Introducing “the Best Gardening Method on the Planet”
The Food For Everyone Foundation’s recent 5-month humanitarian gardening training project in Armenia was a great success in helping people learn to grow their own food, and it is evidence that the Mittleider Gardening Method (MGM) is “the best gardening method on the planet” for the home vegetable gardener.
The Mittleider Gardening Method helps people in several ways. Of greatest interest to the American home gardener may be our policy of providing free vegetable gardening information, training, tips, and advice on the internet at www.growfood.com. People from all over the world visit the website to receive free training and advice, as well as to obtain the great gardening books, CDs and software written by Dr. Jacob R. Mittleider.
The Mittleider Soil-Bed Gardening Basics Course ebook is free on the website at https://growfood.com/learn/. The free FAQ section also has 365 short gardening articles that answer people’s questions and give advice on many important vegetable gardening subjects.
In addition, the Foundation’s website provides free greenhouse plans, free plans to automate a garden watering system, and a free gardening group where people share tips and experience with thousands of other successful gardeners – .
Important distinguishing features of the MGM set it apart from other methods and make it “even better than organic” as I will explain below.
Most of the time our gardens are grown right in the soil, with no soil amendments. We promise ‘a great garden in any soil, in almost any climate’. From straight sand to the worst clay, we show people how to have success growing healthy, delicious vegetables the first time and every time.”
We learned that “Grow-Boxes” or containers are sometimes needed for people in urban settings. I assure you that container gardening can be just as effective as growing in the soil, and that 3 of Dr. Mittleider’s 10 books are dedicated to the unique features of the container gardening process.
Because the costs are very low, the Mittleider Method is sometimes called “the poor man’s hydroponic method”, because it borrows from greenhouse growers such things as vertical growing, feeding plants accurately with natural mineral nutrients, and extending the growing season in both spring and fall, all of which greatly reduce costs and increase gardening yields.
The Second major element in the Foundation’s mission is teaching, training, and assisting people directly. One way we do this in America is by conducting free ½-day group gardening seminars. These can be arranged by contacting me by email at jim@growfood.com.
The third leg of FFEF’s global mission is conducting humanitarian projects, such as the above mentioned training project in Armenia. From February to mid July we created a gardening training center in the village of Getk, with housing, classroom, greenhouse, and a 3/4 acre garden. We taught a concentrated college-level gardening course to several students, who became the gardening experts in their own villages, and then we assisted those student graduates in working with 200 families in their villages. The training center and garden were left in the able hands of an Armenian couple, and we expect the work there will continue.
In Armenia, as in other places we’ve worked, we grew many kinds of vegetables the locals thought couldn’t possibly be grown in “their region”, and often have many non-participating village families coming to our garden for advice, coaching, and free produce”.
Humanitarian projects sometimes take the form of training others who are becoming missionaries for their churches. One example is Howard (a retired dentist with little previous experience in gardening) and Glenice Morgan, from Southern California, who completed a 2-year mission to Zimbabwe. They were sent to teach Mittleider gardening to their church members throughout the country, and they did a fabulous job.
After some study and nominal training in FFEF’s garden at Utah’s Hogle Zoo, the Morgans “had the time of their lives” as they created 84 large gardens and taught over 10,500 people throughout Zimbabwe and three other countries to feed themselves by growing their own healthy vegetables. And the only teaching material they used was the simplest and most basic of Mittleider’s books, called 6 Steps to Successful Gardening.
I promise that whatever level you are currently on, you too can experience this kind of success – whether it’s in your own home garden, a community effort, or as a humanitarian missionary in some distant country.
The foundation welcomes tax-deductible donations to help extend our efforts. Gifts can be made at https://growfood.com/non-profit-organization-donate/
Jim Kennard, President
