To grow a good crop, you need to consider a lot - weather conditions, the quality of fertilizers, seed material. It is really difficult for a novice gardener to understand the intricacies of watering, planting, and feeding. If you are a beginner gardener, you can act by trial and error, or use the experience of professional practitioners. In the second case, we mean the beds according to the Mittlider.
American Jacob Mittlider devoted more than two decades to growing flowers and vegetables for sale. Having visited different countries, he studied crop production and nutrition problems and created an effective way to grow vegetables, which gardeners and amateur gardeners who do not have much experience in growing vegetables and seedlings can use today.
Features of the Jacob Mittlider Method
The method is good for its versatility - you can grow almost everything - zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, carrots. The beds can be done both in open ground and in the greenhouse. Garden farms have long taken note of this method.
One of the features of such beds is that they warm well even by the setting sun, all plants, if planted correctly, receive a sufficient amount of light
What makes Mittlider beds different from ordinary ones? They are quite narrow, with a wide aisle, and are equipped with a special design - with earthen or wooden sides. The design invented by Mittlider turned out to be very resistant to weather conditions, in particular, to strong winds. There are very few weeds in such a garden; its cleanliness and impeccable geometry delight.
In addition to the convenience in caring for vegetables, the Meatlider beds also look very good, especially if you pay more attention to their arrangement
We create the right conditions for a good harvest
In order to grow a good harvest, you must adhere to the following rules:
- study the planting dates of the selected culture, compare them with the planting rules in your region, especially paying attention to the timing of frosts. If the culture is unstable to frost, it needs to be planted a couple of weeks after they end, if it is stable - a couple of weeks earlier;
- Do not have beds in the lowlands, on the northern slope of the hill and in other places where the temperature will be several degrees lower than normal;
- you also need to know when frost occurs in your region in the fall to harvest and prepare beds for the next season.
We bring to your attention a video on this topic:
We make beds - step by step instructions
For installation you will need the following tools:
- two containers where you will mix fertilizers;
- rake for a narrow bed (best size - 30cm);
- bayonet shovel;
- chopper with a straight blade;
- pegs for marking;
- fertilizer and watering devices.
And the work procedure is as follows. First things first, we mark the narrow beds using pegs. The width of the beds is 45 cm. The passage between them can be meter or smaller - 75 cm. Its dimensions are determined by the size of the plot. The length of the beds also depends on the size of the plot - 3 - 4.5 or 9 meters.
The spatial orientation of the beds is of great importance. The ideal option is the location from east to west, so that the plants receive maximum light. Taller crops do not need to be planted from the south so that they do not obscure lower ones. This structure of the beds provides good lighting.
A variant of the design of the beds. The distances between the aisles, between plants are determined taking into account the characteristics of the growth of vegetable crops
Simple arrangement of beds, which does not require special skills and work with complex equipment, will create a garden that brings good harvests
Another feature of the narrow beds according to the Mittlider is the presence of sides. They are installed around the perimeter of the beds. The height of the side is up to ten centimeters, the width is not more than five. The space between the sides of the beds is within 30 cm. It is not necessary to place the beds too high, this will complicate watering.
It is very simple to build beds with a side from slate, it is enough to cut off the strip of the desired length from the sheet and fix them with pegs
According to the Mittlider, the passage and the beds are located on the same level, but we often have the beds located above the passages. The option of growing using boxes is more difficult and costly, it is most convenient to grow vegetables in the open field, it is also the cheapest way.
The soil between the aisles should be well compacted. You do not need to fill them with gravel or pave the tiles - in this case, the roots of the weeds can remain in the soil and damage the vegetables or seedlings. Moles are very annoying to almost all summer residents - compacted soil in this case can help, because animals prefer to dig loose soil for digging moves.
The scheme of the device of beds according to the Mittlider - the sides can be either from wood or slate, or earthen. There is nothing difficult in the construction of such a garden, and it’s much more convenient to look after it
Jacob Mittlider has both adherents and critics. If you were fascinated by the creation of beds for seedlings and vegetables according to the Mitlider method, then with its competent use, you can grow a crop that will be several times higher than the usual one, using generally accepted methods.
Using fertilizer in this method
When growing vegetables using this technique, two types of fertilizer mixtures are used.
First option
The composition of the fertilizer mixture includes the following components: magnesium, molybdenum, nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. 60 grams per linear meter - this is the consumption of this mixture, used for top dressing once a week.
Second option
Fertilizer containing boron and calcium, used before planting. The norm per linear meter for light soil is 100g, for heavy soil - 200g. Light soils - sandy and sandy loamy, heavy - peaty, loamy, clayey.
Will there always be a good result?
Our gardeners noticed that copying this method without a creative approach to understanding the processes of growth and cultivation of crops, their biological characteristics, does not always give a good result. Mittlayder suggests using only mineral fertilizers, and with such feeding, the taste of the fruit seems to many to be chemical, unnatural. Many of our summer residents using this method replace mineral fertilizing with organic - they use compost, manure, humus, ash. In this case, your crop will be an environmentally friendly product. When using mineral fertilizers, it is better not to feed the plants a bit than to fertilize with too much so as not to harm their health.
If your site is often flooded with water - in the spring or during summer rains, you can use boxes. If it rains for two or three days with virtually no interruption, the vegetables in them will suffer much less or will practically not suffer.
Rich harvests, luxurious vegetables - many of our gardeners, carried away by this technique, have achieved excellent results in the course of some practice
If you decide to equip the beds, guided by the Mitlider method, you will have the opportunity to grow rich crops, and caring for such a garden requires much less time. If it is not possible to often go to the cottage, two days a week will be enough - on weekends and in the middle of the week for watering the garden.
