How to make narrow beds in the country. The Narrow Bed Method: Revealing the Secrets of High Yields. Sowing methods and location

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A dacha is not just a plot for growing and harvesting. For many, this is a favorite place to relax and implement ideas for. Often the disembarkation method vegetable crops relegated to the background, but this is not correct, because from their interesting location and attractive appearance largely depends on the appearance of the entire landscape. This article tells you the easiest way to make beds for the lazy at the dacha. Photos and descriptions of the most good ideas, as well as ways to implement them, should help make your site comfortable and well-groomed.

Tall structures made of boards for planting crops will be the highlight of any site

A garden bed is most often a fenced plot of land intended for growing a certain type of plant.

• Slate.

Usually this material is used only if it is available (for example, left after the repair of the roof).

• Plastic.

The main feature of plastic is that it can be given any shape, so it is great for round or other curved fit options. In addition, it is not affected by rain and low temperatures, so it will last a long time without losing its original attractiveness.

An expensive and durable option.

• A natural stone.

It makes the most spectacular sides that will serve long years. Unlike bricks, stones have irregular shape, which will allow you to make landscape design in eco-style. Disadvantages of stone ledges: high cost and gradual sinking into the soil under the influence of its own weight, so such a ledge must be periodically checked and corrected.

Qualitatively made with your own hands from improvised materials will serve for many years, but for good harvest its correct location is also necessary.

Placing beds in the garden: how to arrange, photos, tips

The quality and quantity of the crop depends on the proper location of the beds in the summer cottage, so this issue should be given special attention. First of all, you need to know the following:

• Beds located on the cardinal points (from north to south) - good decision only for low plants on a flat horizontal area.
• If the site has a slope that cannot be leveled, the beds should be across it regardless of orientation.
• It is desirable to make rows of one plant of the same size. This will make it easier to calculate the amount of fertilizer, the degree of irrigation and planting.
• If the site has multidirectional slopes, choose south side(the crop will ripen faster on it).

On the small areas often there is a lack of free horizontal areas for planting. If this is your case, try one of the following ideas:

• Create vertical designs.

• Use unused items for planting plants (for example, a wheelbarrow, a barrel, and so on).
• Attach the bed to the recreation area.

How best to make beds in the garden - options

The beds are classified according to design features, with the following types:

• Traditional (flush with the rest of the site, dimensions make it easy to reach the center from any side (right or left)).

• High (30-40 cm above ground level, contribute to the most rapid ripening of the crop).

• Deep (during the device, a trench is dug 20-30 cm deep, due to which the earth most often does not freeze through, and the landing can be carried out earlier).
• Narrow (for example, according to the Mittlider method, described in detail in the next chapter).
• Vertical ( perfect solution for small plots, but not all plants can be planted in this way).

Related article:

How to make beds from boards with your own hands

Now let's look at how to properly make beds in a garden made of wood. This material is the most common when arranging beds. Board structures have the following advantages:

• Reliability.

The tree perfectly retains moisture inside the row, and also does not deform for a long time.

• Low cost.

This material often remains after construction. If it was not there, you can buy boards at a fairly low price.

• Ease of installation.

The main thing - high-quality processing wood, if this is not done, insects and moisture will quickly destroy the structure.

• Attractive appearance.

Wood is a material ideal for eco-style beds.

The only drawback of board structures is their fragility (in comparison, for example, with plastic or brick). However, the ability to quickly and least cost to change them more than covers it.

How to make a bed of boards with your own hands: photos, dimensions, installation sequence

If you decide to do wooden structure, first of all, you need to choose the type of tree:

• Oak or ash – hard rocks, whose boards are perfect in this case, but their price is quite high.
• Pine- cheap, but short-lived. You can extend the life of such a fence with the help of periodic chemical treatment.
• Cedar or larch– the best price-quality ratio. Due to the presence of resin in the data conifers, there is no need to process them.
• Acacia- also great option for planting beds.

What are optimal dimensions board beds? First you need to decide on the height of the structure, which depends on the following factors:

• Features of the planted culture.

