Polyculture Garden Introduction

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The Polyculture Garden is one of the 7 family size gardens that are being trialed as part of the RED Gardens Project.
This garden tries to integrate rather than segregate different crops, but it is tricky to figure out which plants work well together and which are the best methods to grow, care for and harvest the crops.
Whether it is called polyculture, polycrop, guilds, permaculture, intercropping or companion planting, there are a lot of potential benefits of this gardening approach, including higher overall yields. But these are not necessarily easy to achieve.
/ cjredgardens
/ redgardens
Part of the Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Tipperary, Ireland www.thevillage.ie

[@brian4479]

I love this channel. This guy never wastes my time

[@REDGardens]

Glad you appreciate my efforts. i future with so many people potentially watching these videos, If I drag the content out it ends up wasting a lot of time added up around the world!

[@redtonicSA]

I appreciate your discussion of results with these methods. There's a real dearth of actual study and application of all the various methods, no till, no dig, polyculture, etc. across different climates as well as across the collections of crops vital to different cultures' foodways. I see some data from small farms, but either from lack of time, or avenues to share, or other reasons, not very much comes out, and of course for home gardening there are also many challenges to collecting and sharing reliable information.

[@greenbean4943]

You're great! Thanks for your transparency throughout your learning process- it's most appreciated

[@REDGardens]

Thanks for the feedback/comment. Good to know that people appreciate how I approach all this.

[@misuzu437]

There is a very scientific care to the level of detail you use in this video from introduction, experimentation, results, and renewed hypothesis/repeat. I absolutely love it. It makes it super easy for my to follow along and understand!

[@Im-just-Stardust]

You are inspiring me a lot. I am starting my first garden this spring and I begin to feel a lot of anxiety recently, as time approach. I know I will face a lot of, kind of frustrating and unexpected problems. Phew ... I guess the anxiety will leave once I finally starts.

[@REDGardens]

The mix of hopeful expectation and anxiety is a common aspect of starting to grow.

[@Hayley-sl9lm]

This is exactly the type of gardening that I would like to do... Thanks for sharing your advice!

[@REDGardens]

Cool, glad you found this video and approach valuable. Good luck with it all.

[@TheZenytram]

I think we are 100 years to get the full benefit of this type of gardening, we don't know enough of biology to make this works perfectly, too many variable and to much unknowns within each organism. That why we need to try out everything till it works 😊

[@Dreadknot68]

Another great informative video! Thanks for sharing

[@REDGardens]

Thanks.

[@Tecnetkb]

Um canal realmente focado em divulgar conhecimento prático!

[@REDGardens]

Thanks, glad you like my channel!

[@Dimora]

I'm so glad you're tackling this topic. You're the right man for the task! In my mind there is a marked distinction between companion planting and intercropping and even guilds. Last year I REALLY struggled trying to understand / memorize companion plant pairing based off of what I was reading and ended up despairing and just planting whatever, whatever so I didn't miss my window for sowing. My issue is that (and please correct me if I'm wrong) they're is little scientific evidence for common companion plants pairings outside of the collected wisdom of ages and if it's known that a plant is alleleopathic. This year I ended up deciding to take a similar approach to One Yard Revolution and practice controlled intercropping by deliberately (not broadcasting) planting flowers and herbs next to annuals without much consideration for any purported interactions between the plants with the hope that the planned diversity will deterr pests. We'll see. Looking forward to your next video!

[@REDGardens]

I have not found much evidence for companion planting, but there is definitely a lot of collected 'wisdom' disseminated. As you say, there is evidence of some allelopathic issues, but so much of the companion planting chart doesn't appear to have as much scientific backing as I would like to see. That doesn't mean that it is wrong, but causes me to be suspicious of the claims. I had the same issues as you describe about trying to work out all of the combinations of companion planting, and in the end I kind of gave up.

[@AgroforestryAcademy]

Hey there! Just watched a couple of your videos, and am inspired by your systematic approach to learning. Thanks for sharing, keep up the good work. Cheers!

[@REDGardens]

Thanks!

