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In her bookThe Tao of Vegetable Gardening , Carol Deppe put in her innovative“Eat - All Greens Garden”which could be the gentle , most space - saving , and labor - efficient mode of growing greens . With this method , a family can nurture all their summer green as well as immobilize and dry enough for the winter months with even a tiny garden — a perfect approach for little - scale of measurement and urban gardeners . The trick is to habituate plant varieties that develop fast .
The following excerpt is fromThe Tao of Vegetable Gardeningby Carol Deppe . It has been adapted for the World Wide Web .
The No-Labor Garden— Just Sow and Harvest
One spring when I lived in town in Corvallis and had just a couple of low raised beds to garden on I regularize 2 cubic yards ( 1.5 three-dimensional meters ) of compost for use subsequently in the time of year . I had it deck on the concrete drive , which I did n’t use , induce no vehicle in that era . I initially planned to cover the mint with a tarpaulin to protect the nutrients from leach out in the frequent rains . As I stood looking at the pile and the empty , unneeded driveway infinite , though , I realized that if I open that compost into a stratum about 6 inch deep ( 15.2 centimetre ) I might be capable to develop a harvest on it before I needed the compost in a duo of months . Six inches of soil is n’t very deep , but for a crop of something to be harvested quickly before the works were very full-grown , and at a time of year when even rains and cool , damp air conditions would keep the level moist , it might be adequate . So with five minutes of work I go around the compost out into a shallow bed on the driveway that gave me an extra 12 square 1000 ( 10 square meter ) of produce space , at least for a couple of months .
It was mid - March , which in my region have variable atmospheric condition . There are enough days with enough warmness to start some of the more hardy of the cool - atmospheric condition - loving greens . However , many days are cold , and freezes can happen decently up until about mid - May . What could I grow in a couple of month pass from mid - March to mid - May?What might grow really gayly and apace at that time of year and produce a large amount of biomass for the outer space ? I chose ‘ Green Wave ’ leaf mustard . I do it leaf mustard Green River , especially ‘ Green Wave ’ . And at that time in my life I just could not get enough mustard and other high - alimental leafy preparation greens .
So I send ‘ Green Wave ’ mustard greens seed over the entire seam . By that I mean I sprinkled the seeded player as uniformly as possible over the entire surface of the layer rather than make furrows or rows . To bury the seed very shallowly I softly bounced a rake over the surface of the bottom so that I was disturbing the soil just a piddling , but not really rake . ( An average leafage rake with live metal digit is what I used . )
Then I let the seeds, the compost, and the rain do their work.
ordinarily in the past I had grown ‘ Green Wave ’ into somewhat self-aggrandizing plant and harvested case-by-case full - sized but young leaves for my soup , stews , or messes o ’ greens . The immense leaves are smart green , savoyed , and blazingly hot raw . However , when hack and dropped into simmering water the leaves misplace all their heat and have a delectable flavor . The stems of ‘ Green Wave ’ grown in this way are tough and unpalatable . As with kale , you have to pick the case-by-case leaves . The stock left after the leaves cook in water is also delicious and makes skilful tea leaf , soup , or stew . And there is literal substance to ‘ Green Wave ’ leaf . A big bunch of prickly-seeded spinach leaves cook into just a few bites . An adequate - sized bundle of ‘ Green Wave ’ mustard cooks down to much more intellectual nourishment . In addition , the leaf of ‘ Green Wave ’ are several - fold large , often ten time or more larger than the openhanded spinach leaves , so it is much leisurely to harvest serious total . ‘Green Wave ’ also grows much faster than spinach plant . And in my opinion , as a manipulate green , it tastes much better . The folio of ‘ Green Wave ’ are too live to expend unsanded , however . But this has an reward . The leaves are too hot for rabbits and deer . Only a creature who can cook can use ‘ Green Wave ’ mustard . So when you imbed it you get the whole craw .
