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Criteria For
The Family Garden Unlike commercial enterprises, where many acres are devoted to monocrop farming, family gardens should have a variety of nutritious plants. Commercial enterprises which have huge machines to till, plant, spray, fertilize and harvest their products can operate more profitably by tilling under fast growing hybrid plants which produce a crop all at one time, and planting another in quick succession to make the most of seasonal opportunities. It should also be noted that commercial farms require wide lanes for tractor wheels as these operations take place. This allows weeds to grow in these wide aisles. Family gardens on the other hand, should be designed quite differently. Small gardeners can use succession type crops also, but they can benefit even more by intensive gardening in patches and growing tall, long bearing, indeterminate crops which greatly increases the quantity of food that can be grown per square foot of garden space. Non-hybrid, indeterminate varieties of different types of vegetables and fruits should be planted so that the family can pick small quantities of each type throughout the entire season and still have some for winter consumption and seeds for the following spring. |
An Urban Garden Handbook
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Table 0f Contents | |
| I Introduction To Gardening-Past, Present, And Future. | |
| Chapter I.1. | Obtaining the Most Produce for the Least Energy, Cost and Work Involved. |
| Chapter I.2 | Information, Tools and Supplies for an Aquarian Age Gardener. |
| II Introduction-Growing More Vegetables Per Square Foot. | |
| Chapter II.1 | Traditional Summer Patches. |
| Chapter II.2 | Early and Late Season Patch Configurations. |
| III Introduction-Question and Answer Time. | |
| Chapter III.1 | What Beneficial Subtle-energies Can Easily Be Applied to Garden Water? |
| Chapter III.2 | What Should Be Done to Prevent Rampant Weed Growth? |
| Chapter III.3 | How to Preplan Access Paths? |
| Chapter III.4 | What Should Be Grown? |
| Chapter III.5 | How to Build Nutritious Soil for Plants? |
| Chapter III.6 | How Should Patch Lanes Be Oriented? |
| Chapter III.7 | What to Do About Water Costs? |
| Chapter III.8 | How to Optimize Future Corn Production Rates? |
| IV Introduction-Making Good Soil Cake. | |
| Chapter IV.1 | How to Build and Maintain Quality Soil Lanes Over Clay Soil. |
| Chapter IV.2 | Doing It. |
| V Introduction-Gardening Techniques and Strategies. | |
| Chapter V.1 | Extending the Seasons. |
| Chapter V.2 | Extending Garden Height. |
| VI Introduction-Planning and Implementing the Garden Plan. | |
| Chapter VI.1 | Planning an Urban Garden. |
| Chapter VI.2 | Sequential Crop Rotation to Maximize Production Per Square Foot. |
| Chapter VI.3 | Gardening Techniques for use in the Home |
| Appendix I.A | Iroquois Method for Corn, Beans, Squash. |
| Appendix I.B | Reiki Prayers, Enhanced With Manna. |
| Appendix I.C | Criteria for the Family Garden. |
| Appendix I.D | Sources. |
| Appendix I.E | pH Preference List. |
| Appendix I.F | Effects of Magnets on Plants. |
| Appendix I.G | Spacing Matrices. |
| Appendix III.A | A Hortopitta-Pie of Assorted Greens. |
| Appendix III.B | Precise Use of a Pendulum. |
| Appendix V.A | Birdhouse Specifications for Insect Eating Birds. |
| Appendix VI.A | Seed Company Addresses. |
Section I-Introduction To Gardening-Past, Present and Future
This section presents comparisons of Native American, modern commercial and urban gardening methods, techniques and strategies. Chart I.1 below presents differences in gardening methods of the past with current day garden possibilities as we now enter the Aquarian Age.
Prior to colonization, Native Americans were the best gardeners of the world. Most of the vegetables we currently consume were discovered by the Europeans as they colonized North and South America. Although Native Americans had only a few tools made from wood, stone and sea shells they survived quite nicely. They did so by using methods, techniques and strategies that did not require modern day tools, commercial fertilizers or pesticides.
