How to arrange the beds on the site, what to fill them with, what height to raise them to and how much fertilizer to apply? Your harvest directly depends on the answers to these questions, but what to choose so as not to make a mistake?
While someone is arranging beds in the garden the old fashioned way, the inquisitive minds of summer residents around the world are working to solve an important question - what arrangement of beds will contribute to increased productivity and make the work of the gardener easier? Practitioners and theorists of gardening art from the USA, Russia, Ukraine and other countries offer their options, and you just have to choose the best one.
The oldest unusual beds can safely be considered the Mittlider beds - they appeared more than 40 years ago and became a real “bomb” in gardening. Since then, this method has been tried almost all over the world, and both its advantages and quite obvious disadvantages have been identified.
The dimensions of the beds are strictly defined - their width is 45 cm, along the edges there are earthen sides 10 cm high, and the passages between the beds should be 90-100 cm wide. The location of the beds also does not tolerate variations - only from east to west, strictly in a sunny place, otherwise the result will be far from ideal.
However, making such beds is still half the battle - placing vegetables on them is also important. Each crop according to the Mittlider method has a strictly verified planting scheme. So, onions and other compact crops are planted in 4 rows, squash and tomato bushes in 1 row along one of the sides, vegetables and medium-sized root vegetables - in 2 rows.
And finally, most important stage is regular depositing mineral fertilizers into the ground. Before planting, light soils are saturated with calcium and boron at the rate of 100 g per 1 linear meter, and for heavy soils this rate is doubled. Then every 7-10 days the ridges are fertilized with a mixture of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and molybdenum (60 g per 1 linear meter). Mineral substances are scattered dry between the rows, after which the ridges are thoroughly and abundantly watered.
You can buy the nutritional mixture ready-made, or you can make it yourself. To do this, you have to mix 420 g of azophosphate, 280 g of kalimag, 190 g of urea, 110 g of superphosphate and 2 g of molybdic and boric acid each.
Over the decades of existence of Mittlider’s theory of gardening, millions of people tried it on their plots, but most of them returned to other options after a few seasons. This is due to the fact that, despite the high yield, not everyone is able to follow the author’s advice.
Firstly, the huge amount of mineral fertilizers can scare away supporters of natural farming. Secondly, their frequent application requires time and a certain pedantry - each crop needs its own mineral complexes, and everything must be calculated to the nearest gram. Thirdly, such intensive use of fertilizers leads to higher prices for the final product, and not all summer residents can afford this. And finally, the formation of narrow ridges with wide row spacing simply contradicts our mentality, when every centimeter of land should be occupied by a useful crop, and not just rest.
Lyadov's beds (as the author himself admits) were the result of a reworking of Mittlider's ideas. True, in the process they changed so much that the resemblance to the “progenitor” is not striking. Great option they will become for those who have damp area, regularly flooded in the spring, or an area with close groundwater.
The width of the beds remains the same as in the previous case, but the paths between the beds are considerably narrowed and now reach only half a meter in width. The ridges themselves rise 15-25 cm and are enclosed in high boxes. Of course, it is impossible to collect the required volume of soil from the passages, so plant debris, sawdust, straw, and leaves are sent into the boxes. All this is watered with EM preparations (ready-made or homemade) and covered with a layer of soil from the rows. In the fall, after harvesting, green manure is sown on the ridges and plant residues are laid again. The author of the method suggests sowing the row spacing with grass or filling it with sawdust.
Lyadov uses mainly organic fertilizers (infusions of herbs, humus, manure and droppings). True, if plants lack one or another mineral, one should not abandon the targeted use of special products.
Beds made according to Lyadov’s method are perfect for damp areas, but in dry areas they will require continuous watering and will pretty much exhaust the owner with the constant drying out of plant roots. In addition, an excess of plant residues in beds can contribute to the development of numerous diseases, active reproduction and excellent wintering of harmful insects.
To understand whether such beds are right for you, it is better to make 1-2 small ones first and check how the plants feel in them and whether it makes sense to put together boxes for all crops.
The beds proposed by the Ukrainian gardener are complex to implement and not very easy to maintain. They perform well in a fertile and sunny climate, but in central Russia or the northern regions they can fail.
Harvest beds according to Rozum are ridges, 30 cm wide, located every 60 cm. On one side of the ridge, a groove is dug as deep as a spade bayonet, filled with plant debris, and on the other, a path of green manure is sown.
As green manure grows, you need to mow, plow and sow new ones. The grooves need to be supplemented with fresh plant debris as soon as they begin to sag. Caring for Rosum beds comes down to removing weeds and watering, preferably at the roots.
