Becoming Biointensive

by Gary Ingram

This fall Pam and I decided to hike the Maple Pass loop at Washington Pass on Highway 20 in the North Cascades. We were planning on camping, but the forecast was so bad that Pam found an inexpensive vacation rental in Bellingham. The hut we rented is on a long-established organic permaculture farm owned by Brian Kerkvliet and his wife. 

At home, we butcher five goats and a dozen or more chickens every year, providing much of our protein. I’ve been taking the animal by-product to the dump. Brian has been composting his animal by-product for years–once he even composted a whole cow. He taught me how to compost animals to keep rodents and raccoons out. 

Last month we butchered 13 large chickens and created a new compost pile following Brian’s instructions. After one month, I turned the pile and all the animal by-product was dissolved, including the heads, with no sign of animal intrusion into the pile. 

The more wastes of what we grow that can be recycled back into our farm, the better, and it builds our soil. I once read that even the farmer should be composted back into their soil to complete the loop–what comes out of the farm goes back into it. 

My ideal small farm is totally organic using the biointensive growing system. We carved about two acres out of our forest that includes room for two houses and three farm buildings. About half an acre consists of our orchard (22 fruit trees, 60 feet of raspberries and a section of blueberries) plus our vegetable garden of 13 raised beds. 

I started growing our vegetable gardens about 25 years ago when Pam and I first married in Poulsbo. I put in three raised beds, mounded five feet wide and 20 feet long. We never walk on the beds and add organic material every year. With our goat herd (currently 13 goats), we produce tons of organic material every year. The hay for our goats and the straw we use for bedding are produced locally and organically. 

We follow the biointensive system which produces substantially more produce per square foot of growing space than conventional organic farming. Because the plants are grown close together, they shade the ground and require less watering and weeding. Take potatoes for example: fields of Irish potatoes grown using the biointensive system in a mature garden will yield up to 780 pounds of potatoes per 100 square feet versus about 70 pounds using conventional row methods (from the classic How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land with Less Water Than You Can Imagine by John Jeavons). 

With the historical high prices of land on South Whidbey, this method allows a small farmer to compete with conventional farming by only needing one tenth of the space. 

Even most organic small farmers on Whidbey still farm with narrow rows as that is what is taught. My only guess is that people love using power equipment. Established mounded beds just need to be aerated with a broad fork, and not every year. I’m 74 and I just completed broad forking a 100-square-foot bed in about 15 minutes, producing no noise or air pollution, and I didn’t break a sweat. I hate power equipment with the constant maintenance required, and the noise. 

It also saves water farming like this. I haven’t watered my orchard in 18 years and my fruit trees produce so much I’m going to cull some of them this winter. My vegetables require about five gallons of water per 100 square feet per day during the growing season. 

Many of us believe the goal of moving away from large, mono-cropping, industrial farming to smaller, local farms can be achieved if small farmers move to biointensive growing methods.