Site One: 100 Square Feet

The IPBN Site One Demonstration Garden Project occupies 100 square feet of level ground, a five by twenty-foot plot formerly covered by weeds and junk. It faces southwest in a niche surrounded by stone walls on north and east and a chain link fence on the west.

Entry is through the open space on the south. The stone walls are the foundation of a row house in a low-income neighborhood, they were erected in 1888.

Thirty-two different vegetables are planted in four identical raised planting beds. In the one foot wide pathway between the beds is seventeen herb plants in seven-inch plastic pots.

The planting beds are each two feet by eight feet by one foot and were constructed of standard untreated softwood lumber coated with linseed
(flaxseed) oil. Screws and corner blocks hold the boxes – beds together and they may be easily disassembled or moved intact to other sites.

In each of the four beds, the planting soil consists of a four cubic foot bale of sphagnum peat moss, two forty pound bags of commercial topsoil, a forty pound bag of commercial compost made of citrus fruit rinds and other organic material, forty pound bag of cow manure, a forty pound bag of sand, a garbage bag of homemade compost, ground phosphate rock, lime mineral powder from western deserts, ground seaweed and 110 earthworms from the UTOPIA: Inside/Outside homesite in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Bio-intensive and interplanting horticulture has diverse plants in close proximity, with some primarily growing up and some down, in mineral and organic material rich soil. Scrap wire and woven fabric trellises are used along with fiberglass poles to support vertically growing plants. Iron rods support hanging pots on the four corners of the garden – and these support a polyester unwoven cloth cover which is placed over the plants on nights expected to go below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. This cover will protect plants down to 29 degrees and thereby extends the annual growing season by as much as two months at a cost of $11.00.

Total cost of all materials including seeds and herbs was approximate $250.00

Harvesting began seven days after planting and will continue through fall, winter, and spring. In April of 1998, new seeds will be planted to produce spring, summer, fall and winter harvests.

This is a prolific kitchen garden which demonstrates how simply, easily and inexpensively people can grow their own foods on very small intensively cultivated sites.

Volunteers are sought to plant IPBN Demonstration Gardens

Please consider participating in Institute for Plant Based Nutrition by becoming a Charter Member and help support our Plant-Based Education Efforts Across America and Around the World.

Consider planting an Instate for Plant-Based Nutrition Demonstration Garden Farm or Orchard near your home to shorten producer to consumer supply lines. And support distant plant producers who provide special products you cannot grow locally every season.

Everything is connected and we all need is each other. Teach children to grow plants, eat properly and honor labor.