The advantages of miracle beds include, perhaps, the presence of a place for disposal of plant and food waste, and unusual external water. But it’s worth dwelling on the disadvantages in more detail: the beds require complex, painstaking care, there is little space left for the vegetables themselves, the ridges of the earth often crumble or sag.
Such a bed can become more of an experimental entertainment, but it is not recommended to transfer the entire plot to the Rozuma system, unless, of course, you live on the plot continuously and are ready to devote all your days to gardening.
Beds for the lazy – that’s what they most often call it – is a planting option proposed by Kurdyumov. In order to make them, you will need to put together tall boxes and lay the layers inside in a special way.
There are two options for ridges according to Kurdyumov - boxes and trenches. The former are good in regions with a damp or cold climate, the latter - in hot, dry areas. For box beds, special wooden boxes 50 cm wide and 30 to 60 cm high are built, and for trench beds, respectively, trenches are dug 30-40 cm deep and 60 cm wide.
If there are no quality boards at hand, you can build boxes from slabs, slate, galvanized metal, etc.
Large pieces of wood and branches are placed at the bottom of the trench or box, then a layer of earth, a layer of organic waste, and EM preparations are poured on top to activate decomposition processes. Then several (2-3) layers of organic matter are alternated with soil, watered again with EM preparations and covered with a thick (5-8 cm) layer of mulch. Husks, mown dried grass, agrofibre, etc. can be used as mulching material.
The passages between the ridges are mowed and covered with mulch, boards, cardboard or other materials. Can also be laid between beds paving slabs or gravel, then the garden will look even neater.
Kurdyumov's beds are an excellent option, working for several years without “refueling”. The continuous decomposition of plant residues in the lower layers of the bed warms the soil, protects plant roots from frost, saturates the soil with nutrients and attracts beneficial insects and soil bacteria. High sides protect plantings from weeds and gardeners from working at an angle. True, such beds dry out quickly, so it is necessary to either place them next to a water source or organize drip irrigation.
If you look at all the original beds, videos and articles about which are literally littered with resources for summer residents, we note: there are very wide passages between them. The beds and crops do not move or change places for years. When watering, water is delivered only to the root zone cultivated plants. In the beds themselves, the soil is never loosened or hilled up. Such ideas are far from new: they were first officially proposed by American agricultural expert Jacob Mittlider about 40 years ago.
Their size is strictly defined: width 45 cm and limited on all sides by earthen sides up to 10 cm high. It is very important that the paths between the beds are more than twice as wide as they themselves (105 cm). Beds and paths are formed strictly on the day of sowing, but not in advance, and with the mandatory use of prescribed mineral fertilizers. In each narrow bed, plants are placed differently depending on the species, but generally in two rows: one along each side. Compact crops such as onions are placed in 4 rows, and large crops (tomatoes, zucchini, etc.) are placed in one row along one of the sides. Each crop has its own recommendations for row spacing. During the growing process, vegetables are fed with a certain mixture of mineral fertilizers and watered once every 7-10 days. The use of organic matter is not considered.
Growing vegetables in Mittlider's beds is an activity for people of a pedantic nature. It is necessary to carefully measure the components of the feeding mixture and then strictly follow the feeding schedule. No improvisation is allowed. As a rule, gardeners who use the system are usually very satisfied with the harvests, but after a few years they abandon it one way or another: the share of “obligations” is too large, which they do not have enough time or health to complete. In addition, simultaneously with the development of fashion for “natural products,” Mittlider’s method began to look blatantly “chemical”: only mineral fertilizers, no compost.
The author admits that he started from Mittlider's ideas. But he raised the beds 15-25 cm above the path (enclosing them in boxes). For a vegetable garden located on Far East, Where summer cottages can flood in the spring, at the end of summer, and in the middle too, this is very correct solution. In addition, Lyadov’s beds are not narrower than the aisles, but are approximately equal in width to them.
But where can you get enough soil to fill the box? This is not realistic for everyone. Therefore, the required volume is achieved by using grass, straw, leaves or sawdust, which are watered with ready-made activators or herbal infusions, and from above everything is covered with soil from the passages. All types of vegetables are sown or planted in it (in 2 or 4 rows depending on the crop). The author uses “folk” fertilizers: infusion of grass, manure, and so on.
After harvesting, green manure is sown in the beds, foliage or plant debris is added, and thus they are not allowed to fall through. The passages between the beds are sown with lawn or covered with sawdust.
In the photographs of the author himself, the beds look very good, and his work can be recommended to gardeners from other “wet” and cool regions. But in dry and hot places or on sandy soils they may not live up to expectations: they will dry out quickly. Even in average places, it is better to first try to make one short bed in order to evaluate whether the considerable labor costs will be justified by the increase in yield? And in any case, you should not get carried away with manure and grass fertilizing, so as not to pump up the crop with the very nitrates that everyone so wanted to move away from into organic farming.