Some vegetables require a certain depth (for example, for potatoes, the planting depth must be at least 40 cm).

• Soil fertility.

If the soil is fertile, the sides can be made 10-15 cm high. If fertile soil is required to be backfilled, 30 cm or more.

• Bed type.

For example, for warm temperatures, a height of 50 cm or more is typical.

The length of the row can be any, but it is not recommended to make it too long for two reasons: it will be an obstacle to moving around the garden, the wooden structure will have to be further strengthened with oblique or vertical pegs.

Most important parameter when arranging beds in the country - their width, since ease of use largely depends on it. If you make it too wide, it will be problematic to reach its center. Therefore, the maximum value of the width is considered to be 100 cm.

In most cases (if the planned structure does not have too much complex shape) it will not be difficult to make a bed of boards with your own hands. The size of the boards depends on the size of the future beds, but if you only have material of insufficient length, it does not matter, several boards can always be spliced ​​in length.

The procedure for the construction of a wooden structure:

• Territory preparation.

At this stage, it is necessary to level and dig the site for the structure.

For a rectangular structure, it is necessary to connect 4 boards and attach support bars to them, which should be 20-30 cm longer than future sides. They need to be slightly sharpened with an ax from the free side (to simplify entry into the ground).

• Construction installation.

We hammer the structure into the ground, while it is important to use the level to achieve maximum evenness of the structure.

• Surface treatment of boards.

First of all, the surface is primed (to protect against moisture and pests), then covered oil paint(optional, you can leave the color of the tree).

• Backfill.

The composition depends on the type of construction and the selected culture. But in all cases, the first layer should be drainage.

Most often, they try to plant only one crop in one area, but sometimes they practice joint landing vegetables in the garden. However, it is worth remembering that not all plants get along with each other. Therefore, the following is a table of compatibility of vegetables in the beds.

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Interesting ideas come to the mind of many summer residents and owners of private houses. In the article, we will consider original photo examples and several instructions for creating such beauty.

Mixed planting of vegetables in the garden: examples, photos

More and more summer residents are interested in obtaining not only a large harvest, but also an environmentally friendly one. Therefore, the question arises, how to achieve a quality crop without resorting to chemicals?

Perfect solution - mixed fit vegetables. After all, some cultures have a beneficial effect on each other. However, in this matter it is worth being extremely careful, since not all plants like any kind of neighborhood at all.

Thanks to the science of "allelopathy", a table of the neighborhood of vegetables in the garden has been compiled, using which you can significantly reduce the use chemicals for pest control and fertilizer.

Neighborhood of vegetables in the beds - compatibility table

The table below reflects the compatibility of vegetables in the garden. Planting using this information will ensure a quality crop with minimum investment funds.

Mixed planting vegetables in the garden: examples with photos and tips

Each benevolent or unfriendly neighborhood of vegetables in the garden has its own rationale. For example, strawberries and onions are great neighbors. Onions protect the berry from rot and disease, and if parsley is also planted nearby, it eliminates the appearance of slugs.

Onions are also a great companion for most garden crops, as they keep pests away. The most interesting neighborhood this plant- with carrots. Both cultures have their own pest - the onion and carrot fly, and the first one cannot stand the smell of carrots, and the second - onions.

Garlic - great for pest control, so it is good companion for most cultures. However, it is not recommended to plant it next to plants of the legume family, since the latter are leaders in the fence. nutrients, and garlic needs quite a lot of them.

Joint cultivation of crops in the garden can be detrimental to other vegetables. For example, tomatoes cannot be planted with cucumbers, as they require varying degrees glaze. Thus, the proximity of these two crops will create difficulties in processing (there will be a need for spot irrigation, which will take much more time and effort).

In addition to the properties of plants, it is necessary to pay attention to their size. For example, when alternating cabbage and radish, the second crop will receive insufficient sunlight, causing the quality of the crop to deteriorate significantly.

So you have developed ideal scheme the location of all vegetables in the summer cottage, but every year the harvest is getting worse. What to do? It is necessary to ensure crop rotation.

