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| John Jeavons
built upon the work of famous British gardener Alan Chadwick to develop
Biointensive gardening. This method uses organic soil-building,
double-digging, dense planting, and a strategic selection of crops to
achieve a year's food for an average person on four thousand square
feet. This approach is documented fully in his core book How to Grow More Vegetables than You Even Thought Possible..., listed in our core book selection here. Jeavons has continued to refine his approach at his research farm near Willits, CA, and has educated many people from all over the world in his techniques. Details can be found on the Ecology Action site devoted to his work. Seeds (including some ancient strains), books, and garden supplies are available on his sister Bountiful Gardens site. His work has done a great deal to advance sustainable living research and practice in many climates across the world, and we encourage you to support it. Double-Digging Jeavon's trademark practice is double-digging of garden plots. While labor-intensive, this is an approach that is essentially applied once, digging two-feet deep and filling the resulting trench with organic matter. After this bed preparation, Biointensive bed maintenance resembles no-till approaches. But Jeavons, seeking maximum food production from a given plot, selects a strategic mix of root and leaf vegetables and plants them closer than other systems. The Bottom Line Jeavon's approach has been proven time and again in many climates, and for many soil types. His method stands as a living rebuttal to those who believe agribusiness, pertroleum fertilizers, and "green revolutions" are the only way to feed the world, and shows how a small plot of land can supply a significant amount of quality food. |