A Ukrainian gardener turned the beds into raised ridges 30 cm wide, placing them every 60 cm. Only on one side of each ridge he laid a path sown with cereals (or green manure), on the other, he made a ditch 25 cm deep and filled it with organic waste. Below are branches, on top are softer straw, last year's leaves and other plant debris, which are spilled with a solution of one of the EM preparations. All this wealth is covered with earth.
Maybe such a scheme is good in blessed climatic conditions with an abundance of sun, but when used in other regions it raises many questions. Very little (only 25%) of the land is allocated to the vegetables themselves, and a lot to the surfaces surrounding them. Moreover, this will not reduce the gardener’s worries: to improve the soil, you will have to constantly add new organic matter to the ditches, since the old one will quickly settle, and take care of the paths (they need to be mowed, reseeded, and so on). To be honest, as portrayed by many “video bloggers”, these beds look very unappetizing, and the vegetables growing on them are not at all amazing. So if you are inspired, then experiment on a small area.
Rosum's beds: what they are needed for, design, creation procedure, work in dry summers. Received in Lately The construction of beds has become famous as a way to revive poor soil and create conditions for obtaining high yields in arid regions.
To create his beds, V. Rozum from Ivano-Frankivsk used the idea of moisture condensation on colder surfaces. Their design in its cross-section is funnel-shaped, with the apex directed into the depth. A depression is made in the center of the bed into which large branches are placed to create a certain space.
It is there that moisture will condense in the heat, since the temperature of the earth at depth is lower than on the surface, and air passes freely through the thickness of mulch and wood debris. Thus, Rosum's design beds simultaneously improve the soil by producing organic fertilizer and collect moisture directly from the air.
It makes sense to make such a bed where the land has not yet been cultivated and is not fertile. Clayey, rocky soil does not please gardeners, as it usually requires incredible efforts to cultivate and transport it large quantity fertile land or black soil. This can be avoided with the help of such simple structures.
The procedure for creating a Rozum bed is approximately this::
Next, you need to sequentially fill the ditch with organic matter, starting from the central groove. Relatively large branches are placed in it. Then a layer of thinner annual branches is laid on top. On top of this layer - various organic matter, leaves, bark, fruit remains, filling the ditch until the ground is cut off. And on top, the space between the shafts is filled with mulch.
All these layers are generously shed with EM solution so that effective microorganisms begin their work of producing organic fertilizer. This ditch is a source of moisture and organic matter for the future harvest.
The plants themselves are planted on the ramparts to the right and left of the moat. At first glance, such use of soil seems wasteful, but we must remember that, in fact, the soil is not fertile. Rosum beds will create and multiply fertility year after year by producing humus from plant residues.
And plants planted on the shafts will receive enough moisture and nutrients even during drought. In addition, they are open to air and sun. This makes it possible to obtain high yields on previously infertile soil in the first year.
Thanks to enthusiasts like Rozum, living in different regions, but driven by one desire to help nature create living fertile soil, thousands of summer residents are learning to make beds that are as effective as possible for their plots.
We ask summer residents who use such structures on their plots to complete the survey below the article.
1) WARM BEDS OF ROZUM VLADIMIR NIKITOVICH. ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND IDEA
And the warm beds of V.N. Rozum became another development of his own skills and abilities. The master was given the idea by abandoned vegetable gardens, unkempt lands, and infertile soils. The result is high productivity, complete naturalness of products, and minimal labor costs.
2) WARM ROZUM BEDS. 4 REASONS TO INCREASE THE FERTILITY OF YOUR LANDS
3) BASICS OF ORGANIC FARMING IN WARM BEDS BY V. N. ROZUM
Edge effect.
Use of mycorrhiza.
Mixed plantings.
Principles of allelopathy.
EM technology.
4)WARM BEDS WITH YOUR OWN HANDS: STEP-BY-STEP MANUFACTURING INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1: Marking the beds. Width - 1.2 meters, length - arbitrary. On both sides there are paths (up to 0.6 meters).
A nuance: the Rozum bed is created on a prepared (!) site. If it is heavy soil under weeds, we will prepare it by fluffing up the soil and removing the weeds. Then we begin to create a special bed.
Step 2: Create a wedge-shaped recess (groove) (depth - 25 cm) in the center of the bed. To do this, you can use a hoe or a Fokin flat cutter. We place organic components into the groove: trimmed from fruit trees branches, grass, straw, last year's leaves. We compact it a little.
