Simple Agriculture: How to Plant, Grow and Harvest Your Own Food

🌿 PART 1 — Soil Preparation

🧱 Soil Types and How to Improve Them

Clay soil (heavy, sticks to hands): retains too much water — root rot risk. Improvement: coarse sand + compost in 1:1:1 ratio.

Sandy soil (dry, doesn't hold shape): drains too quickly. Improvement: generous compost + clay.

Ideal soil — Loam: balanced, dark, loose, earthy smell, visible earthworms. Add only annual compost.

🪱 How to Make Compost (The Foundation of Everything)

Compost is the "brown gold" of farming — transforms waste into high-quality fertiliser and feeds the microorganisms that make nutrients available to plants.

✅ Greens (nitrogen): fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells, fresh grass clippings, green leaves

✅ Browns (carbon): dry cardboard, newspaper, dry leaves, straw, untreated sawdust

❌ Never add: meat, fish, dairy (attracts pests), diseased plants, carnivore droppings

Ideal ratio: 3 parts browns to 1 part greens

Process:

1. Start with a 10 cm layer of dry brown material

2. Add a 5 cm layer of green material

3. Moisten lightly (should feel like a gently squeezed sponge — damp but not wet)

4. Turn/mix every 1 to 2 weeks to oxygenate

5. In 60 to 90 days: compost ready — dark, moist, smelling of fresh earth

💧 Physical Soil Preparation

Raised bed (the most efficient for beginners): Ideal dimensions: 1.2 m wide × any length × 30 cm high. The 1.2 m width lets you reach the centre without stepping on the bed — critical for preventing compaction.

Layer filling:

1. Bottom: broken thick branches (drainage + slow decomposition = nutrients)

2. Middle: moistened cardboard layer (suppresses weeds)

3. Mix: 60% local soil + 30% compost + 10% coarse sand

4. Top: mulching (straw, wood chips) to retain moisture and suppress weeds

🌾 PART 2 — What to Plant: The 10 Best for Beginners

🥬 1. Lettuce (30–50 days): easiest of all. Tolerates partial shade. Leaf-by-leaf harvest — lasts months.

🫑 2. Rocket/Arugula (20–40 days): extremely fast. Germinates in 5–7 days. Rich in iron and vitamin C.

🥕 3. Radish (25–35 days): one of the fastest vegetables. Perfect for teaching children.

🧅 4. Spring Onion and Parsley (30–60 days): high-yield aromatics in small space. Virtually foolproof.

🥒 5. Courgette/Zucchini (50–70 days): extraordinary productivity — one healthy plant can produce 10–15 kg per season.

🍅 6. Cherry Tomato (60–80 days): simpler and more tolerant than regular tomato. High yield in pots or beds.

🫘 7. Green Bean (50–60 days): one of the easiest protein sources to grow. Fixes nitrogen in the soil.

🥦 8. Kale (60–90 days): extremely nutritious. Cold-resistant. Leaf-by-leaf harvest for months.

🌿 9. Basil (30–50 days): repels unwanted insects. Great planted next to tomatoes. Easy in pots.

🧄 10. Garlic (120–180 days): long wait but high value — antibacterial, universal seasoning, long shelf life. Plant in autumn for summer harvest.

🌱 PART 3 — How to Plant

🌰 Direct Seeding vs Transplanting

Direct seeding: carrot, beetroot, radish, bean, pea — plants that don't tolerate transplanting well. Make shallow furrows, plant 2–3 seeds per spot, thin to the strongest seedling.

Seed trays (for transplanting): tomato, pepper, broccoli, kale, lettuce. Transplant when seedlings have 4 to 6 leaves — soak the container in water first to ease removal.

💧 Correct Watering

The finger rule: insert your index finger to the second knuckle into the soil. If damp — don't water. If dry — water.

When to water: preferably early morning or late afternoon. Never at midday. Never wet the leaves of tomatoes or courgettes — promotes fungal disease.

🎥 Watch: How to start a vegetable garden from scratch:

🌿 PART 4 — Care and Maintenance

🐛 Pest Control Without Pesticides

Garlic and chilli spray: blend 5 garlic cloves + 2 chillies + 1 litre of water. Strain and dilute 1:10. Spray weekly as a preventive.

Diluted coconut soap: 2 tablespoons in 1 litre of water. Effective against aphids, mites and whitefly.

Companion plants that repel pests:

• Basil next to tomatoes — repels whitefly

• Marigolds around the bed — repels nematodes and insects

• Garlic next to roses and vegetables — repels aphids and fungi

• Mint at borders — repels ants and aphids (caution: invasive, plant in pots)

Physical controls:

• Hand-picking caterpillars and slugs (early morning or at night)

• Beer trap for slugs: pot buried at soil level filled with beer

• Thick mulching: disrupts the life cycle of many pest insects

🌾 Maintenance Fertilisation

• Compost: apply 2–3 cm on the surface every 4–6 weeks

• Liquid compost (worm tea): dilute 1:10, apply at plant base every 2 weeks

• Wood ash: rich in potassium and calcium, sprinkle around plants every 4 weeks

🎉 PART 5 — Harvest: How and When

⏰ How to Know the Right Time to Harvest

Tomato: harvest when 70–80% of the surface is red and the flesh yields gently to the touch.

Courgette/Zucchini: harvest at 15–20 cm — younger is more flavourful and the plant keeps producing.

Lettuce: harvest outer leaves at 10–15 cm. Harvest whole plant when it starts to bolt (flower).

Carrot: pull when the top of the root is visible at 1 cm diameter.

Green bean: harvest when pods are firm and full but before the beans inside visibly bulge.

Kale: harvest leaves from the bottom up — oldest first. Always leave at least 6 leaves per plant.

🏺 Basic Post-Harvest Storage

• Root vegetables: store in dry sand inside boxes in a cool, dark place — last months

• Leafy greens: wrap in damp paper and refrigerate. Consume within 5–7 days

• Tomatoes: never refrigerate — loses flavour and texture. Room temperature until ripe

• Herbs: hang upside down in an airy place to dry and preserve for months

• Seeds for next planting: dry completely and store in paper envelopes inside sealed glass jars in a cool, dry, dark location

🎥 Watch: Harvesting and storing garden vegetables:

🌱 Survival Agriculture: Maximum Production in Minimum Space

For situations where space and resources are limited, these crops offer the highest caloric yield per square metre:

Sweet potato: one of the world's highest caloric yields per growing area. Resilient, productive and nutritious. Plant slips in any reasonable soil.

Cassava/Manioc: absurdly resilient — grows in poor soil, tolerates drought. High caloric productivity.

Pumpkin/Squash: extremely productive. One plant can cover 10 m² and produce 20–30 kg per season.

Corn + Bean + Squash (The Three Sisters): Indigenous intercropping system where all three crops benefit each other:

• Corn creates support for beans to climb

• Beans fix nitrogen in the soil for corn and squash

• Squash covers the ground with its broad leaves — retains moisture and suppresses weeds

🧭 Golden Rules of Simple Agriculture

• Start small — 2 m² well tended produces more than 20 m² poorly managed

• Healthy soil is the only priority — everything else resolves with good soil

• Observe your plants daily — problems identified early are easy to solve

• Plant what you eat — the best garden is the one you actually use

• Save seeds — real autonomy begins when you no longer depend on buying them

• Failure is learning — every experienced gardener has killed plants. Keep planting

🌱 The earth never lies: what you plant, you harvest. Share this guide with everyone who wants more autonomy, health and connection to the origin of their food.

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