Table of crop rotation of vegetables in the beds

Crop rotation is the organization of crop rotation in the garden. Ideally this process must be continuous and annual. However, in real conditions, this is very difficult to achieve for the following reasons:

• There is not enough information about the contamination of the soil and the presence of pests in it.
• No time for precise calculations ideal option landing.

Why is crop rotation essential for a good harvest? Each crop has unique characteristics in terms of obtaining nutrients. Someone is looking for them surface layers soil (for example, a cucumber), someone, in search of water, lowers its roots several meters deep (for example, a watermelon). In addition, for the growth of each plant you need (to a greater extent) different elements(for example, for a tomato - phosphorus, for cabbage - nitrogen).

Now imagine that from year to year a certain layer of soil is depleted, and the content of precisely those substances that are necessary for this crop decreases.To make it easier for you to decide how to rotate vegetables, below is a table of vegetable crop rotation in the garden.

Important! The main thing is that the culture does not return to its original place within 3-4 years. During this time, the soil will have time to recover and accumulate required amount nutrients.

How to make a garden bed for cucumbers in the open field: photos, methods

Cucumbers are a rather capricious culture that requires special care. Many believe that it can only be planted seedling way, however, thanks to many years of selection, there are currently several varieties that can be planted immediately in open ground.

First of all, it is necessary to prepare beds for cucumbers in the spring:

• Correctly choose the direction of the rows - from north to south.
• Fertilize the soil best solutions – cow dung or chicken manure, if they are not available, any mineral fertilizer will do).
• Put the sides (preferably at least 25 cm).

The main secrets of growing cucumbers in open field- choosing the right time for planting (from May to mid-June, depending on the region) and choosing the right variety.

How to make beds for cucumbers - common features

In the case when seedlings are not used, grow a quality crop in the usual way(on standard beds) will not work. You must use one of the other ways to grow cucumbers in open ground:

• The device beds with a bookmark.
• Installation of a warm bed (including a raised structure).

These methods are non-standard, therefore, they are described in detail below to prevent errors during the arrangement.

How to make beds for cucumbers with a bookmark in the garden

To arrange a bed for growing cucumbers with a bookmark, it is necessary to dig a trench 30 cm deep and successively fill it with the following layers:

No water stagnation.

Warm beds for cucumbers in the open field

How to make a warm bed for cucumbers on the surface of the earth? To do this, it is necessary to build a box (for example, from boards or bricks) and fill it with the following layers:

• Sand.
• Organic waste (leaves, bark, etc.).
• Straw.
• Fertilizer (manure is best).
• Earth and humus.

The main thing is to carefully compact each layer, otherwise the soil will turn out to be too loose, and you should not expect a good harvest.

Advantages warm beds for cucumbers:

• Lack of dirt from the beds due to the presence of bumpers.
• High yield.
• Aesthetic appearance (you can make beautiful identical beds).

Raised beds for cucumbers in the open field

In an unfavorable climate, it is advisable to arrange raised (or high) beds 40-50 cm high (for convenience, you can make it higher). In this case, the sequence of layers remains the same as in conventional warm constructions on the surface of the earth. Such structures have the following advantages:

• Even faster warming of the soil, which means that the harvest will appear earlier.
• Convenience (no need to bend over to care for cucumbers).

  

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Those who are interested in the principles of organic farming, as well as those who would like to arrange their garden more intelligently and reduce their participation in the cultivation of vegetables.