Step 3: Using EM technology. We water the organic matter placed in the groove of the bed with EM-A solution in accordance with the instructions to reproduce beneficial microorganisms and colonize the substrate with them.
The dimensions of the beds are strictly defined - their width is 45 cm, along the edges there are earthen sides 10 cm high, and the passages between the beds should be 90-100 cm wide. The location of the beds also does not tolerate variations - only from east to west, strictly in a sunny place, otherwise the result will be far from ideal.
However, making such beds is still half the battle - placing vegetables on them is also important. Each crop according to the Mittlider method has a strictly verified planting scheme. So, onions and other compact crops are planted in 4 rows, squash and tomato bushes in 1 row along one of the sides, vegetables and medium-sized root vegetables - in 2 rows.
And finally, the most important step is the regular application of mineral fertilizers to the soil. Before planting, light soils are saturated with calcium and boron at the rate of 100 g per 1 linear meter, and for heavy soils this rate is doubled. Then every 7-10 days the ridges are fertilized with a mixture of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and molybdenum (60 g per 1 linear meter). Mineral substances are scattered dry between the rows, after which the ridges are thoroughly and abundantly watered.
You can buy the nutritional mixture ready-made, or you can make it yourself. To do this, you have to mix 420 g of azophosphate, 280 g of kalimag, 190 g of urea, 110 g of superphosphate and 2 g of molybdic and boric acid each.
Over the decades of existence of Mittlider’s theory of gardening, millions of people tried it on their plots, but most of them returned to other options after a few seasons. This is due to the fact that, despite the high yield, not everyone is able to follow the author’s advice.
Firstly, the huge amount of mineral fertilizers can scare away supporters of natural farming. Secondly, their frequent application requires time and a certain pedantry - each crop needs its own mineral complexes, and everything must be calculated to the nearest gram. Thirdly, such intensive use of fertilizers leads to higher prices for the final product, and not all summer residents can afford this. And finally, the formation of narrow ridges with wide row spacing simply contradicts our mentality, when every centimeter of land should be occupied by a useful crop, and not just rest.
Lyadov's beds (as the author himself admits) were the result of a reworking of Mittlider's ideas. True, in the process they changed so much that the resemblance to the “progenitor” is not striking. They will be an excellent option for those who have a damp area that is regularly flooded in the spring, or an area with close groundwater.
The width of the beds remains the same as in the previous case, but the paths between the beds are considerably narrowed and now reach only half a meter in width. The ridges themselves rise 15-25 cm and are enclosed in high boxes. Of course, it is impossible to collect the required volume of soil from the passages, so plant debris, sawdust, straw, and leaves are sent into the boxes. All this is watered with EM preparations (ready-made or homemade) and covered with a layer of soil from the rows. In the fall, after harvesting, green manure is sown on the ridges and plant residues are laid again. The author of the method suggests sowing the row spacing with grass or filling it with sawdust.
Lyadov uses mainly organic fertilizers (infusions of herbs, humus, manure and droppings). True, if plants lack one or another mineral, one should not abandon the targeted use of special products.
Beds made according to Lyadov’s method are perfect for damp areas, but in dry areas they will require continuous watering and will pretty much exhaust the owner with the constant drying out of plant roots. In addition, an excess of plant residues in beds can contribute to the development of numerous diseases, active reproduction and excellent wintering of harmful insects.
To understand whether such beds are right for you, it is better to make 1-2 small ones first and check how the plants feel in them and whether it makes sense to put together boxes for all crops.
Harvest beds according to Rozum are ridges, 30 cm wide, located every 60 cm. On one side of the ridge, a groove is dug as deep as a spade bayonet, filled with plant debris, and on the other, a path of green manure is sown.
As green manure grows, you need to mow, plow and sow new ones. The grooves need to be supplemented with fresh plant debris as soon as they begin to sag. Caring for Rosum beds comes down to removing weeds and watering, preferably at the roots.
The advantages of miracle beds include, perhaps, the presence of a place for disposal of plant and food waste, and unusual external water. But it’s worth dwelling on the disadvantages in more detail: the beds require complex, painstaking care, there is little space left for the vegetables themselves, the ridges of the earth often crumble or sag.
Such a bed can become more of an experimental entertainment, but it is not recommended to transfer the entire plot to the Rozuma system, unless, of course, you live on the plot continuously and are ready to devote all your days to gardening.
There are two options for ridges according to Kurdyumov - boxes and trenches. The former are good in regions with a damp or cold climate, the latter - in hot, dry areas. For box beds, special wooden boxes 50 cm wide and 30 to 60 cm high are built, and for trench beds, respectively, trenches are dug 30-40 cm deep and 60 cm wide.
