We just got back from a 3 hour class on SPIN gardening sponsored by the City of Portland. While it was geared towards gardeners thinking about farming their urban plots for CSAs, we definitely learned some things. What I came away with were some very practical and basic tips about setting up beds, getting free fertilizer, etc.
Here are some gems:
Plant a bed as wide your legs can comfortably go wide....so you can straddle the bed to weed and harvest. Sort of basic, but if you've never done this, good advice.
Go to the local cafe and ask for free coffee grounds to fertilize.
The technique they use for intensive gardening is to focus on crops that they can harvest and then plant another different crop afterwards. Fast turnaround, as they say in retail.
The downside is that these guys don't really have much depth of experience in farming (which is inspiring for novices), so they didn't have much to say about crop rotation or whether their techniques might bring on pests or soil depletion after a longer period of time. This will be their 2nd year as a CSA.
As they talked about their pricey tools that make their operation efficient, I kept thinking of rural Mexican farmers and how everything is done by hand. Everything.
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