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The Rising Importance of Growing Your Own Food

There are over one billion people living without enough healthy food. An article published in the October 15, 2009, New Times
Newspaper in Kigali, Rwanda a quote said: “The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program said 1.02 Billion people –
about a 100 million people more than last year – are undernourished, the highest number in 4 decades.” The need is huge … to find, test,
and experience new, simple, sustainable ways to feed the world – a need which in itself stimulates more searching.

About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the
United Nations. Unfortunately, it is children who die most often. Also, the UN forecasts
that the populations of some larger cities in third world countries will double in the next
10 to 15 years. In many of these cities, the people are crowded into slum areas with little
or no easy access to healthy food. This means that the need is not only great in rural
communities, but also that urban food security will need to be expanded upon.

What is causing this?

This is a complex situation caused by several factors: Global climate change, cycles of
droughts, ever increasing populations, rising food prices, over-farmed soils and in some
locations – simply not knowing how.

We are excited to present to you: New Ways to Feed the World in an illustrated teaching
manual, with hands-on training photos to train trainers to teach these methods.

These teaching materials are detailed, yet simple, covering how to make good compost,
small garden designs, plant spacing, the important basic care of plants, plus harvesting,
and seed saving tips. We call these gardening methods, FOOD FACTORYS, because they
have the capability of continually producing healthy food like a well functioning factory
and in many locations year-around foods production without rain.

If you need more information please feel free to contact us:

Wayne and Connie Burleson
332 N Stillwater Rd
Absarokee, Montana 59001 USA
WEB SITES www.pasturemanagement.com
www.newwaystofeedtheworld.blogspot.com
Home phone 406-328-6808 Wayne & Connie Burleson
Cell phone 406-794-9464
Email rutbuster@montana.net
More garden Information at www.squarefootgardening.com

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 How to Use a Food Factory Garden

Organic Resources
- Dry Grass
- Green Grass
- Chopped Vegetables
- Wood Ash
- Top Soil
- Old Manure
- Water & Air

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 How to Grow Your Own Food in a Food Factory Garden
“Here’s how
you do it”

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 Why These Gardens Work So Well!
The most important factor is that these high producing small gardens take less water, they are very easy to take care of, they are
crammed full of a diversity of vegetable plants and once you harvest, you immediately plant again. When the gardens are made
with high quality compost, the plants become very healthy with the natural ability to resist many insect and disease problems.
But more important than these qualities, is that when looked at holistically, these gardens can become a helpful solution to the
world’s hunger problems.

Making
compost can be
FUN and it’s
FREE!

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 How to Make Good Compost
If you don’t Step 2 … Build a compost pile close to
feed the
soils, they
your garden
won’t feed
you
COMPOST INSTRUCTIONS:

Repeat all layers until

Step 1 … Locate & collect the organic Mr Brite Vegetable waste ------
materials listed in the photo below. Move &
stack them near your garden
1 Meter high
Add small amount of wood ash
Add water to dry layers 
Thin layer old manure -
Thin layer top soil-----
Green grass 30 cm ---
Dry grass 30 cm----
Bottom layer small sticks
or maze (corn stocks) for air ->

Why compost? Compost is decomposed organic matter that

has turned into black colored humus that is called “BLACK GOLD.”
Compost makes excellent organic plant food. Millions of living
micro-organisms digest (eat) the dry grass and green grass causing
the pile to heat up. Compost does not feed the plants directly.
Instead it feeds the soil microbes which in turn release insoluble
minerals for the plants to feed upon (fertilizers). This amazing
process makes your garden a sustainable food factory - if you keep
adding compost to your soils, this action will help feed you.

Step 3 … When the

compost pile heats Step 4 … After about 60
up, turn & mix pile days or longer when compost
once per week turns to dark colored soil,
mix into garden soils or add
as top mulching. Add compost to garden soils often
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Go On a Treasure Hunt - Searching for Hidden Resources

What to look for:

Name all the hidden resources in this photo Dry grass and leaves, kitchen
waste, potato peels, old bananas,
black top soil, green grass, green
leaves, old livestock manure, and
especially dark colored soils under
old piles of rubbish.