[@PCoutcast]

Another very cool experiment! Polyculture is something that really interests me as well. One more factor that could be considered with this style of garden is the potential for beautiful ornamentation of a functional plot. A friend's neighbour has done this with her front yard in a suburban neighbourhood. It looks like an ornamental flower garden but it's 100% edible and highly productive. A couple of key factors include extensive use of mulch and no straight lines anywhere.

[@REDGardens]

It can be beautiful!

[@Heckasuperduper]

You put your words together well and your videos are very enjoyable and informative Thank you

[@REDGardens]

Thanks for your encouraging comments!

[@amarpreetmehta7]

thank you RED, currently I am reading GAIA'S GARDEN by Tony Hemenway and I just happen to watch this video, its is very helpful and supports his writtings... thank you for sharing

[@REDGardens]

Such a great book, and so inspiring.

[@phillcollinsjazzpiano]

Thanks for your videos I’m enjoying watching them. It’s funny, I threw a load of random seeds from the bottom of a tub of seed packets into a little raised bed I had given my preschool children. I didn’t bother with more than raking them around a bit. It is by far the most successful 3sq foot in the whole garden! Every crop is coming up in it’s turn and has outperformed it’s equivalent in the main bed system. Guess what I’m trying next year?! I really should add that onto bare grass I put 6ins spare fresh cow manure and then 6ins of soil on top for sowing in. Maybe some compost; cant remember now. I think I may have struck on a lucky formula.

[@REDGardens]

Some times those casual things work out really well.

[@nosuchthingasshould4175]

I don't know whether this was intentional, but the foggy glass pane with the landscape beyond gave an old painting feel to the image and if intentional it was a stroke of genius.

[@REDGardens]

It is a pretty cool effect! Though can't really take too much credit for it, as it is simply filmed from inside one of my polytunnels, and what you see is the condensation/rain on the plastic. Given that it is winter, and quite windy, I can only really film inside the polytunnel, and chose the uniform background. Glad you appreciate it!

[@TheNapalmFTW]

I did companion planting this year, only because I was rushing to start and my mum told me about three sisters. I ended up crowding my 10x4ft bed with corn beans and courgettes and it's a little crazy. Next year I'm not going to bother but I also "stole" more of the back yard for the vegetable garden so I should have more room.

[@kimberlyguimond4186]

Yay! Was so happy to see your new video. Thanks :)

[@REDGardens]

It is really cool to know that people out there are so interested in watching! Thanks!

[@kimberlyguimond4186]

RED Gardens I love that you are straight forward with great information and am extremely jealous of all that land!

[@REDGardens]

That is useful feedback - thanks. I love having all that land, but it can be a quite overwhelming at times.

[@jwhittenTV]

thank you! subscribing after watching just this video

[@REDGardens]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@mariannegibson1407]

Great video, thanks. It is so interesting to see different approaches being trialled in a similar climate to mine. I am trying Gertrud Franck's 'Companion Planting' for a small annual veg plot, and I really like it, though I don't get several harvests a year, having much cooler summers here in the Outer Hebrides than she did in Germany. Also, I tend to let the companions run riot a lot more than her recommendations, and so I am sure reduces the growth of my main crops, but also cushions wind effects. My companion planted plot suffers very little from slugs, which is a miracle in itself!

[@REDGardens]

Thanks! I hadn't heard of that book. It is interesting how things need to change with different climate, and different personalities of the grower! Cool to hear about the lack of slugs. Any idea why?

[@mariannegibson1407]

I think partly the mixing of the plants made it harder for the slugs to find the cabbages and things that they like, but in particular I grew a lot of borage with the brassicas, and kept cutting them and laying the leaves around the cabbages. It seems to be a good deterrent, as does mulching with seaweed.

[@LondonWorms]

Really informative and very interesting. Some fantastic lessons learned and shared. 😊👍

[@REDGardens]

Glad you found it useful!

[@markbest2044]

I did a permacuture design certificate and the benefits of polyculture is talked about a lot. Its interesting to hear about the practical issues with actually trying to implement this as a system. One question i have is what the total yield is per meter when you combine all the output and how that compares both as a raw number and also once that number is normalized but the extra time taken to manage and weed the plots.

