Intensive Gardening

It finally got nice here and so Forrest and I spent most of the weekend outside. Well, he spent most of the weekend outside. I spent most of the weekend down a rabbit hole, learning about historical styles of intensive gardening. If that sounds really nerdy, that’s because it is. I will get to the point, but first, buckle up because you’re going to learn about them too.

Our garden is basically just our front yard, which over the years has grown to include 15 raised beds. (For the record, Forrest says it’s 19 but he’s being ridiculous. My tulip planters do not count as raised beds.) Since the beginning we’ve done a variation of French intensive gardening, which means we grow our plants in raised beds that we keep extremely nutrient rich, and when possible, we plant compatible vegetables side by side to maximize production. (Think planting lettuce, which matures early, next to brussels sprouts, which take a while, so you can get the lettuce grown and harvested while the sprouts are still…well, sprouting.)

French intensive gardening is old news around here; it’s just what we do. But a few weeks ago, Forrest tilled our flower beds and I realized that the three of them created a terrace of sorts, with three different levels. Figuring out what to plant there is what dug my rabbit hole. Because English intensive gardening very much uses vertical space to allow access to plants that are grown right next to each other. It’s not usually called English intensive gardening, though. It’s more often known by its more fanciful name: the English cottage garden. These days, the cottage garden mostly holds flowers, but its origins in medieval times included medicinal herbs, seasonings, and practical flowers that would attract bees, who then provided honey for the household.

I decided to repurpose our flower beds into a cottage garden, one that will attract bees, but also grow sage, thyme, chives, rosemary, mint, and lavender for our house. Forrest and I spend a fun few hours with me telling him where to dig holes and him trying to save every last chive plant. It’ll take two years to come to fruition, but I’m excited to use the space better than we have been.

Because that’s what intensive gardening is all about. Using space better. And while America does have its own version of intensive gardening (called square foot gardening and pioneered by Rodale, Inc. from my hometown of Emmaus, PA), the historical antecedents of limited space and needed productivity date back centuries. As I was regaling Forrest with all of my new found facts, he looked at me and said, “What about this makes it so interesting to you?" I chose not to listen to the implication that he didn’t share my fascination and instead, I considered his question.

The answer is…I grew up in a world where everyone acted like there were no constraints anymore. The Cold War was over, the glass ceiling was broken, and the recessions of the 80s were over. Everything from cars to houses to fast food portions were big and getting bigger. There was no reason to stop growing…ever. And now, I am raising my children in a very different world.

I agree that there are no reasons to stop growing. But growth doesn’t always mean getting bigger and taking up more space. Sometimes, it means putting in the work to make the space you have more functional. Growth for my garden has meant changing what I plant and where I plant it. For Forrest, it’s meant turning a hill that used to be a mere annoyance into a terrace for more cucumbers. For my kids, it’s meant learning to live around the bugs and bees that also find our garden delightful.

I don’t look to the wisdom of the past all that often. Technology has taken us much too far for me to believe that we should give up on modern science. But there’s something about working within constraints that encourages creativity, beauty, and appreciation. We have a small house and a small yard and that means that every square foot counts. It also means that the compost from our home is enough to fertilize all 15 of those beds, if we use our space wisely.

Our world is both very large and very small. And if we can find the possibility in both, then we are equipped to meet whatever life throws as us. Especially a sunny weekend where we fall down a rabbit hole.

P.S. - For all my talk about French, English, and American intensive gardening, German intensive gardening caught my attention the most. Called hugelkultur, or mound culture, it involves basically piling up different types of biodegradable materials that break down over years, and then covering it all in dirt, and then planting on top of that. The mounds are often straight but can be spiral or horseshoe shaped and all I can say is…I am extremely curious.