Take a sack and walk the
neighborhood collecting
wasted organic matter
Where to Look:
Anywhere and everywhere, local
farmer markets have spoiled and
damaged vegetables, under the
vegetation along fence lines, cow
houses, chicken roosts, rabbit
huts, under trees and shrubs.
Even pay kids to walk the roads
and fields and bring you sacks of
dry grass and green grass, old dry
livestock manure, and vegetable
waste.

How to use it:

Collect all these organic materials
and place them in piles next to
your gardens. Make compost
The above photo looks like a junk pile. However, all the necessary piles out of all the different
materials are available here for you to build a food factory garden organic matter by layering them,
and make a compost pile. like a big sandwich so that it will
Most locations anywhere in the world have these resources going Drying livestock manure can heat up and make good compost
to waste, just waiting for someone to make good use of them. be used for gardens or to add to your garden soils.
burned as fuel for cooking.
Photo taken in Ethiopia
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 How to Plan & Build a Food Factory Garden
2 - 5 Meters

1.3 Meters

Step 1 Locate an area near your home that

Step 3 Dig down and remove all the roots
has full sunlight for most of the day (not Step 2 Drive stakes into the ground 1.3 meters wide by as and existing vegetation. Loosen the soils
under shade trees). long you would like … 2 to 5 meters in length. Keep the with a shovel or hoe. Line the outer edge
narrow width so that your hands can reach the middle of the box with logs, bricks or rocks. Fill
squares from the sides of the garden area. the area with good top soil, mix in old
The grid planting design came from Square Food Gardening.
livestock manure and compost.
Be sure to water
before planting &
let the garden set
for several days to
settle the soil.

Mr Brite
Step 4 Using sticks or other material, make a grid 33
by 33 centimeters square. Water the whole garden
area and let set for a few days to settle the soil.
Never step on this garden soil to prevent compaction.
Now you are ready for planting.

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 How to Precisely Plant Your Seeds
Take your time
and plant each
seed correctly for
For 1 or 4 plants
good success
per square make a
small dish shaped
depression in the
soil and place the
seeds in the center.
Water only where
the seeds are
located

Mr Brite
30 Plants 16 Plants 9 Plants 4 Plants 1 Plant
Per Square Per Square Per Square Per Square Per Square

33 cm

33 cm Pea Lettuce These

Tomato
Radish Pepper
Onion Seeds Beet Swiss chard Plants
Carrot Broccoli Can also Cabbage
Green Onions Bean 1.5 cm deep
Onion Sets Marigold Be started
Small Carrots 2 cm deep Spinach from Cucumber
1.5 cm deep Transplants Cantaloupe
1 to 2 cm deep 2.5 cm deep 2.5 cm deep
Potato 8 cm deep
Plant large vine crops like pumpkin & squash 2 to 3 meters apart
Place seeds 2.5 cm deep in a bowl shaped depressions
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 How to Precisely Water Your Plants
Do your best to water only the
soils and not water the leaves of This lady in Shone, Ethiopia, Africa is a
plants. A wet leaf increases the very good gardener as she knows how to
chance of plant diseases. place precious water on each seed zone.
Efficient use of water saves her hours of
Homemade water jugs help you hard labor hauling water to her garden
aim the water where you want it from miles away.
to go.

Take your time and very

gently place the water
on the seeds, don’t
wash the soils which
bury small seeds too
deep or float them out
of the ground

Plastic water bottles with holes poked

in the lid make excellent sprinkle
systems. It saves water when you place
the water only on the seed locations
Mr Brite

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 How & Why You Should Mulch Your Soils

What is Mulch?
Don’t let Anything that you can lay around
your soils the base of your plants: Dry
grass without seeds is best, dry
see daylight leaves, compost, dry crushed
manure, & even shredded
newspaper.

Why Add Mulch?

Bare soils that have direct
sunlight shining on them become
very hot. Just go and touch them
on a hot day. Mulched soils are
covered like native soils in
Mr Brite nature. This does several things:
A smart farmer Greatly reduces soil
temperature, reduces water
evaporation, slows down weeds
Too Hot! germination, adds organic
Just Right!!
matter which in turn is food for
the soil and plants, and slows
rain drop impact. It keeps the
plants cleaner from water drop
impact.

