The Jeavons Center Mini-Farm Report
by John Jeavons,
Executive Director, Ecology Action
As summer turns into autumn, our four
new Farmer-Teacher Trainers (FTT) are
becoming acquainted with The Jeavons
Center mini-farm, and its steep terrain looking out
over the Willits valley. They are building their skill
with the GROW BIOINTENSIVE (GB) method, and are
growing into a team. This garden has welcomed and
educated, so many people over the last half-century!
The atmosphere of nurturing and learning has been
worked into the soil by the tending of countless
learning hands and the gentle tread of farmer feet on
the paths between the beds I helped dig into the harsh
hillside so many years ago. This place is so generous
in sharing—not only its abundant harvests of food,
but of knowledge, and of a sense of harmony with the
Earth.
As our new FTTs get a feel for the GB method, I reflect
on what they will learn here. Of course, I hope this
team will be part of this site for a long time, but I also
know that life can take us in unexpected directions.
My hope is that no matter what the future brings, the
time that each person spends here at The Jeavons
Center rewards them with skills and strengths that
will be with them always, both in terms of practical
skill, and in the garden of their mind and heart.
Mentored by TJC Assistant Mini-Farm Manager
Suraya David Sadira, new garden staff learn to build
fertility and achieve good yields by focusing on the
following emphases—the nuts-and-bolts (or perhaps
that should be nuts-and-seeds?)—of GB:
- Good Soil Preparation: double digging and
amending with site-grown compost creates good
soil structure at least 24 inches deep. This is the
foundational skill that allows us to transform the
naturally unproductive soil at The Jeavons Center
(rated “poor for grazing” meaning nutrient-limited,
with poor structure, poor water retention, and pH
issues) into a fertile, balanced soil rich in organic
matter, capable of supporting abundant harvests
year after year.
• Sustainable Compost: one of the key differences
between GB and other farming methods is the use
of site-grown compost, rather than purchased
amendments mined from other soils. The 60:30:10
ratio of carbon:calorie:income/mineral crops
is carefully balanced to provide “closed-loop”
sustainable fertility, with crops cycling back into
soil as much as possible.
- Living Mulch: in a forest, tree canopies create
micro-climates on the ground below that are darker,
cooler, and more humid than nearby unshaded
habitats. The GB technique of close-offset spacing
(rather than planting in rows) mimics this canopy
effect by carefully spacing seedlings so that the
mature plants will touch just enough to protect
the soil in which they grow, but not so close that
they experience stress from crowding. Years of
practice helped us optimize spacing for hundreds
of plants (which you can find in the Master Charts
section of How to Grow More Vegetables). Close
spacing reduces the need for other forms of mulch
(which may not be sustainable) and contributes
to GB’s extreme water efficiency, which allows us
to grow food with as little as ¹/₃ - ¹/₅ the water
of conventional farming, and also provides a
tremendous reduction in the area needed to grow a
complete vegan diet.
- Diet Design: careful planning of crops in space
and time also helps reduce the area needed to grow
food. This means GB farmers use as little as half the
soil (bed-crop-months) and half the water as other
methods to grow the same amount of food. This
is particularly important given world population
levels: the smaller we can make our “foodprint” the
better it is for the world’s soils and ecosystems.
- Aikido Flow: “Aikido is not simply over-powering
your opponent or competition of physical strength,
one must begin to appreciate Aikido in terms of
blending, the flow and out-pouring of energy,
balance and timing and bring them all together
in an integrated and effective way.” - Rev. Kensho
Furuya. For a farmer, effective use of one’s body
when working with the earth is essential for
avoiding injury. Because GB uses manual labor
instead of fossil-fuel-driven machinery, at TJC we
incorporate a mental and physical flow which takes
its flavor from the gentle martial art of Aikido as
we work in the mini-farm. Learning not to fight the
soil or your tools, and to be efficient and focused
with your energy is key to sustainable long-term
physical work. An excellent demonstration of this
digging style can be found here.
- Observations are everything! On paper,
gardening can look like a simple series of repetitive
tasks carried out on a schedule to achieve a set result.
But the garden is not a machine, and does not exist
in a vacuum. It is a living, changing community
made up of billions of organisms – including the
farmer! As my mentor Alan Chadwick said, "It is
not the gardener that makes the garden. It is the
garden that makes the gardener." He also said "A
good gardener looks at every plant every day."
This idea might seem preposterous if applied to
conventional farming; how could you possibly pay
attention to every plant in on 20 acres, much less
on 2,000? But the beauty of small-scale farming
is that Alan’s words make perfect sense, because
if you are paying attention, you actually do know
every plant. By building and tending each inch of
soil by hand, all your senses become engaged, and
you see your whole garden, every day, as familiar
as the face of someone you love. With this level
of engagement, you can see where adjustments
need to be made to create harmonious balance and
productivity. This is human-scale farming.
And so we move into autumn. As they learn to plant
the sturdy carbon-and-calorie crops (fava beans,
cereal rye, and barley) that will survive the cold, rain,
wind, and snow of the next season, I hope that our
new farmers experience the joy of this place, and that
they will experience, as Alan Chadwick did, how:
"And now, suddenly, this coming up of nature, of the
garden, enters your diaphragm and connects again
with the cosmic, and your spiritual image is lifted
again into a real that no verbosity, no ordinary
study through words, through books, can give you."
And I hope you all do, too.
Grow Hope
Grow Abundance
Grow Biointensive!
♥
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