[@REDGardens]

I don't have good yield data to compare with yet. I want to wait until I have a decent handle on managing this polyculture method before I start comparing - otherwise it would be misleading. Hopefully this season.

[@markbest2044]

I really like the analysis you do. My background is in statistical data analysis so its close to my heart and i'm looking forward to your findings regarding this. I was thinking about a similar topic relating to the reduction in global genetic diversity relating to things like wheat, rice etc. and i think this is also related to mainly optimizing for yield and not other measures such as disease/pest resilience. This at least is starting to change with things like bees. A lot of analysis is based only on the average yield but it would be interesting looking at the yield variance since this is also important if people plan to live from a garden. It is interesting to me if gardening ideas could be compared in a similar way to investments in terms of risk adjusted returns (preference for smaller but more consistent yields). Thinking about it, the main things people would want from a garden is multi dimensional. a) variety b) consistency c) abundance d) aesthetics e) other things idk. It's always interesting to have conversations which start with "which is better" since it can be a whole conversation to itself to truly define the term "better". I am pretty much just typing my thoughts, but finding your videos has given me a lot of food for thought in regards to combining disciplines and experimentation.

[@REDGardens]

You make some very important points, especially the one about starting with trying to define the term 'better' - that is my key thought on a lot of this. I also find it problematic that so much of analysis is based on average yield, and average (or rather really poor) quality. If I can produce more food per m2 and of higher nutritional quality, and with less going to waste or spoiling in transport, then how do I go about compare what I produce to what I would otherwise have to buy. that is before I bring in all the other issues of transport, refrigeration, inputs, plastics ...

[@qtpwqt]

Another great video

[@REDGardens]

Thanks!

[@JanelHathaway]

Amazing video and full of great references! Thank you so much! Btw your voice reminds me of JP Sears the comedian :)

[@REDGardens]

Thanks! Interesting to hear I sound a bit like JP Sears ... will have to have a listen!

[@darrenbetts2987]

Great video. I use catch crops in gaps. I'll have to give this a go in an area.

[@REDGardens]

Thanks.

[@PeterSedesse]

This is really interesting as I am doing similar experiments. I am doing a combination of polyculture combined with my own version of square food gardening which I am calling Arm´s Reach gardening. The idea is to break your garden into 2ft x 2ft squares ( which is an arm´s reach for average adults). rather than 1x1. and layout the garden in keyhole fashion to always have access to every 2x2 square. 2x2 has a physical significance (arms reach) and also fixes a problem with square foot gardening in that large plants ´break´ your 1x1 system by affecting nearby squares. I then have a dozen or so ´templates´ for 2x2 squares that are extremely polyculture. For instance one of my 2x2 templates has 4 determinate tomatoes, 6 beets, 6 radishes and 12 lettuce. That 2x2 template can then be used anywhere in the garden and works well for production. I also have particular north wall templates for climbers. For instance one 2x2 template is 3 zuchinni, 6 carrots, 16 lettuce and 6 garlic with obviously the 3 zucchini lined up on the north wall with a trellece. Instead of having to focus on making a large garden polyculture work well together, I am just focusing on getting the 2x2 templates to be as productive as possible, and then using each template in proportion to how much I want of those particular veggies.

[@REDGardens]

Interesting approach to mix the square foot - or 4 square foot - approach with polyculture. In some ways standard square foot gardening was already close to polyculture, as the roots of many plants would extend beyond the box, and as you say, so did the leaves of many plants, leaving very little separation.

[@PeterSedesse]

yeah, that was my conclusion with square foot gardening. There was too much overlap both in a good way and a bad way with neighboring squares so you could never really think of each square as an individual unit anyway. By planning it 2x2 you could cram much more into a small amount of space and design the templates not to interact with neighboring templates.

[@REDGardens]

Come to think of it, your approach is closer to a guild, as often described in permaculture. A designed clump of plants that work well together as a unit.