Basic principles of smart farming:
1. Don't dig. Constant digging of the earth significantly worsens its structure and negates the work of soil organisms working for us gardeners.
2. Do not loosen more than 5 cm. For loosening and structuring, use green manure, compost, mulching.
3. Stimulate the development of soil living creatures. You need to give organics to the soil more than you take.
4. Don't leave the soil unoccupied. This green manure, mulch.
Among us, most of all are those who grow vegetables not for sale, but for themselves, for their families. And in fact, by processing a much smaller area of ​​beds, we can get the same, and most likely even more, yield.
The literature describes many ways to arrange beds of a small area, using different principles cultivation. For example, D. Mittlider developed his own system, according to which plants are planted in narrow beds filled with a neutral substrate (sawdust, for example, or expanded clay) and then watered with a carefully balanced fertilizer solution. Wide aisles are cleared of weeds completely.
Another option, popularized by N. Kurdyumov, is to create narrow ridges ok in the form of trenches or boxes. Their width is 50 cm, length - any. Each bed is two rows of vegetables planted along the edges. There is a huge reserve of productivity hidden in this geometry. It has long been noticed: the extreme plants develop almost twice as well as those in the middle - they have much more light and room for growth.
More about trenches and boxes.
If your site is never flooded, this option is suitable: a narrow bed is planned in the form of a trench, directly from the soil. You need to orient the garden bed strictly north - south, so all plants will receive the same amount of sun. A trench 2 bayonets wide, a bayonet deep, is dug right in the sod, for reliability and moisture conservation, you can dig a roofing material or other along the edges similar material. Manure is laid at the bottom of the trench, ready-made compost is on top. Watering goes under the root, and water does not flow out of the garden. Plants are planted in two rows in a checkerboard pattern in a thickened pattern, they will all be extreme, get freedom and will develop perfectly. Landings are mulched with cut grass, sawdust, husks and therefore always remain wet. The width between the beds is from 60 to 100 cm. The inter-beds are periodically mowed and gradually turn into wonderful green paths. In the spring, such trenches look like this.

For humid northern areas, raised beds-boxes are suitable. A box is a stationary bed, fenced with boards made of boards, slate or other material, oriented strictly north-south.

The photo shows that as a result of this, the beds turned out to be non-perpendicular to the paths. The height of the bed is 15-20 cm, the width is half a meter, the spacing is from 60 to 100 cm. It is filled with compost. The bottom layer can be from semi-ripe manure or unripe compost, but on top you need to put a layer of ready-made humus, at least 6-7 cm.
We arranged boxes from boards 50 mm thick and 150 mm wide. The length in our case is 6 meters, but it can be any. The boards were impregnated with a bioprotective composition from Senezh, interconnected with the help of roofing corners.

The boxes were installed on top of the existing beds, that is, the bottom of the resulting box was already fertilized earlier, did not dig and had a good structure. In the case of organizing a narrow bed-box on "dead" soil, initial digging is necessary. Since autumn, the entire volume has been filled "with a slide" with last year's manure. The main thing is to fertilize and water the box enough. Then you can grow two or three crops in it. different vegetables, from early spring to late autumn. With the help of wire arches or a simple frame, the box easily turns into a greenhouse.
In the spring, such a raised bed warms up earlier. Plants sown before winter feel much better.

I work, so I can only go to the summer cottage on weekends. At the same time, you need to relax after a working week, eat barbecue, take a steam bath, and, well, work a little on the ground. Currently, there are several problems in horticulture: soil fertility is declining. The earth becomes dense, depleted and has grey colour. The fall in fertility entails a decrease in harvested crops.

Application mineral fertilizers and pesticides leads to contamination of soil, water, air and food, which leads to human diseases. Traditional agricultural technology, used by most gardeners, is very laborious. And this reduces the interest in gardening among young people.

However, all these problems are easily solved if instead of traditional farming, natural farming is used. Such agricultural technology not only preserves, it also restores soil fertility. The result is an increase in productivity. horticultural crops. Mineral fertilizers are not used, which preserves the purity of Nature and maintain human health. A number of horticultural operations in natural agricultural technology are used less frequently than in traditional ones. And some are completely missing. All this reduces the labor intensity of cultivating the land and caring for plants.

In my opinion, it is more important to return to nature and forget the postulate that the soil must be stuffed with fertilizers, torn with shovels and sprinkled with pesticides. natural farming- this is, first of all, gentle tillage, protecting it from temperature changes, the return of nutrients that the earth has generously given to plants.

Every year in the spring, coming 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. It is called traditional way planting vegetables to the garden.

The plant in such beds, especially in the middle, often get sick, rot, and develop poorly from this, vegetables are small, and are not stored for a long time. But for pests, a weakened plant and good nutrition, and offspring can be postponed near it. Weeding, processing such beds is one torment.

