[pierrem15]

You can get incredible yields using raised bed techniques. My grandfather had a Masters in Agricultural Engineering. My father grew up on a huge farm in the French Protectorate of Morocco. They sold everything for pennies on the dollar in 1954 to another French farmer expecting the independent Moroccan kingdom to confiscate the land, which they did. The farmer who stayed shot himself, and Morocco experienced a famine. My grandfather got a contract from Borden to manage dairy farms in upstate NY.

My grandfather built a couple of raised beds behind his house in upstate NY: 8 foot tall trellises full of tomatoes, squash, etc. The whole family would go to collect the surplus and can every summer. It was incredible, but very labor intensive.

[Jonty30]

My grandfather was quite the gardener as well. He was known for leaving baskets of garden vegetables at the end of his driveway for people to take at will.

One of his tricks was, each spring, he would get in a little rowboat on Lac La Nonne and fish up a catfish. He would then rototill into the soil before he started planting his garden.

He was one of the few farmers in his area that was able to protect his farm from drought during the Great Depression.