If there are no quality boards at hand, you can build boxes from slabs, slate, galvanized metal, etc.
Large pieces of wood and branches are placed at the bottom of the trench or box, then a layer of earth, a layer of organic waste, and EM preparations are poured on top to activate decomposition processes. Then several (2-3) layers of organic matter are alternated with soil, watered again with EM preparations and covered with a thick (5-8 cm) layer of mulch. Husks, mown dried grass, agrofibre, etc. can be used as mulching material.
The passages between the ridges are mowed and covered with mulch, boards, cardboard or other materials. You can also lay paving slabs or gravel between the ridges, then the garden will look even neater.
Kurdyumov's beds are an excellent option, working for several years without “refueling”. The continuous decomposition of plant residues in the lower layers of the bed warms the soil, protects plant roots from frost, saturates the soil with nutrients and attracts beneficial insects and soil bacteria. High sides protect plantings from weeds and gardeners from working at an angle. True, such beds dry out quickly, so it is necessary to either place them next to a water source or organize drip irrigation.
Rozuma's beds are special beds whose functionality is aimed at helping nature naturally to give the quantity and quality of the harvest that she can and wants to give, without regard to additional accompanying conditions. Additional conditions here include not only soil conditions that are far from ideal for birth bountiful harvest, but also that “habitual” care that usually surrounds any garden bed - endless weeding, watering, fertilizing.
But let’s turn to nature, to that very nature where there is none of the above. What do we see? In nature, all this is achieved naturally - fertilizing is taken from organic matter, instead of watering - rain, etc. Likewise, the design of Rozum’s beds is based on natural processes and interactions, so it gives maximum yield with a minimum of human effort, regardless of soil condition. In addition, it has been directly established that under comparative conditions, the yield of the crop grown in Rozum’s beds is 30-35% higher than when grown in the traditional way. 
The “usefulness” of such beds is obvious - it is not only a high yield, but also a reduction in costs - both physically and economically. The most difficult thing here is to lay out the Rosum bed, since it must be created according to certain rules. And then everything will work out by itself. Features (or rather, advantages) of this type of ridges:
How does such a bed work? And it works so effectively that it increases crop productivity on poor soils and saturates it with essential nutrients? How is this achieved?
The answer is quite simple. Everything is achieved through correct location and arranging layers of beds, which ultimately give a visible effect. Rozum's bed consists of several global layers - these are tree branches and organic matter in large quantities.
Large thick branches at the bottom of the bed promote microcirculation of air. That is, air passes freely through the organic matter placed on top to the end of the ditch through the branches. As you know, the temperature of the earth at depth is lower than on the surface, and due to free circulation, moisture will condense there, which will meet the water needs of not only plants, but also the soil as a whole. By the way, in arid regions you can still throw hydrogel into the ditch. The pumpkin ones will definitely go crazy about this.
As for nutrients, this is the concern of the organic layer. Not only does it provide fertilizer, but it also releases carbon dioxide, which is a powerful nutrient for crops. 
In fact, the principle of building a Rozum bed is quite simple. It is based on such familiar things as organic matter, humus, but not only. To obtain the desired effect, it is necessary to create special air circulation in the ridge.
Construction consists of several stages:
And now our Rozuma bed is ready - such a warm blanket will create the necessary atmosphere for the “development” of the land, the production of fertilizers and nutrients for the soil, and, of course, for the plants that we will plant along the edges of Rozum’s bed.
And only now, after arranging the main bed, it was the turn of planting crops. Landing takes place on both sides of the ridge - on the right and on the left, along its entire length. Thus, one bed of Rosum feeds two beds of plants at once. We plant plants on the shafts that were created after digging a ditch.
In principle, any crops can be planted near the Rosum bed, but, judging by the feedback from practitioners, it is better to plant vegetables that require hilling in the first year - this will help deepen the groove, which will have a beneficial effect on further plantings. In the second year, it is best to plant zucchini, pumpkin, cabbage, cucumbers/tomatoes. If the organic layer is in your given year has not been updated, then the bed will serve perfectly for those who are not very demanding nutrients crops - these could be, for example, peas or any greens.
Well, of course, the beds can be adapted for planting any crops. This is exactly what V. Rozum is doing in the Rosichi ecovillage - together they are creating a permaculture eco-garden:
Further care of the beds is normal (from the point of view organic farming), these are compacted mixed plantings, green manuring, and replenishment of organic matter. The most successful time for planting is autumn, since over the winter the ridges will settle, and the organic matter will “catch” and begin to ferment. Here’s some more visual material on how Rozum’s garden bed is arranged, a video from the charming Valeria Zashchitina:
In general, the use of warm Rosum beds increases the overall fertility of the soil and improves its “technical” condition to good level in two years. During the same time, there is an increase in yield by approximately 30%. If you, too, are already using Rozum’s intensive beds, leave your feedback in the comments, they will be useful to visitors to our site.
