loosening the soil 12 inches deep and incorporating a 3-inch layer of aged
manure with some compost. The broccoli on the right demonstrates the
superiority of the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method, with soil loosened 24 inches
deep and compost incorporated.
- A backyard gardener in the United States could grow a
year’s supply of vegetables and soft fruits (322
pounds) on 200 square feet in a 6-month growing
season, assuming GROW BIOINTENSIVE intermediate
yields. This food would be worth more than $600 and
could eventually be grown in about 30 minutes (for 2
beds) a day, making the gardener’s time worth $20 to
$40+ per hour.
- An entire balanced diet could be grown at intermediate
yields on as little as 1,000 square feet per person in an
8-month growing season with another 1,000 square
feet needed to make it sustainable (for a total of 2,000
square feet). (See David Duhon and Cindy Gebhard’s
One Circle, published by Ecology Action, and Ecology
Action’s Designing a GROW BIOINTENSIVE®
Sustainable Mini-Farm for more information. More
usually it will take about 4,000 square feet to
sustainably grow a complete diet for one person.)
Using commercial agricultural techniques, it takes
approximately 22,000 square feet per person in India,
7,000 square feet in the United States, and 3,400
square feet in Japan to grow similar diets
unsustainably.
