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Home » Blog » Try the Mittleider Gardening Method

Try the Mittleider Gardening Method

By PreparednessMama on July 1, 2018 * 5 Comments

Find Your Gardening Style – 8 Reasons to Try the Mittleider Gardening Method

While researching the Vegetable Gardening Styles Series, I came across a YouTube video about the Mittleider Gardening Method that looks really promising. Promising because of the yields it claims and the fact that it can be used anywhere; an apartment patio, a city yard, a country lot or a farm. It has helped many people around the world with their adverse growing conditions.

8 Reasons to try the Mittleider Gardening Method | PreparednessMama
Try Mittleider Gardening

Mittleider Grow boxes are bottomless, wooden or cement frames leveled in place, usually 4 feet wide, 30 feet long and 8 inches deep; but they can be any size and built most anywhere. They are filled with “custom made soil,” a mixture of sawdust and sand or other inert and organic combinations. The “custom made soil” is combined with a balance of fertilizers that can be purchased at any garden center. If you have access to 15-15-15 and Epsom Salts you can fertilize your garden.

This method can also be used with soil-beds, which are narrow strips of ground prepared for high-yield vegetable production. Soil-beds are usually 18 inches wide and 30 feet long. Their length can vary depending on the size of your garden. The width of the soil-beds should always be 18 inches. This looks like the traditional method of high production gardening we are all used to.

8 Reasons to try the Mittleider Method

  1. Use it on any kind of ground – rocky, hilly, alkaline, clay or nutrient depleted – by creating a “custom soil”
  2. Useful any time of year or in any climate
  3. This method doesn’t require much space
  4. It’s easy to care for and harvest your crops
  5. Easy to add a greenhouse covering to your raised beds and have protection from adverse weather
  6. It’s easy to convert your existing raised bed garden to the Mittleider method
  7. This method uses 40 percent less water than conventional gardening
  8. Exceptional yields – grow enough produce on 1/8th of an acre to feed a family

Things to Consider about the Mittleider Method

  • Do you have access to the fertilizer? I found a 40 lb bag of 15-15-15 for $22 and 2 lbs of Epsom salt for $2.50 at my local feed store. This weekly fertilizer will feed your plants for 1 year. There are other yearly fertilizer requirements.
  • Do you have access to the “custom made soil” ingredients? While this gardening method can be used with regular garden soil, the Mittleider Method recommends that you use an “inert” soil replacement like sand and sawdust.
  • Is it important for you to grow “organic”? Further research is needed on my end, are these naturally occurring compounds considered organic? Probably not.
  • What level of self sufficiency are you looking for? It is space saving to store 5 years of these fertilizers vs 5 years of manure and compost. If there is a breakdown in society, will this method be sustainable?
Vegetable garden styles - The Mittleider Method | PreparednessMama
Try the Mittleider Gardening Method

I really think it is valuable to take a look at these YouTube video’s from LDSPrepper. Even if you are not interested in the Mittleider Method, you will learn some great gardening tips about raised bed gardening in general and the video’s about building the greenhouses and trellises are fantastic. Give it a look and decide for yourself.

Resources for the Mittleider Gardening Method:

More Food From Your Garden - The Mittleider Method The Mittleider Gardening Course

The Food for Everyone Foundation – Gardening the Mittleider Way

LDS Prepper YouTube page with 15-20 how to video’s

Other Posts in the  Vegetable Garden Styles Series: Container Vegetable Gardening, Vertical Gardening, Raised Bed Gardening, Square Foot Gardening

 

PreparednessMama
Preparedness Mama and its collaborators have created a one-stop shop of critical resources for families looking to prepare for disaster. We know firsthand that getting ready for the worst with a big family poses some particular challenges.
 
We’ve learned from the past so that you don’t have to make the same mistakes again. Fear of the unknown is one of the scariest things in life, but we hope that Preparedness Mama’s treasure trove of practical advice will make that unknown less daunting and ultimately help take the scared out of being prepared for every single one of our readers.

Comments

  1. Dean says

    August 26, 2015 at 9:19 pm

    The micronutrients are absolutely organic. There are no man-made chemicals involved. The micro nutrients and minerals are harvested from the ocean floor. These are on the ocean floor because of years and years of run-off. You are just putting them back where they belong.

    Reply
  2. Lisa says

    December 30, 2015 at 2:24 pm

    I’m not understanding the appeal of this method when there are no recommendations for % of ingredients. Sounds almost like a hydroponic medium set on top of your soil and the plants are dependant upon the fertilizer added. Fill a raised bed with lasagna gardening our sherry mulching layers to enrich the existing soil and build soil structure and fertility over time. Much of the ingredients for sherry mulching may already be on site, so the cost of getting started is also considered. The benefits you list above are true with any raised garden bed. Good luck. Happy gardening.

    Reply
    • Paula Taylor says

      January 25, 2016 at 10:48 am

      The reccomendations for applications and fertilizer are all found in the Mittleider Gardening Course book. I IS like apoor mans hydroponics. One can know for certain that their plants are getting all the nutrition they need without waiting for composting or soil tests. It eliminates the weeds introduced by mulching or composting.

      Reply
  3. agrotani.com says

    May 4, 2016 at 7:30 pm

    Thank you very helpful tutorial

    Reply
  4. fishwater says

    January 28, 2018 at 10:28 am

    Tutorial powerfull Mr..Tank you for sharing

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Garden Primer: What's Your Vegetable Garden Style? - 72 Hour Kits - Emergency Preparedness says:
    April 22, 2013 at 1:34 pm

    […] Mittleider: I found this on YouTube and find it interesting.  It uses the raised bed concept and a different growing medium besides soil. He’s in Texas and seems to be having big success. It remains to be seen if I can translate this to the Pacific NW. […]

    Reply
  2. 8 Reasons to try Container Vegetable Gardening - A Garden Primer says:
    April 22, 2013 at 1:35 pm

    […] Vegetable Gardening Styles, Raised Bed Gardening, Vertical Gardening, Square Foot Gardening, The Mittleider Method, […]

    Reply
  3. Vegetable Garden Styles - Try Vertical Gardening says:
    April 22, 2013 at 1:36 pm

    […] Vegetable Gardening Styles, Container Vegetable Gardening, Raised Bed Gardening, Square Foot Gardening, The Mittleider Method […]

    Reply
  4. Raised Bed Gardening | A Garden Primer - Emergency Presparedness says:
    November 14, 2014 at 3:53 pm

    […] Vegetable Gardening Styles, Container Vegetable Gardening, Vertical Gardening, Square Foot Gardening, The Mittleider Method […]

    Reply
  5. 8 Reasons to Try Square Foot Gardening | PreparednessMama says:
    December 3, 2014 at 12:24 pm

    […] Other posts in the Garden Primer Series: Vegetable Gardening Styles, Container Vegetable Gardening, Vertical Gardening, Raised Bed Gardening, The Mittleider Method […]

    Reply

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