Peter Chan wrote:...have you tried planting things in a less orderly way, Masanobu Fukuoka style? If so, I'd like to hear your thoughts on how it worked, or didn't, work. :)
My family have farmed by row-cropping for thousands of years. Weeding and harvest are easy and efficient. My equipment, weeding tools,
irrigation system, methods, marketing, and preservation techniques are geared towards harmony with a row cropping system.
I also grow a food forest, in which things are scattered helter-skelter through the ecosystem.
Both methods produce a lot of food. Row cropping is very suitable for annual crops. Helter-skelter planting is more suitable for a
perennial cropping system. Helter-skelter is less labor while growing, but requires more thought and attention during harvest.
My annual fields have a lot of self-sown vegetable weeds, which are allowed to grow if they are in a convenient location. In a few weeks, I expect to harvest
enough self-sown rye to feed me for a month, if that was my only food for the month. Crops that commonly self-sow in my garden include: parsnips, carrots, peas, common & tepary beans, turnips, orach, amaranth, lambsquarters, lettuce, wheat, barley, oats, rye, cilantro.
Landrace gardening is suitable for both row-cropping, and helter-skelter growing. You get what you select for, even if the selection is inadvertent. By growing in rows, I am selecting for plants that do best when planted in rows. When I allow crops to self-seed, I am selecting for crops that thrive as volunteers. By planting into a food forest, I select for plants that grow well in a food forest.
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