One of the most exciting letters I’ve ever gotten was from a lady in Canada who said, “You’re not going to believe this letter, but I support a Jesuit Priest working in India who is searching for ways to help his village become more self sufficient. He was given your Square Foot Gardening book by a friend and told, '“Here, I think this will help you.”'

Well it did and he has started the most fantastic project you could ever imagine.  He converted square feet into square meters for the metric system and has followed the book to a “T” - every detail including composting.  They are making their compost from a vine choking their hardwood trees in the northern part of India near the Napal border. The gardens are high in the Himalayan mountains, but they are able to provide covers for the gardens protecting them from not only the high winds but also from the six-month monsoon rains experienced in that region.

In fact, while the old methods of farming were producing two crops (radishes and potatoes) grown in only six months of the year because of the monsoon rains, Father A’s project is now growing twenty-two crops during the entire twelve months of the year, and they are selling the harvest at a farmer’s market they have created in the more populated cities.  Just think of the enormity of that comparison: Two crops for only six months of the year versus twenty-two crops during the entire twelve months of every year. In addition, because of the condensed space needed for Square Foot Gardening (only 20% of the original space), they are producing five times as much from the same space. The end result is a 10-fold increase in their harvest (How would you like to increase your income by ten times just by learning a new method of something you are already doing?).

This project is reaping such huge rewards that you may wonder, “Why doesn’t the entire world do the same thing?”  Well, give us time and they will, and maybe with your help too.

The best part of course is that it is enabling entire villages and thousands of people to become more self sufficient, to improve their family health and family values as well as raise their standard of living, and what did it cost – the price of a book, “Square Foot Gardening.”  We now look for similar situations so that we can donate books and share our information with others. That’s one of the reasons I established the Square Foot Gardening Foundation.  Would you like to become involved? Send us your ideas or how you can help. 

On a sour note, I asked my publisher, Rodale Press, if they would donate any books for similar projects, but they refused so we’ll do it alone.  I’m going to tell you more about the India project in later columns.  Maybe even a whole page just for this project.  They invited me to come there for a grand opening of their six-acre training center in the mid-90’s, and it was an exciting and fulfilling trip. We have many photographs and videos which we’ll share with you later, but I just wanted you to know of just one of the many Square Foot Gardening projects going on around the world.  I hope you can get involved some day in some way.  Maybe just by starting in your household, your neighborhood, your town or state.

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