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Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series) Author: Steve Solomon $11.65 Features:
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Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series) |
Editorial Review:
The decline of cheap oil is inspiring increasing numbers of North Americans to achieve some measure of backyard food self-sufficiency. In hard times, the family can be greatly helped by growing a highly productive food garden, requiring little cash outlay or watering.
Currently popular intensive vegetable gardening methods are largely inappropriate to this new circumstance. Crowded raised beds require high inputs of water, fertility and organic matter, and demand large amounts of human time and effort. But, except for labor, these inputs depend on the price of oil. Prior to the 1970s, North American home food growing used more land with less labor, with wider plant spacing, with less or no irrigation, and all done with sharp hand tools. But these sustainable systems have been largely forgotten. Gardening When It Counts helps readers rediscover traditional low-input gardening methods to produce healthy food.
Designed for readers with no experience and applicable to most areas in the English-speaking world except the tropics and hot deserts, this book shows that any family with access to 3-5,000 sq. ft. of garden land can halve their food costs using a growing system requiring just the odd bucketful of household waste water, perhaps two hundred dollars worth of hand tools, and about the same amount spent on supplies -- working an average of two hours a day during the growing season.
Steve Solomon is a well-known west coast gardener and author of five previous books, including Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades which has appeared in five editions.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0 
great garden resource!: 
This is one of the best gardening books I have ever read... although some of the other reviews noted that the author operated with a condescending 'my way is the only right way' view, I did not take it that way. Mr. Solomon has shared some valuable insights into low input gardening and ways to improve your yields under less than perfect conditions. I consider this book one of my best resources.
The old way is new again...:
When I purchased this book, I was expecting to see the author expound on how to subsistence garden in a small area with limited resources. I anticipated recommendations on intensive spacing techniques, a la John Jeavons or the Square Foot Gardening or other Rodale encouraged methods that have become the standard for many organic or low-input gardeners over the last couple of decades. I also expected the method to be time saving.
Boy, was I surprised! Instead, the author teaches the old wide-spacing row...more info
Top Rate Gardening:
This man knows more about gardening than anyone but my dad. And that's saying quite a lot. I've bought this book for quite a number of my friends and recommended it to many others. My garden is lush and delicious. Just follow his instructions and you'll be very happy. Grow a garden. It really counts!
A must have.:
I'm about 1/4 of the way through it, and already have learned some helpful tips. The author writes well and is very easy to read. I've gardened for years in the southwest (which is notorious for tough soils,) but thought I should go back and just make sure I've covered all my basics, especially when gardening in harsh times. I'm glad I picked up this book. It's a keeper.
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