Build a Synergistic Garden

I think I've read every book Ruth Stout ever wrote. Ruth, who was born in 1884 and lived to be 96, was the quintessential lazy gardener. She prevented weeds and reduced the need to water and fertilize by laying permanent 8-inch high piles of hay around her veggie plants. To me, her accounts of lushly growing gardens were as spellbinding as her brother Rex Stout's mystery novels.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world in Japan, microbiologist Masanobu Fukuoka was developing a "lazy" gardening system of his own. Fukuoka, born in 1913, concentrated on rice straw as a weed-inhibiting mulch, and experimented with a number of ways of allowing vegetable seeds and plants to find their own perfect microclimate and soil niche by broadcasting mixed seeds in different areas of his farm.

Fukuoka also used seed balls, in which he mixed a variety of seeds mixed with clay and manure. When scattered over the ground, the clay "melts" when spring rains arrive, so the seeds sprout and grow when the weather is right for them. This technique has been used recently in arid, eroded hills in Greece, where other means of reseeding are not effective.

Although neither Stout nor Fukuoka used commercial fertilizers or pesticides in their methods, these agricultural pioneers didn't call themselves organic gardeners. Stout proudly called herself a lazy gardener, and Fukuoka's techniques are termed Natural Farming. In both methods, the garden soil is never broken with a spade, and weeds, when pulled, are simply piled on top of the mulch. Natural gardens are messy, and some neighbors may look askance, but the methods do work, because they work with nature, instead of fighting against her.

More recently, in France, a new natural gardening technique was developed by Emilia Hazelip, (1938 - 2003), called Synergistic Gardening. This method brings together the messy enthusiasm of Ruth Stout's lazy gardening system with the Natural Farming techniques pioneered by Masanobu Fukuoka. Hazelip built 4-foot wide beds by taking soil from the paths and piling it as high as possible on the beds, to create a deep topsoil for the roots. The beds are never disturbed again by spading, because the introduction of air when soil is mechanically turned is the cause for the loss of fertility in garden and farm soils. The extra oxygen causes excess biological activity that literally burns away the organic matter and fertility in the soil. By avoiding this damage, Hazelip was able to do away with annual applications of fertilizer, manures and compost, which were used only the first year when the garden was being established.

Like Ruth Stout, Hazelip used heavy applications of mulch, but she used straw instead of hay, las Fukuoka does in Japan. She also left the roots of vegetable plants in the ground, where they will naturally rot. This prevents the "mining" of fertility that often happens when a field of plants is completely removed from a field, roots and all. The roots will rot in the ground before planting time next spring, and the next year's crops will have ready access to the nutrients they leave behind. Compost is used only for starting seeds in the greenhouse. Since the land is always covered in the Synergistic system, almost all plants are started in flats and transplanted to the garden.

I recently watched a video that was created by Hazelip in 1995, and I've become a complete convert. My own garden, which I started this year, is being grown with her methods. This comes naturally to me, of course, since I've been such a huge fan of Ruth Stout and Masanobu Fukuoka for so many years - Emilia Hazelip managed to bring their ideas together and create a gardening technique that works beautifully in my temperate climate. Since her gardening method is sustainable, requiring no purchased fertilizers after the first year, it could be the key to feeding the world in the years ahead, when oil-based agricultural products will become too expensive for the average grower. Why wait for Peak Oil? Get started now and create your own Synergistic Garden.