Mixed row culture

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The row mixed culture is a form of vegetable cultivation developed by the gardener Gertrud Franck (* September 25, 1905 - April 18, 1996), in which the garden area available through a carefully planned cultivation of main, intermediate, pre- and post-culture is intensive is being used. The aim is to optimally implement the principles of mixed culture and crop rotation in the home garden.

The plants are not cultivated on different beds, but on a contiguous piece of garden without the usual borders and paths for beds. The bed is entered with the help of boards that are removed after gardening so that there are no compacted footpaths.

The vegetables and herbs are grown conventionally in rows on the garden . In principle, one type of vegetable is grown in a row; Occasionally, however, different types of vegetables with a uniform cultivation period are mixed within a row. Each row is followed by another row with plants of a different cultivation period, whereby it must be ensured that the plants in adjacent rows have a positive effect on each other (mixed culture).

Gertrud Franck has divided the cultivated plants into A, B and C cultures, taking into account the different ripening times and cultivation times of the vegetables that can be considered for the home garden .

A cultures are slow growing vegetables. They occupy the bed all year round from around mid-May to the end of the year. Examples of this group are tomatoes, late cabbage, cucumber and runner beans. A cultures usually allow a preculture in a row of fast-growing plants that clear the bed from the end of April until the beginning of May at the latest. Plants in this group are grown in a-rows.

B crops such as onions, peas, leeks, carrots, French beans or early cabbage claim the field either in the first or in the second half of the garden year. The b-rows are laid out exactly between the a-rows.

C-cultures have a very short cultivation time until harvest. These include early potatoes, salads, kohlrabi, radishes, and early radishes. In the c-rows, low vegetables are grown with little space requirement and rapid development, so that multiple orders are possible. The c-rows separate the a- and b-rows.

The planting scheme is thus: c - a - c - b .

Between the a , b and c rows, either spinach is grown very early in the year as a previous crop or, instead, the nitrogen- collecting broad bean is grown. This previous crop is either harvested or chopped off as mulch material as soon as it interferes with the growth of the other vegetables.

The row spacing depends on the space required by the vegetables. It can therefore vary from row to row. Different row spacings make it difficult to plan the crop rotation , which is basically done from year to year by shifting the rows by half a row to the "mustard row". It is therefore not only recommended for beginners to keep a fixed distance of 50 centimeters from row to row. At this distance, as planned by Gertrud Franck , the spinach can then be sown throughout the garden in spring.

Continuous mulching is typical of mixed cultivation , for which either lawn clippings, leaf waste or - particularly valued as a mulch plant - species of the comfrey genus are used. This leads to a very loose, humus-rich soil.

Compared to other traditional cultivation methods in private gardens, this method generates a lot more yield on a given garden area. The high level of work and planning is a disadvantage . However, once a garden plan has been created and tested, the effort is reduced considerably, since the principle of crop rotation can be adhered to by simply moving the rows annually.

Educational gardens that show mixed row culture

literature

  • Brunhilde Bross-Burkhardt: Private Organic Horticulture in Southern Germany since 1945 - The Role of Pioneers and Changes in Knowledge Transfer. Edition Gardens and History, Langenburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-033835-9 .
  • Gertrud Franck, Brunhilde Bross-Burkhardt: Healthy garden through mixed culture. Vegetables, flowers, herbs, fruit: old garden knowledge rediscovered. oekom Verlag, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-96238-101-1 .
  • Natalie Faßmann: To good neighbors. Mixed culture in the garden. pala-Verlag, Darmstadt 2009, ISBN 978-3-89566-656-8 .
  • Gertrud Franck: Healthy garden through mixed culture. Vegetables, herbs, fruits, flowers. Südwest Verlag, 1991, ISBN 3-517-01261-0 .
  • Gertrud Franck: Health through mixed culture. 6th edition. Floor u. Health, Langenburg 1980, ISBN 3-921540-00-3 .
  • Margarete Langerhorst: My mixed culture practice. Along the lines of nature. 3rd improved, enlarged and redesigned edition. Organischer Landbau Verlag, Kevelar 2013, ISBN 978-3-922201-21-2 .
  • Christa Weinrich : Mixed culture in the hobby garden. 3. Edition. Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8001-5831-7 .

See also