Prior to WWII American farmers worked spring, summer and fall to plant, tend, harvest and preserve their crops, and then rested through the winter months. After WWII, commercial enterprises provided low cost food and Americans moved to the cities. By the year 2000, Americans were working all year long in factories across America. It's as the bible says-in the end times (of the Piscean Age) mankind will work one day for one days food supply!
Commercial fertilizers were developed to encourage rapid growth of plants but, unfortunately, they haven't returned nutrients to the soil removed by the plants grown during the past 50 years. Worse than that, commercially grown crops are routinely sprayed with toxic pesticides and harvested early in order to minimize spoilage as they are transported to our grocery stores. Early harvests again reduced the nutrients that are in the pesticide laden produce we now consume. Americans no longer obtain sufficient nutrients from the food being sold in our grocery stores and we therefore consume more food in the attempt. As a result, Americans are becoming more obese and sickly.
Over and above this, world oil and coal supplies are dwindling. Fossil energy costs are driving up the costs for growing and transporting commercial food products across the nation. Food costs are skyrocketing, and urban American families are now beginning to make gardens in their back yard. This book presents an urban gardening handbook for growing high quality food for the least cost, energy, and work as we transition into the Age of Aquarius. It includes gardening methods, strategies and techniques of:
- the American Indians (See table below and Appendix I.A-Iroquois Method for Corn, Beans, Squash)
- Indian methods as modified by the use of modern day tools, and
| METHODS | INDIAN | COMMERCIAL | URBAN |
| Pest control | Insect eating birds, & pest resisting crops | Pesticides | Insect eating birds, organic solutions & pest resistingcrops |
| Fertilization | Organic composts, mud, algae, fish guts | Fertilizers, composted manures | Organic composts, manures, fertilizers, algae & fishsprays and emulsions. |
| Soil preparation | Manual stone/wood tools | Powered equipment | Manual-spade, hoe, rake, bulb drill, garden claw & other metal hand tools. |
| Basic techniques and types of crops | Synergistic and symbiotic techniques to obtain the mostreturn for the least physical work involved (through maximum use of pole andvine varieties of plants.) | Powered equipment to repeatedly plow, plant, & harvest, various varieties of plants thorough out the year. | Synergistic and symbiotic techniques to obtain the mostreturn for the least physical work involved (through maximum use of tall andvine varieties of plants.) |
| Seeding | Manual, (in patch designs where ergometricsdetermined planting distances, and shade which minimize weeding tasks.) usingstone, mollusk & wood tools | Automaticpower tools | Manual, (in patch designs where ergometricsdetermine patch size and plantingdistances to minimize weeding tasks)Metal tools: spade, hoe, rake, bulb drill, garden claw & other hand tools. |
| Weeding | Manual, using plant spacing techniques to shade & reduce sunlight to weeds | Powered equipment & weed sprays | Manual, using plant spacing techniques to reduce sunlightto weeds |
| Harvest | Manual harvest of tuber, bush, pole and vine varietiesthroughout the season | Repeated mechanical planting and harvesting crops | Manual harvest of tuber, bush, pole and vine varietiesthrough out the seasons. |
| Use of subtle-energies of sound to optimize plantperformance | Bird songs to stimulate plant stomata, and singing to give cropscourage during the noon day sun. | Blind faith | Bird songs, and playing classical music in B flat with atape recorder to stimulate plant stomata to absorb more nutrients |
| Spiritual assistance | Prayers for plants and their descendents for evermore. | Blind faith | Reiki prayers (see Appendix I.B-Reiki Prayers, enhancedwith Manna) for the plants and their descendents for ever morePrayer empowered Reiki symbols on water buckets andcrystals placed on pyramid trellises. |
This section presents some of the results of 17 years of experiments that were conducted at the FBM. It summarizes many of the results that were obtained and provides the basis the increases in germination, growth and production rates that are referenced in following sections of this book.