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

I also thought about another 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 top dressing for the tree. So why does this tree exist and where does it get its food? Behind last years scientists have found that about 60% of the plant takes food from the air. It's certainly interesting.

The unpredictability of our Far Eastern climate, high temperature differences, night and day, arid or rainy summer, the excessive precipitation towards the end of August and the beginning of September confirmed the methods of cultivation of vegetables that I had chosen over many years of trial and error. I came to the conclusion that we need to look for another way that is less time consuming, but at the same time with the ability to get more high yields.

I combined two technologies.

1. "Narrow ridges - unique technology vegetable growing for small areas.
2. "Agrotechnics of natural farming".

I became convinced that it is organics that can reveal all the possibilities of plants, saving time and effort.. Just on good compost you can see and evaluate the quality of Western and domestic varieties: most of them are created for organic soil. I am sure: we can’t get away from organic matter.

That's all there is to it: learn how to compost and also arrange stationary beds - once for many years.

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

But blindly copying techniques and advice, even the best, will not lead to anything. There must be a creative approach to understanding the biological laws of the culture itself, and the processes that occur during its cultivation. Mitlider has one drawback (this is my opinion) when using mineral fertilizers, the taste of the fruit is unnatural. To fix it - I instead 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 do not take mineral fertilizer as a poison. Just stick to the dose. It is better to underfeed a plant than to overfeed it.

For which I am especially grateful to J. Mitlider - this is for the development of narrow beds. Although Mitlider does not recommend putting the box on narrow beds, I still knocked together the boxes. Nature itself told me this. In the spring, many summer cottages floods, the water does not have time to go, there is water in the aisles. We have the same problem in late August and early September - it rains day and night. Yes, and in the middle of summer it can rain for 2-3 days, or it can flood the entire garden in half an hour.

Therefore, raising the beds 15-25 cm above the track- solves this problem. Ridge width 60 - 100 cm, length is arbitrary. The interval between the beds is 60 - 80 cm. It only seems that the earth in the aisles walks uselessly. It is the passages that work, and how!

The vegetable container is high bed, the walls of which are made of bricks, logs, timber, boards, stone, slate... The beds stretch from north to south. The passages between them can be mulched with sand, sawdust, roofing felt, etc. I preferred the lawn, which I cut with a trimmer once a month. Some passages I covered 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 we spill with infusions of herbs and the like; in upper layer earth is laid from the aisles. Thus the box is filled.

Each bed is 2 rows of vegetables, planted along the edges in a checkerboard pattern between vegetables. In this geometry, a huge reserve of productivity is hidden, it has long been noticed: the outermost 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 aisle is also needed in order to give them light and space. A small area of ​​organics gives more than big square soil. Anyone who has worked at least one season on narrow ridges 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 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 cabbages, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, etc.
Four or three rows I plant onions, garlic, beets, lettuces, radishes, carrots, etc.

disadvantages

Requires material costs in the first year for the construction of the beds. This tiny flaw makes the container inaccessible to most summer residents.

Such a bed has been working for several years, you can say forever(replenish it with waste, plant residues, foliage, etc.).

• After digging, sow green manure.
• When planting, do not add compost or rotted manure into the hole. This bed itself is compost.
• The humus is not washed out, as the bed is fenced.
• According to many agronomists, 60 - 80% of the plant receives nutrition from the air, so large passages play significant role in the biological process of the plant. The culture receives good light and sufficient air flow.

About 30% of the plant receives food from the ground. Naturally, the consumption of organic and mineral fertilizers on a narrow bed is 2 times less compared to a standard bed. At the same time, you will get a much higher yield from a narrow bed. I have tested this for several years and it shows in my photographs.
Contains a large amount of nutrients, a supply of moisture.

Benefits of narrow beds

• Convenient watering.
• 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.
• Can be produced early landing, since the beds in the spring warm up faster than usual.
• Narrow beds are easy to rotate. Where onions were planted last year, this year you can plant carrots or cabbage.
• Yields are increased by 100% or more.
• Tubers, root crops are clean without visible signs of disease.
• Beautiful and easy to work with.
• Takes up minimal space, does not create dirt and mess.