Rozum Vladimir Nikitovich is the developer of the technology for his own warm beds, a professional gardener for whom organic farming is not just empty words. Construction of reservoirs on own plot, building greenhouses, competent cultivation of the land using simple tools, the use of green manure and organic fertilizers, increasing the productivity of fruit trees, shrubs, and vegetables of “all ranks” is a small part of the works of V. N. Rozum.
A warm beds of Rozum V.N. became another development of their own skills and abilities. The master was given the idea by abandoned vegetable gardens, unkempt lands, and infertile soils. The result is high productivity, complete naturalness of products, and minimal labor costs.
Today the warm beds of Rozum V.N. in demand by those who practice organic farming. Because it:
What else is attractive about Rosum’s warm beds for a gardener? Because each of them contains a storehouse of knowledge and wisdom of organic farming. Basic principles for creating a warm bed (according to Rozum):
Warm beds of Rozum V.N. on your site are not only an effective result for growing crops, but also a harmonious aesthetic component. Create warm beds with your own hands, step by step production attached!
The general structure of the Rozuma warm bed has the following structure:
The result is the following (when repeating the beds): lawn path - food bed - center with organic components (organic "path") - food bed - lawn path, etc.
Step 2: Creating a wedge-shaped recess (groove) (depth - 25 cm) in the center of the bed. To do this, you can use a hoe or a Fokin flat cutter. We place organic components into the groove: branches cut from fruit trees, grass, straw, last year's leaves. We compact it a little.
Step 3: Using EM technology. We water the organic matter placed in the groove of the bed with EM-A solution in accordance with the instructions to reproduce beneficial microorganisms and colonize the substrate with them.
From school curriculum: organic substances will become “food” for microorganisms with the help of EM-A. They will release carbon dioxide, which will feed the garden crops grown in the forage beds. Mulch will help retain moisture and sufficient heat.
To protect against the Colorado potato beetle and other insect larvae, we use a working solution of the drug "Metarizin".
Step 5: We plant the desired crops in the forage beds. This occurs on either side of the center with organic matter, on a slightly elevated surface. In the first year of creating the beds, we plant them with those crops that require hilling. This structure of the feeding bed will allow the groove to deepen and become as nutritious as possible for the crops being grown.
When planting, it is advisable to treat the plants with a mycorrhizal preparation. You can read more about it here.
Step 6: We sow lawn paths. Oats, wheat, clover, alfalfa or other crops will be used as mulch for both the central part of the bed and for the plants. During the season we mow as they grow. During particularly dry periods, water moderately with the addition of EMochets.
Step 7: Late autumn Having collected the last harvest from the food beds, we trim the plants with a flat cutter or a scythe and put them in an organic groove. Sprinkle with a little earth. We sow green manure. We water with EM-A. The bed is ready for winter.
Step 8: In the spring, as soon as the snow has melted, we sow the organic ditch with green manure. Without preparing the soil, we begin planting plants in the food beds and at the same time sow the lawn path.
Our soils are heavy, clayey, and calcareous. Summer is hot, dry, and dry winds blow constantly. The quality of local water does not stand up to criticism, and its supply in the summer is often limited in both time and quantity. But unlimited watering from one’s own wells often leads to final salinization and death of the soil. In such conditions, the opportunity to get by with minimal watering and provide the roots of developing plants with constant nutrition from organic ditches looked very tempting. Next winter We discussed this topic a lot at our seminars, provided links to Bublik’s webinars and explained the essence of the method “at a glance” to all interested visitors.
The season has passed, now we bring to your attention the first results of using Rosum beds in different areas in the vicinity of Taganrog.
Trofim Korneev lives in Beglitsa, a village 50 km from the city. This is his first independent experience of gardening. He could devote minimal time to his beds due to his busy schedule. Nevertheless, the result is very good for a start.
Olga Kotova recently moved with her family to our region from middle zone. These are also their first steps in unusual conditions.
4 beds and 8 ridges were formed. This is what they looked like around the end of June.
Rozum's beds are ideal for root vegetables: turnips, beets (especially beets! They just “crowd”), they are pushed by the sides, the tops are fatty, thick), carrots, onions. The Egyptian flat beets looked especially funny, because... It was difficult for it to push due to its shape, I thinned it out as I ate it to give room for the sides to grow. The carrots were large and juicy. Although in our village they believe that carrots “fail,” and not everyone even plants them. And I generally planted carrots wherever something was freed up, in two passes, in spring and at the end of summer.