[@PeterSedesse]

yeah.. kinda mini-guilds. Most of the 2x2 templates have 4 types of plants, a few with only 3. You really can save a lot of space in a garden when you stop putting stuff like radishes, garlic,onions and carrots in their own area, and instead put them where they fit between other plants.

[@meehan302]

Thank you for sharing that superb informative video. Best wishes Patrick

[@REDGardens]

Thanks Patrick!

[@GrownToCook]

This year I'm also planning on developing a new mix of vegetables that can be sown later in the season.

[@REDGardens]

What vegetables are you planning to include?

[@happyjohn2035]

I was also intrigued and tried seed polyculture it was a disaster. I started covering a 6 by 4 foot bed with my home made compost. Big mistake weeds came up faster than the crops. It was hard work thinning and weeding and weeds got the better of me. I also got a lot of lettuce which went straight to the compost heap. Seems also to use a lot of seed which cost too much. I wont be trying this again. Maybe square foot gardening would be the answer. That is a polyculture system uses only the seeds you need and. Can be accurately recorded. The harvests i got were difficult as with carrots i could not tell which were earlies to be harvested and which were maincrop to be left to mature. Good luck with your project i shall be watching with interest.

[@REDGardens]

My first few attempts at polyculture were quite similar to what you describe. I hope you will give the method a try again at some point. I think the best option is to do small sections at a time - so much easier to handle, harvest and try different combinations. I wonder what it would be like to do micro polyculture sowings in a square foot garden?

[@cheaphomesteading]

Great info

[@REDGardens]

Thanks

[@jimjaam1983]

This video is great thank you

[@REDGardens]

Glad you appreciated it!

[@raymondaten2179]

In my knowledge polyculture works so much better over time when you keep a living room in the ground all year rather then just the growing season. Perineil plants are the ideal plants to grow and mix in your annuals during the growing season as the perennials will keep arobic bacteria and fungi in the soil. Nature is your best example of this in the forest trees are the perennials while the many of the other plants are the annuals that seed themselves every year. If you can't grow perennials where your at then cover crops during the winter will work as well. Over time the soil will build up and then your gardens will thrive without the use of any outside fertilizer source.

[@REDGardens]

I think you are right, that polyculture will work better in the long run. Feeding the soil through the roots of a diverse range of plants seems to offer real benefits. Not so sure about not using fertiliser sources, if I am extracting so much from the garden from harvesting vegetables, but will be interesting to see.

[@raymondaten2179]

In listening to one of the leading biologist in this matter in the US she said plants don't really use as much as you would think. Of course some plants are heavy feeders then others. She used the example of nitrogen. There is an average of 3000 parts per million of nitrogen in soil. But plant a in general only use an average of 3 parts per million through there life time. But of course you have to have the micro organisms and fungi to break down the minerals in the sand clay silt and even rocks to get the nutrients. Its also a good idea to allow your plants that will die due to cold to die off on there own rather then get rid of them before they die because all the nutrients left in the plant will go back in the roots then you cut the plant at soil level leaving the roots in the ground to decompose putting those nutrients back in the soil. You are right about losing some due to harvesting but you don't lose as much as you'd think. But as you pointed out in video it does take trial and error and it also takes being consistent and not be detected by a bad or mediocre year because with time nature will heal the soil.

[@DovidM]

I think it is extremely unlikely that intercropping will eventually result in no need to fertilize, unless, of course, you do not consider side-dressing of compost as fertilizing.

[@A.I.-]