It is very convenient to make shelter with plastic arcs, sold in seed shops. We put 2 pegs on both sides of the beds and put an arc on them. The distance between the arcs is about a meter. Depending on the length of the beds you install right amount arcs. Covering material or foil can be used over the arches until the danger of frost has passed.

This system of narrow beds allows me to get consistently high yields., independent of the vagaries of the weather and the conditions of the site itself.

Really great? And this is even if we take into account that Igor lives in the Khabarovsk Territory, in Komsomolsk-on-Amur!
And they tell us the zone of risky farming, the zone of risky farming :))

Creation of a bed-box.

At the request of many of my friends, I will tell you how I make a garden bed. A vegetable container is a high bed, the walls of which are made of bricks, logs, timber, boards, stone, slate. The beds stretch from north to south.

In the photo you will see a bed made of logs. The logs remained after the dismantling of the houses, they were not taken into construction, since the core had rotted, but it will do for the garden.

We prepare a flat area.

We firmly lay the logs in the ground, you can even deepen it a little. Width from 80 - 120 cm, it all depends on climatic conditions the hotter, the wider the bed.

The length is arbitrary.

We knock the logs together with nails or screws.

I put cardboard at the bottom so that a perennial weed does not develop ...

... as well as pests of Khrushchev, wireworm, etc.

We lay down coarse plant residues of corn, sunflower, etc.

Yes, it needs to be painted or whitewashed. Now selling paint water based for facades. This is so that the sun does not heat the earth and insects will gnaw less, and most importantly, the beauty of the garden.

Then I lay the plant residues of other crops - carrots, cabbage, potato, tomato tops, etc. Whether they are diseased or not. Effective microorganisms will process all sores. Do not plant perennial weed. I don't use Baikal and the like.

Igor Lyadov uses 4 types of dressing tinctures

1. I believe that every farmer can independently prepare microbial preparations for himself, almost as varied in composition as commercially available EM crops, but from their own, local, climate and soil-adapted microbes, which will be environmentally more intelligent and practical.

We offer practical, simple and cheap way restore soil fertility and increase plant productivity.

Given that the main components of EO are yeast and lactic acid bacteria, which are already enough in the soil and around us, we suggest using ordinary sugar-yeast mash as a starter for organic infusions.

The infusion is being prepared. In a 200-liter container (barrel) is placed:

Shovel of wood or herbal ash;
- half a bucket of manure or litter;
- a bucket of rotten straw or leaf litter;
- a shovel of humus, compost or just garden soil;
- sand shovel;
- a liter of whey or curdled milk;
- 3 liters of mash!

Brazhka is prepared like this:

for 3 liters of non-chlorinated water, 5 tbsp. spoons of sugar and a pinch of yeast. It ferments for 2-3 days, then it is added to the common tank. Before use, you need to store the mash in the refrigerator - it is valuable until it sour.

In the general tank, the whole bodyaga is infused for a week. Sometimes it needs to be stirred. When used, the infusion is diluted at least twice. (Yu.I. Slashchinin)

2. At 200 liter barrel I lay weed grass 2/3 of the barrel.(you can add ash 2 shovels). I fill it with water, cover with a film on top. Infused for two weeks. When using infusion, I dilute 1 to 10.

3. In a 200 liter barrel I put fresh manure, 1/3 of the barrel. I fill it with water. Infused for two weeks. When using infusion, I dilute 1 to 10.

4. I put in a 200 liter barrel chicken manure, 1/3 barrel. I fill it with water. Infused for two weeks. When using infusion, I dilute 1 to 20.

New and old - why is this topic so painful for us? Some use new techniques and get fantastic results, others look at them with envy for years, but they are in no hurry to say goodbye to the old days ...

The garden is better not to dig!

Five years ago, I came across a book by B.S. Annenkov “Give a shovel to a neighbor! Garden no problem. The title intrigued me and I bought this book. In it, the author very popularly explained why it was impossible to dig the earth. Another academician V.I. Vernadsky said that the German industrialist Krupp, by releasing all his weapons, did less harm to humanity than a man with a shovel and a plow!