The pepper felt great.
It bore fruit abundantly until the very frosts, until it froze. Next to the pepper, carrots grew on the same ridge.
The eggplants didn’t work out, but the turnip was “to blame.” I planted it late, and by the time the eggplants were planted, there was a turnip “jungle” with thick tops on the ridge. They bore fruit, of course, but they couldn’t compare with peppers.
There was also physalis in the beds, and the difference with the physalis growing in a regular bed was significant. In the garden bed it spread along the ground, there was not enough moisture, and I rarely had time to water it, but on Rozum it grew tall bushes. But I won’t plant it on Rozum anymore - it’s inconvenient, the bushes hang down into the passage. There were also squash, which also overgrown with burdocks and were getting in the way; I will plant them in other places.
It was still quite late, almost in mid-June, I planted tomato seedlings on Rozuma in place of the removed onions and beets. There wasn’t much difference between the tomatoes in Rozuma and those in a regular bed, but Rozuma didn’t water those outer ridges where the tomatoes were at all, and the bed was watered at least 2-3 times a week. So the savings in labor costs are obvious. For me this is fundamentally important. And it was also convenient that by July, when they “lay down” directly on the pit, I did not tie them up. It was convenient to pick clean tomatoes directly from the grass.
Rosum was not watered all summer, except for the rightmost bed (2 ridges), because... there was pepper and my husband was worried about it in the heat. I watered it like this: I put the hose between the ridges and left it for a while. Although I put my hand into organic matter in the heat, it was humid there.
This year I will reduce the height of the ridges for peppers and eggplants, I think it’s almost level with the ground... In our arid climate, it seems to me that the standard 10 cm in height is too much. The root vegetables were good, but the eggplants showed that they needed a lower level, and I think it wouldn’t hurt the peppers either.
And finally, my personal experience working with Rosum's beds.
There was a gentle slope on our site, 6 m wide and 8 m long, with total area from fifty. It’s all full of potholes and potholes, and there’s almost no land there, one might say, since previous owners For many years they stored coal there and dumped slag and other household waste. Given our still undeveloped expanses, we could give up on it and postpone its improvement until better times. But... this space is too welcomingly open to the sun and reliably protected from winds from the north and east by a solid fence!
Yes, and it is located close to home. So I decided to cultivate this area with the help of Rozum’s beds. Moreover, she abandoned the tracks, replacing them with the same organic stripes. The result was six wedge-shaped ditches 80 cm wide at the top, filled according to all the rules.
As it was filled, I poured the “filling” with EM infusion and covered it with dry hay. Productive strips of land on both sides bordered on organic matter, so I made them wider than recommended - 50 cm and did not raise their level at all - it’s hot and windy here. I completed the seventh, lowest bed retaining wall from limestone.
I laid out the beds at the end of May. According to our weather, it was very late, but it was not too early at all - the peak of the spring season in the Center.
The beds grew: beets, dill, potatoes, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, basil. A whole row with adjacent strips (2.1 m) was allocated individually for squash and zucchini, taking into account their size. All season, once a week all plants received foliar feeding our traditional bio-cocktail (“Healthy Garden” + “Ecoberine” + EM1).
Due to the rampant growth, it soon became impossible to take normal photographs, and then simply move between the beds, and, consequently, add new portions of organic material to the passages. As a result, the walls of the ditches in the upper part became noticeably exposed, that is, just the root-inhabited layer of my beds. Nevertheless, most of the crops grew and bore fruit regularly until the frosts in the second ten days of October, did not get sick, and did not suffer from pest attacks.
My own conclusions in my particular case are:
Next season I want to partially plant in the beds fruit bushes– raspberries, currants, as well as garden strawberries. Very interesting: what will come of this?
Using on your site various ways preparations organic beds, this year I made another discovery for myself - Rozum bed Oh, and I was pleasantly surprised by the result. Having reviewed several webinars in the winter B.A. Bagel on this topic, I was fired up with the desire to create such a bed at home, taking into account all the features of my site (the soil is loam, there is no possibility of additional irrigation - the source of water is exclusively snow and rain) and the presence of a sufficient amount of plant residues there, including cut old willow since last year. That is, you don’t need to go anywhere or even carry anything with a wheelbarrow - everything is at hand.
So, what is the essence and difference between such a bed and the usual one, or even the one we are used to and loved by us all? warm bed»?
Firstly, it can be done right in the spring, just before sowing.
Secondly, to create it you do not need any additional structures in the form of boxes or other frames.
