the gardens that I am developing, this Polyculture garden also needs the most attention,
especially with broadcast sown beds, as they can need almost daily thinning or harvest.
I have also learned the hard way that keeping this type of bed weed free is essential, even
though the task can be slow and time consuming, as the usual weeding tools are of little use
among the closely spaced plants. Providing enough fertility is something I
need to improve, and I may need to rely more on liquid feeding at least until I develop
the soil fertility enough. Some crops have done very well, and others
I still struggle with, but overall the yields from this garden are already good, and potentially
higher than with the other gardens I'm trialing - but that is kind of the point of the exercise.
The theory of possibilities of beneficial interaction between plants is fascinating,
especially in the hidden world underground, but that’s something that's really difficult
to understand or evaluate. So, my focus is much more about how to get
the plants to coexist well above ground, and how to work the timings and spacing, as well
as the mechanics of sowing, care and harvesting. I think I've proved the concept of Polycultures
in a number of different ways, and I'm intrigued on how I might be able to refine and adapt
this method of growing in the future. I especially need to work on improving the
quality of some of the vegetables that I'm harvesting,
but I suspect that that’s an issue with polyculture gardening in general.
There are lots of videos that I want to make this season about details of this Polyculture
garden, and there’s more videos I want to make about the other 6 family scale gardens
and the larger black plot that make up this RED Gardens Project.
Funding for this independent research project comes mainly from these videos, and if you
would like to support me in this work, please go to my Patreon page.
Any contributions will be greatly appreciated, and will help me to make more videos like
this one. As usual please like, subscribe and share,
but most importantly thanks for watching.