Classes

Gardens/Mini-Farms Network

Texas: Lubbock, Dallas, Hereford, Nazareth, Happy, Amarillo
Mississippi: Oxford
Florida: N Ft Myers
Mexico, Rep Dominicana, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Honduras

Workshops in organic, biointensive, raised-bed gardening, market gardening, mini-farming, mini-ranching worldwide in English & Spanish

Tel 806-744-8517
Fax 806-747-0500
minifarms@aol.com
Box 1901
Lubbock TX 79408-1901

I am available to train people in biointensive mini-agriculture. What I teach is not new. Organics with raised beds were used for centuries. While living in Guatemala I saw only a few. The problem is that they have been forgotten due to the use of chemicals. A family can produce all the vegetables needed for a vegetarian diet on 1000 ft². 25% to 50% of the food consumed in any third world city is produced within the city. Urban ag is very important. The improved nutrition is more important than the increased yields because of the improved health and reduced medical needs.

I teach:

A. Organic, biointensive, double dug, permanent raised beds using green manure/cover crops/mulching/compost. This can double and even triple the yields while reducing the labor by half compared to traditional gardening.

B. Organic, biointensive, permanent raised beds using no-till, green manure/cover crops/mulch/-compost.

C. Agroforestry: Trees [fruit, nuts, oils, chemicals, medicinals, spices, crafts, timber, forages, firewood, windbreaks, chicle, industrials, etc] should be a planned crop just like all the other crops. Can use bucket drip irrigation.

1. Forestry: No clear-cutting but manage-harvested for natural crop production using raised beds for specific crops. Yields for 4-5 hectares: pasture=US $50 annually; clear-cut=$1000 one time; manage-harvested=$5,000 annually.

2. Alley Cropping: Raised beds between rows of trees.

Bucket drip irrigation kits should be used to produce food during the dry season and in areas of low rainfall. The kit [US$15+P&H] irrigates 200 feet of vegetables by filling a five gallon bucket each morning and each evening. Two kits will produce all the vegetables needed by a family of seven [vegetarian diet] during the dry season [Kenya]. Use only family labor with hand tools, scythes, etc. No outside inputs. A three day workshop teaches farmers principles they can use the rest of their lives to feed their familes and to help others. Workshop classes are practical and how-to. I take unfamiliar, open pollinated seeds, reference books [English, Spanish, French, Kiswahili, Arabic, Russian, German], videos [drip & biointensive] and I order free magazines [English, French, Spanish, Portuguese] if there is a library/office. I take sample handtools for a blacksmith to copy [most of which they have never seen] and irrigation kits. I demonstrate irrigation and making a raised bed. Reports are available on Côté d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Honduras. Funds must be provided or raised for each trip.

Ken Hargesheimer