And thirdly: there is no extra labor involved in digging and digging a deep ditch with throwing soil back and forth to “bury” the embedded organic matter, as in warm bed . All organic matter lies on the surface with access to oxygen, similar to the forest floor, and begins to decompose immediately biologically. active substances with highlighting carbon dioxide, directly providing nutrition to plants during their growth, without rotting and unnecessary combustion-overheating with the release of harmful gases.
Almost the entire area V. Rozum's beds constantly covered with a “blanket” that traps underground dew and the heat released during its condensation. Even during the heat and drought this summer, it was humid and cool there and the plants did not retard their growth, unlike the control plot, where I deliberately did not place organic matter in order to check and compare the effect Rosum's beds with normal conditions on familiar beds.
How I made the Rosum Bed.
So to speak, for the “purity of the experiment,” I chose an uncultivated area, almost turf, the vegetation of which consisted mainly of burdocks, dandelions, timothy, wheatgrass, thistle and annual shoots of hogweed. By May 20, it all turned green and grew. I mowed it, raked it to the side and outlined the dimensions of the future bed: 1.2 m (30 cm + 60 cm + 30 cm) X 4 m.
Next, under no circumstances should you dig or shovel!!! Let's take our favorite reinforced hoe, deepening it approximately 4 cm, we cut off pieces of turf, shake off our soil with worms from it, and put the remaining “washcloths” aside. By the way, this pile of roots was immediately transferred to the neighboring bed, where seedlings of zucchini and cucumbers were planted directly into the turf and grew, still under cut-off 5-liter bottles.
So, I processed the entire area hoe(I simply cut down the burdocks and hogweed - the plants are biennial and will not grow back; the remaining roots rot right in the garden bed and do not germinate). Next, along the width of the future ridges, I scattered rabbit droppings with sawdust, about 2 buckets per 4 running meters. meters. poured over Radiance-3 and the top one fertile layer I carefully removed the row spacing with a picking shovel and laid it, without turning it over(!), onto a layer of manure, forming ridges.
Use a hoe to form a V-shaped ditch. The preparation of the bed is ready, all that remains is to fill the ditch with organic matter. And here is the most interesting part! A layer of woody organic matter is placed at the bottom - branches up to 2 cm in diameter with leaves (in my case they were dry after winter), then hay and straw and a layer of fresh green mass. All this was sprinkled layer by layer with the EM preparation. Shining-3.
What does this give? - providing air to plant roots and beneficial aerobic microorganisms, i.e. fresh organic matter on top does not cake, does not block air access, and bacteria work throughout the entire layer equally and quickly, providing nutrition to our plants.
In "classical" Rozuma's bed 3 crops are sown on the boletus: Beets + onions + carrots. As a longtime fan and experimenter, I mixed plantings and intermediate crops, I decided to leave this scheme and supplement it. At the very edge of the boletus, beets were sown in furrows on one side (intentionally thickened - every 5 cm), and carrots on the other. Middle – onion – sets + dill. Radishes were sown between onions and beets and onions and carrots (nothing interfered - at the moment when the beets and carrots had 1-2 true leaves, the radishes were already harvested). In addition, seedlings were planted in the garden bed: basil, low-growing marigolds, strawberry seedlings (and even gave a harvest) and Savoy cabbage at the ends.
Sprayed 3 times over the summer bio-cocktail. There were practically no weeds. I tried to mulch it, but due to the density of the plantings, there was simply nowhere... the entire area was occupied.
Based on the results: The harvest of radishes and dill has already been harvested (simply a record-breaking one: greens (both dried and prepared), basil: all summer - leaves as big as the palm of your hand and continues to grow, cabbage - leaves for cabbage rolls and green borscht, berries from large-fruited strawberries - and the new mustaches take root beautifully among the beets and carrots.
The onion harvest is not particularly large, but the salad’s sweetness is a bucket size. Marigolds are blooming beautifully! And this is only an intermediate harvest - the main one is still in the garden, but the fact that I already see beets in August of quite an impressive size makes me happy and makes me draw conclusions.
I have used mulching with mowed grass on my site before and the effect pleased me - I saw the result: it is always moist under the mulch, weeds do not grow, my plants are comfortable, they are not afraid of either cold or heat. One good shelter was enough from the beginning of summer until the fall.
But what I discovered for myself this season, using Em technology for the first time and EM drugs, I was simply shocked and inspired. Organics laid for the first time on Rosuma's bed with the drug Shining-3 it lasted for two weeks - it simply melted before our eyes - the woody skeleton of the first layer was already visible. I had to report it constantly - but the volume is not small... But isn’t it a joy when everything you give this season immediately works for the harvest and increases the fertility and humus content in your soil!
Natalya Valerievna Shtypulyak “Fertility”, Yaroslavl