Most important are the water

saving qualities and
decomposing organic matter in
mulch that feeds the soil which
feeds the plants, making this a
FOOD FACTORY GARDEN
Cool shaded (covered with mulch) soils = 22 deg C (72 deg F) = holds water
better, adds soil nutrients and slows weed germination Hot bare soils = 55 deg C (130 deg F) = quickly evaporates water.
Cooks and kills valuable microorganisms, no nutrients added and weeds germinate

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 Weed Control - Don’t Weed - Cultivate
By learning easy weed prevention tips, you can enjoy your gardening more and put the fun back into raising homegrown “fast food”.
As old farmers used to say: “If you see it’s time to weed, you are too late.” You don’t want any weeds to grow and produce seeds
anywhere near your garden.

A saying goes “One weed goes to seed makes 7 more years to weed.”

Please give this easy to do, early and often cultivation method a try. Think
about how you hold your conventional hoe with your thumbs pointed down,
as you chop down with vigor to remove weeds. But if you lightly cultivate
holding a “soil shaver” tool as described below your thumbs will be pointing
up and you use a sweeping action instead of a chopping movement. It’s
much less work to go about sweeping just below the soil surface cutting off
the weed roots. This method is described in future detail in Eliot Coleman’s
book “The New Organic Grower”.

Another important point; if your gardens are in boxes or raised beds that
are planted in solid blocks instead of rows, the weeds have no room to grow.
You can make a very small cultivation tool out of a serrated kitchen steak
knife. Just heat a spot on the blade and bend the knife blade in a 90 degree
angle and voila! You have a nifty small garden cultivation tool.

This simple tool make cultivating small garden simple

as it cuts unwanted plant just under the soil surface.
You can use the tip of the knife to remove small plants
next to your crops.

Another GREAT IDEA

A long-handle “Soil Shaver” cultivator tool
150 cm in length with a very thin cutting blade,
designed to shave weeds with light cultivation, not for chopping
A clever organic weed control is available anywhere in
the world – BOILING HOT WATER! Give it a try.
Simply pour scalding hot water on the plants you don’t
want. This is a great way to control weeds on the edge
of your garden – especially along rocks or wood
borders of a raised bed.
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 Taking
Always FeedGood Care
the Soil and of Your
They WillGardens
Feed You!

It is very important to feed the soils with
good compost as often as you can. This
keeps your plants healthy and strong. If
you don’t DO THIS something called: “land
idle-itis” will set in. The plants become
stagnated, they lack good sturdy growth,
become weak, making them more
susceptible to diseases and insect damage.
Every home needs a kitchen garden
If you build your garden near your kitchen, it
becomes so handy that you will use it much
more that if it’s far away, out behind the
house.

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 Why Food Gardens Fail
(Common food gardening mistakes to avoid)

Success lies in the wise gardener’s foot steps

1. One person must take ownership - full
responsibility for the garden and know the real
purpose behind the garden
2. Weed early and often – let no weed go to seed
3. Don’t let newly germinating plants dry out
4. Don’t step on garden soil which causes
compaction that slows plant growth
5. Harvest plants early to thin & eat when young
6. Don’t over-water or under-water the garden –
check for deep soil moisture, if dry - water
7. Don’t let weeds get out of control - cultivate
often. Pour hot boiling waste water around the Salmon River Pumpkin (a winter squash) can out-
edge of gardens to stop weed invasion compete the native vegetation. These plants have the
8. Keep re-planting each square all season long potential to become a major new food source (only 3
9. Add new compost before reseeding plants produce these vines in the above photo).
10. Assign workers to help and reward them
11. Don’t quit, these plants could save a life Keep the fruits, the pumpkins, from touching the soil
12. Plant small garden first, expand later surface. Place the fruits on mulched beds, rocks and/or
13. Plant only what you love eating sticks to prevent rotting from too much moisture.
14. Share your harvest and teach yourself and
Pick fruit when ripe and be sure to save and share the
others from your mistakes. Don’t give up!
seeds. These pumpkins can be storied up to 6 to 9
months in dry warm areas.