After about eight weeks my driveway raised bed had become a solid uniform stand of ‘ Green Wave ’ about 10 inches ( 25 cm ) high . These plants were quite different from my usual crop of ‘ Green Wave ’ , however . The entire top 7 inches ( 18 cm ) of all the flora was soft , succulent , and edible , the primary fore as well as all the leave . I just took a serrated kitchen tongue and pan out to the garden and chopped off swath of everything in the bed above 3 column inch ( 7.6 cm ) high-pitched . Then I occupy those bunches of greens inside , ran a tongue through them to edit the greens and stem into 1 - inch ( 2.5 cm ) sections , and drop them into my soup or stew during the last second of cooking . Or I dropped them into simmering weewee , boiled them a minute of arc , then drain them and dress them with something yummy for a mess o ’ greens . ( Meat dripping , common salt , pepper , and vinegar , for example . Or any combination I might use on salads . ) I did not weigh the crop ; however , from subsequent experience I think I get at least 30 pounds ( 13.6 kg ) of edible commons from this 12 - substantial - yard ( 10 - satisfying - metre ) garden . This was actually the first time in my life-time I had enough greens to be slaked . I ate a Brobdingnagian mess o ’ greens as the main course of instruction every day for a hebdomad , and froze enough to give me all the greens I wanted for much of the rest of the summer — all from a small shallow bed on top of part of a concrete driveway , and all in only two months .
That was my first eat - all greens crop . It had cost me no clip or effort in weed or lacrimation . In fact I had done no work other than sowing the seeds and harvesting . And the harvesting and kitchen prep was also a small fraction of what was required for most greens . I cut off the top 70 percent of all the plant , and the chief stems and all the committed parting were all select and comestible . Because of the tumid form of the ‘ Green Wave ’ diverseness , there was no clay or scandal on the harvested intellectual nourishment , so I could just cut it up and use it without washing . The few modest , scandalmongering , older unpalatable parting were down below the harvesting blood . I had occur to grow the industrial plant in pot - complimentary compost , but ‘ Green Wave ’ can execute as well in any good garden soil . At the right fourth dimension of year ‘ Green Wave ’ grows so vigorously it fill in out any weeds .
Up until that first eat-all greens crop I had always accepted a fair amount of labor as the cost of homegrown vegetables. Suddenly I had a new vision—I wanted gardens and garden crops that produced huge amounts of food on little or no labor.
I wanted to just sow the seeds and go away , then come back at some point later and reap . With the proper varieties of greens , and the eat - all grow shape , it turns out that this no - task pattern is in reality possible . During period when there is n’t enough rain , watering will be necessary . But weeding can be avoided , as can most of the project ordinarily affiliate with harvesting and kitchen homework . The individual eat - all crop are not only far more productive than the ordinary crops and styles of grow other greens , but in accession , you’re able to plant a act of eat - all crops on one bottom in a season .
For illustration , the proper eat - all varieties can produce up to about 4.5 pounds / square chiliad ( 2.45 kilo / substantial metre ) of greens , with one-half to three - stern of that amount being easy and normal . This means a single modest bed with 12 square yards ( 10 straightforward measure ) of good garden soil in my climate can produce up to about 54 pounds ( 24.5 kg ) of edible greens in eight weeks . And multiple crop per twelvemonth are potential — about four in the Willamette Valley of Oregon , making for up to 216 Irish punt ( 98 kilogram ) from the single small bed in the early - spring - to - late - fall growing season . Even if I lose about half the likely output through various imperfectness , and I am too sloppy and disorganized to get four crop but instead get only three , that still come out to 81 pounds ( 47 kg ) .
Furthermore , in many cases , the eat - all greens get blank space does n’t actually be any garden space . Their speedy growth and shade tolerance makes eat on - all putting surface the idealistic harvest for interplanting or catch cropping , that is , using blank that is available only part of the season until the chief harvest gets large enough to need it .
Here in the Willamette Valley I sometimes plant eat - all greens harvest in mid - March on the land where I stand for to plant tomatoes or squash afterwards on . I reap the greens in mid - May , then institute the tender - time of year crop . run through - all craw beds aggregate naturally with big viney squash . Just put them in the center between the rows . Harvest two calendar month later and let the squash vines take over .
Eat-all greens should also be the ideal crops for growing in shallow containers on balconies or in rooftop gardens.
Recommended Reads
To Garden is to be lively
Becoming Resilient in an Ever - Changing World
The Tao of Vegetable Gardening
Cultivating Tomatoes , Greens , Peas , Beans , Squash , Joy , and Serenity
$ 24.95
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