Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

Jim Kennard: Three questions:

1)Soo.. you are saying that for "in-ground" beds... just use whatever
dirt you have, and with the Mittleider formula for fertilizer, that will
be enough?

2)Also about crop rotation: What is considered good practice? Does one
plant the same crop in the same bed for a total of one year (say: from
April till the next March, with veges such as beets, lettuce, greens,
etc, things that will grow through the winter...) or... should you
switch more often?

3)When do you start and for how long do you continue fertilizing
perennial fruit like strawberries, raspberries, blueberries,
blackberries, rhubarb, fruit trees, and veges like artichokes and
asparagus?

Thanks so much for all you are doing!
Carmen in zone 9

Carmen & Group:

We've grown great gardens in "devil land", fabulous top soil, and everything in between - from straight blow-sand to clay so hard we had to use sledge hammers to break up clods - all with excellent results, and with no soil amendments, other than a little sand to cover the seeds and fill the clay-caused cracks.

There are (at least) three reasons for rotating your crops: 1) Nutrition, 2) disease, and 3) bugs.

The Mittleider regimen of feeding takes care of the nutrition part, and a family garden is not big enough to allow rotation at distances sufficient to solve the other two. Plus, our cultural practices discourage diseases and pests by keeping the ground bare and dry, keeping leaves off the ground, and keeping leaves pruned to allow ample light and air into the interior of the plant.

The crops you name only need 3-4 feedings per year.

Jim Kennard

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