"Five springs ago, Emmons threw squash, edible beans, and a variety of brassica seeds in with his standard cover crop mixture and planted it on a couple of acres. The bounty was so impressive that chaos gardens are now a regular part of his annual planting schedule. Some of the produce goes to his own kitchen but most of it gets donated to local community groups—the food bank, youth groups, and churches—with the agreement that they do the harvesting. Emmons estimates that each acre of chaos generates 4,500 pounds of produce.
In addition to ease of planting, Emmons described other benefits of a chaos approach: The blanket of plants crowds out most unwanted species, including weeds; the cucumbers and squash and other flowering species attract beneficial insects that keep pests like “squash bugs” at bay; the dense foliage increases soil moisture retention and reduces the need to water; and the plants tend to mature at different rates, allowing for several months of a diverse bounty rather than a monocrop that gets harvested all at once.
And while the lack of rows might seem like a drawback to any farmer who is used to straight lines and harvesting one type of plant, Emmons sees this as a plus. “It is more of a hunt and pick. You gather as you go and you have to navigate through the cover,” he said, describing the sounds of delight that come from his fields, as children and adults discover a watermelon here, some okra there. Apparently, harvesting a chaos garden unleashes the inner forager in everyone."
In addition to ease of planting, Emmons described other benefits of a chaos approach: The blanket of plants crowds out most unwanted species, including weeds; the cucumbers and squash and other flowering species attract beneficial insects that keep pests like “squash bugs” at bay; the dense foliage increases soil moisture retention and reduces the need to water; and the plants tend to mature at different rates, allowing for several months of a diverse bounty rather than a monocrop that gets harvested all at once.
And while the lack of rows might seem like a drawback to any farmer who is used to straight lines and harvesting one type of plant, Emmons sees this as a plus. “It is more of a hunt and pick. You gather as you go and you have to navigate through the cover,” he said, describing the sounds of delight that come from his fields, as children and adults discover a watermelon here, some okra there. Apparently, harvesting a chaos garden unleashes the inner forager in everyone."