However, until now, the Russian peasantry has not heeded this statement, AND TILL our days, it plows the fields with tractors, more than once a year and at least 35 cm deep with a revolution of the earth layer, destroying all life that is in the soil.

Since the 50s of the last century, farmers in most countries of the world have abandoned plowing and digging fields and gardens, switched to sparing and zero tillage and the use of organic composts. At the same time, they receive yields many times higher than those in the fields and gardens of Russia.

There the blockade of bad traditions was broken, but in Russia this is still to be done. Here is an article confirming this: I tried to plant only two acres in a new way using narrow ridges and immediately noticed the difference in the amount of effort expended and the harvest.

At first, I also broke permanent narrow beds only for vegetables, and planted potatoes in the old fashioned way. When the vegetables were just starting to grow, it seemed like too much free space left, and all the relatives condemned me for using the land so irrationally and planting vegetables so little, they were afraid that we would be left without a harvest.

By mid-summer, the picture had changed. Due to the narrow ridges and wide aisles vegetables receive more light, grow well and eventually occupy almost all free space. There was no more free land in sight. Cabbage felt especially good in narrow beds, the leaves grew large, and in order to water it, you even had to look for a place to step on. Accordingly, the harvest pleased - and so with all crops. Relatives no longer said that I started narrow beds in vain.

On the next year I have already broken the whole garden (and I have 10 acres) into beds 45 cm wide with row spacing 65 cm. We also planted potatoes in two lines on narrow beds in a checkerboard pattern. Surprisingly, it turned out quickly, they did it in two hours. And before?..

They planted it like this: synthetic twine was pulled on pegs on both sides of the bed, then they began to plant it: me and my son on one side, and my daughter and son-in-law on the other. First, the son dug shallow holes, about half a bayonet of a shovel. I put the excavated earth in the center of the bed, I then laid out the potatoes, sprinkling with a handful of ash. Next, the son-in-law, on the other hand, began to dig holes, and covered our holes with the excavated earth; his daughter was also laying out potatoes behind him. When they finished the bed, they moved the twine to the next bed, and with a rake they leveled the remaining holes with earth from the center of the bed. Due to the wide passages, the potatoes had enough light, and they did not stretch.

After landing a week later, I raked the beds with a rake, it was easy to do this, since the beds are clearly visible from the paths. After 10 days, when the paths were covered with a green haze of weeds, I walked along them with a flat cutter, capturing single weeds that had crawled out on the beds from both sides. She coped with the work several times (!) Faster than before, when planting in the usual way - after all, it was not necessary to weed each bush separately.

When it was time to spud, I stood on one path and with a chopper raked the ground with a roller to the opposite row of potatoes. Then she did the same, standing on the path from which she raked the earth, and spudded the second row in the garden. Previously, my daughter and I used to plant potatoes together, as it was hard for me to cope with this alone, but now I manage to do everything myself, without waiting for my daughter, although I am already 58 years old!

Is the habit of digging a vegetable garden stronger?

The harvest is also good. Even the neighbor looked with envy, although he continues to plant in the old fashioned way: he is already 70 years old, and, apparently, the habit is stronger than he is ... Now, thanks to the narrow beds, I can cope with the garden without outside help. Only potatoes are helped to plant and dig. Therefore, I advise you not to be afraid and transfer the potatoes to narrow beds - the harvest will please you, and much less effort will be spent on processing!

Since I switched to narrow beds, the earth has become better, earthworms have appeared.

If any “non-standard” comes across, or in the spring there is a crop unused over the winter, I do not throw them in the trash, but use them in compost. I take out only what does not rot in the trash: iron, glass, cellophane, etc. For cleaning, I have a separate bucket in my kitchen, where I put all the waste and egg shells, and everything into compost.

Somehow I got advice to prepare compost in iron barrels, and I immediately adopted it, now it takes less space. So I advise everyone not to be afraid of the new, because in our magazine for more than a year people have been writing about narrow beds, and only good ones.