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 How to Save Your Own Seeds
Beets
Cucumber
Biennial as it takes
Let ripen past
two year. Store Pumpkin
edible stage and
Spinach roots for several Cut ripe & mature
turn yellow. Cut
Pick out the strong plants months, replant to pumpkin open.
lengthwise,
and let them bolt into a grow seeds, harvest Remove seeds.
scoop seeds out
flower stalk and go to seeds when dry. Wash with water.
seeds and dry
seed. Pull the seed stalks Place on screen
out of the ground and let or cloth to dry.
dry. Thresh the seeds
into a container.

Onion
Let a few plants Pepper
form round Let ripe to full
flower clusters. color, no sign
When dry, pick of disease.
and thresh the Remove seed
seed out. off core and
place on screen
or cloth to dry.
Lettuce
Tomato
Allow plant to bolt,
Pick ripe to form a seed stalk.
tomatoes from Cover to protect
several plants.
from birds & rain.
Squeeze seed
Harvest seeds for 2
out, wash and
to 3 weeks. This will
spread on cloth
require repeated
to dry. harvesting.
Certain plant varieties will cross-pollinate with other members of their same family. If you
are raising your own pure seeds, only plant one variety within that family.
Visit www.seedsavers.org for more information
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 A Life Giving Story
Salmon River Pumpkin (A Winter Squash)
From Seed to Seeds

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 How to Grow Salmon River Pumpkins
Planting, Caring For, Harvesting, Cooking, Eating, Storage and Seed Saving

Dig small round holes. Remove old plants &

roots. Make a dish shape depression

Cut pumpkins in half, remove and save all seeds

This one pumpkin grown in Rwanda, Africa had
Be sure to give these pumpkins lots of space to grow 200 seeds, all from one seed. These pumpkins are
These vines were produced from only 6 seeds high in vitamin A, fiber, carbohydrates and protein.
Keep stem on when harvesting, stores well in dry place

Plant one seed sideways, 2.5 cm deep

Water only center of dish shaped hole
Keep wet, germination in 7 to 14 days

Harvest pumpkins when outer skin is hard to scratch

Plant each seed at least 2 meters apart
This is a vine type crop that spreads
Pumpkins will be ripe in about 2.5 to 3 months
Let ripen off the vine for 2 weeks
Store pumpkins in a warm dry place
They will keep for up to 6 months
Cook in pot and eat. These pumpkins can be eaten
raw or made into cakes, pies, bread, muffins, and
soups. Be sure to save all seed for replanting.
And share seeds with others
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Examples of Small Garden Designs

Every garden should have a compost pile

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 Our Prayer to the Master Planter
Lord, you are first in all we do, and all we do, we do to bring glory to You, O Lord.
As we plant seeds in gardens, we also want to plant Your seeds - Your WORD
deep into our understanding and deeper still into all our lives.
We ask You to help us to love You more each day O Lord, with all of our hearts
and feelings, with all our mind and thoughts, with all our soul and decisions, with
all our strength and actions, and to love others as ourselves.

We thank You O Lord, for all

Your creations, for the heavens
and the earth that we walk upon.
We also ask in Your Name, O
Lord for Jesus, to come into our
lives now, so we can move
closer to You, O Lord and learn
more about who You really are –
the Master Planter of all times
and our only true Provider.
Garden in Shone, Ethiopia
We ask for hope, health and
healing as we do your work O Lord, Look Development Garden in Ethiopia,
and ask You to watch over us and care for our gardens; let our activities serve Africa
as a daily reminder that You are the only One that grows good things in our gardens and in our lives.

Thank You Lord. Help us O Lord, as we care for and weed these gardens that we also weed out the bad things within us:
Our self-serving ways, our worries, our greed, our sinful behaviors, and our prideful attitudes.

We give you all the Praise, the Glory, and the Credit O Lord. We pay tribute to You and thank You Lord for giving us all
these different kinds of seeds to plant; that You germinate, grow and produce for us - an abundant harvest in our small
gardens. We praise You and humbly ask all this in Your name, Lord Jesus. Halleluiah! Amen

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 Go into ALL the world &
teach them the Good News
Planting Seeds for those in Need

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