My 2c on Polyculture: Polyculture is not efficient for commercial endeavors, but for personal consumption only. Polyculture is more of a let it be approach, letting go perfectionism and being satisfied of imperfections. Polyculture is for the really lazy gardener >>> its not for trimming, weeding, pruning, organizing, etc... on a daily basis, but rather whenever you feel like it basis. Polyculture is about letting the normal cycle of plants to run through the course of their life... from bearing fruit to seeding themselves. You only pick what you are going to eat. If the zucchini has fruit, you don't pick it unless you are going to eat it. You don't pick all the beans and peas in one harvest. You only pick what you eat. The rest should be left alone to ripe, dry up and seed themselves. Polyculture is not high bio-intensive farming. It is not about packing a whole bunch of diverse plant in a tight space. And the goal is not to reap as much as you can get from the land. Polyculture is not Square-foot gardening where you pack everything in a square-foot space. Polyculture is more of an easter egg hunt. If you pick a carrot here, you need to look for the other carrot somewhere else. Here is the kicker and where common sense flew out the window: In nature, you will never see 10different plants compacted in a tight space. Corn, sunflower, grains, all vegetables, even trees etc... they have quite a good spacing. The wind will blow the seed at least 1m away, some insect and animals will move/carry it at least 1m away. But our intelligence is trying to compact as much in 1m2... You can only get away with so much. And guess what? the result is never good and we get disappointed. In polyculture let nature do the work. People complain of competing plants... it's nature telling us it doesn't belong there. Grab a bunch of seed and throw/scatter them all over the place. DO NOT meticulously with mathematically precision plant the seed. Plants will grow, they will compete, other plants will die, other plants will thrive... do not intervene... do not cry a river for the weak and sickly plant... let mother nature run its course... You do not need a book on companion planting, mother nature will sort it for you. Mother nature will sort the proper spacing for each plant for you. If I can only upload pictures here but I can, you just have to take my word for it: I have the most ridiculous companion plants growing >>> rock melon with taro... kang kong with bitter melon... chayote with bananas... potatoes and jap pumkins... pumkins with bitter melon... tomato with thai chilli and sage... blueberries with green beans... pumkins with asparagus... spinach with jerusalem artichoke... Orange tree and a capsicum/bell peppers... corn and kang kong... egg plants and snake beans... snake beans and cherry tomato... apple tree and spring onion... asparagus with sweet potato... Bananas with taro... corn with chayote... chayote with lemon... garlic and some unknown weed crawlies... dandelion and spring onions.

[@REDGardens]

Interesting take on Polyculture - thanks for sharing. Your point about not seeing plants tight together in nature is an interesting one.

[@superdigua]

"mother nature will sort it for you" That's correct, but it takes quite long time. If we understand how nature works, then we can accelerate the process, and improve the yield.

[@REDGardens]

Good point. There is a time factor in all this, and with some things out time constraints are much shorter that the natural processes.

[@raymondaten2179]

I agree with what he said nature in this type of garden is our best teacher. As I said in another comment I feel perennials are almost a must. As in nature you have the trees that help keep the microbiology alive all year long and then a broadcast of other plants. I feel climate has a say in spacing. Where I live here in Texas by the time summer comes around the Forrest floors here are so dense with plants even with the tree canopy the dense vegetation helps to keep the ground cooler so as not to evaporate water quickly cause we often get no rain at all from June to September. Trees are also much closer together. But my life began in Northeast Pennsylvania where trees are wider apart and the forrest floor is less dense of vegetation aloowing a little more heat.

[@REDGardens]

I was looking at my polyculture garden the other day, and realised that there were annual plants growing in 3 of the 6 beds throughout the winter. Better organisation on my part and the help of a some under-sown green manures, and there would be plants in all of the beds. I wonder how this would compare to the benefits of some perennial plants in keeping the microbiology alive. I think your point about spacing being linked to climate is a really important one.

[@raymondaten2179]

I feel polyculture works better when you have perineils in the beds to help maintain the microbiology in the ground throughout the year.

[@REDGardens]

No doubt you are right. I would like to establish a more integrated 'forest garden' type of planting at some point.

[@yergman]

What do you think of the chop and drop weeding method?

[@REDGardens]

Makes a lot of sense in some contexts. My experience is that I don't get around to keeping on top of the weeds enough to use this type of methods s you really need to prevent them from going to seed.

[@fxm5715]

The polyculture method does seem daunting, but I wonder it alleviates some of the need for rotation by making any given spot less tailored to a particular set of pests and diseases? Rotation has always been tricky for me, since I do tend to grow a lot of a fairly small set of crops, and the space needed to accommodate three or four years between plantings of a particular family is quite a stretch.

