[I]t’s simply incontrovertible that the most intensive organic techniques produce far more per acre than conventional agribusiness. For example, John Jeavons’ raised bed technique can feed one person on a minimum of 4000 sq. ft. That’s one tenth of an acre. And it’s done, by the way, without cattle manure or additional land for foraging them. Of course, it’s a relatively spare diet—about 80% legumes, cereal grains and starchy tubers, and only 20% green vegetables and fruits—but that only demonstrates the theoretical limit. We’re not, in fact, limited to anything near as low as a tenth acre of arable land per capita. And where there are genuine constraints on access to land, they’re generally political: e.g., the more than half of arable land enclosed in Latin American haciendas and latifundia that are held out of development, while surrounding peasants hire themselves out as day laborers to the patron because they can’t support themselves on their inadequate family plots.

Kevin Carson, writing at the Center for a Stateless Society. I reckon that’s a must read for gardeners and self-sufficiency enthusiasts. But I repeat myself.

I can vouch for his facts. Among other techniques listed there, I use a modified version of Jeavon’s raised bed method. My planting is focused on supplemental harvests, rather than full subsistence. The return is excellent and a wonderful thing to share with friends and family. I’ve gotten to be, possibly, a little militant about gardening. I’m not at the point where I do night patrols, but in the last few years I’ve put more into self-education and self-discipline for gardening than I have for anything else.