[@REDGardens]

I think that many of the benefits of crop rotation don't really apply in a small garden, part of the reason is that the roots of the crops spread so wide, and that the diversity prevents pest build up (as you say). I agree that polycultures may make the whole concept of crop rotation redundant, and I am thinking of trying to shift away from a fixed rotation for this garden.

[@PeterSedesse]

polyculture both deters pests by confusing them so they can´t find their favorite plant, but it also slows down the spread of a pest and makes it easier to eliminate them if they do find the plant they are looking for because they can´t easily find the 2nd plant.

[@Dimora]

RED Gardens now this is interesting. I'm glad you brought this up as I'm intending on planting in a small garden and want to try to observe rotation with some interplanted flowers / herbs. I had wondered if the size of the garden mattered as much when it comes to rotation.

[@REDGardens]

Hi Dimora - I think that the smaller the garden is the less benefit there is in rotation. I also suspect that the more diverse your interplanting is (which is usually naturally quite high in a small garden) the less need there is for rotation. The concept of crop rotation makes a lot of sense in a field, but I am less and less convinced that it is really that appropriate in a smaller garden.

[@fxm5715]

Bruce, what scale are you thinking when you say, "a smaller garden?" The one I'm building at my new home is four raised beds, each 16'x3', or 192 square feet. I chose the four bed layout specifically to help me manage a four year rotation. The bulk of my plants are beans and potatoes, the rest is the usual mix of garlic, onion, peppers, carrots, tomatoes, herbs, and I like to mix in nasturtiums and marigolds to hopefully keep away some critters.

[@sebastianstewart6894]

How do you add plant growth promoting bacteria(pgpb) and mother trees into this? Raw Milk can I improve the soil cementing. What common weeds that you get?

[@REDGardens]

I haven't explored that aspect of gardening yet. We get a lot of nettles, creeping thistles, dandelions, dock, scutch grass, creeping buttercup, and a load of annual weeds that I don't really know the names of.

[@saulblatt]

It would be interesting to see what would happen if you just let plants self seed. On my plot chard and potatoes grow like weeds every year, which is a complete meal in itself! And as Bob Flowerdew always says 'if you cant get parsnips to germinate, stick a parsnip in the ground and let it go to seed and you wont get rid of them!'

[@REDGardens]

It would be interesting to see what would happen if I introduced self seeding, but it wouldn't really fit within the more controlled crop rotation that I have been imposing. Part of me would like to really let this garden free up, and to be much more sporadic and diverse with the polycultures, and let self seeding be a big part of that. But I feel I don't have the abilities or time to adequately manage that approach yet - and fear that everything would get out of control - which would be fine if I just wanted to enjoy whatever I could harvest, but would likely reduce the possible yield.

[@TheMightyMormon]

Your one thousandth like 😁

[@REDGardens]

:)

[@davidschmidt270]

I think there should be more videos like this....open and honest....instead of all these people showing off there lush beautiful gardens....I want to know how and what it took to get there NOT see some 3 minute video of how beautiful it looks... maybe it's more about inspiration than anything else....ahh well thanks

[@REDGardens]

Thank you for that really encouraging comment. It helps me to know that my approach to these things is valuable to others.

[@davidschmidt270]

@@REDGardens yup....💯💯💯

[@amberemma6136]

I thought when doing plant guilds we were supposed to integrate plants that have different growth patterns and rooting habits. I think your brassicas and lettuces would be too similar to be together bc it creates competition instead of complementary relationships

[@REDGardens]

Yes, this is one of the issues, and something I try to avoid now. But with so many different types brassicas to grow, and desire for a succession of lettuce throughout the year, it can be difficult to keep them apart. And there are other complicating factors.

[@teachatami45]

I love integration

[@pamelaorjuela6392]

Great video! Thanks. I think you are speaking too fast though.

[@kaydickerson1229]

Do not worry about corn. I dont eat it !

[@REDGardens]

I wish I could grow corn! It is one vegetable that I really miss.

[@JRR31984]

I do gotta say that the first two seconds doesn't really show powerfully green greens...

[@dianereyes3560]

I think people like talking but while your holding the plant, it feels like they are doing it too

[@REDGardens]

interesting