The Book Depository Gardening When It Counts by Steve Solomon
372 ratings
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Price: £17.99
Brand: The Book Depository
Description: Gardening When It Counts : Paperback : New Society Publishers : 9780865715530 : 086571553X : 01 Apr 2006 : Discover forgotten low-input food gardening methods for surviving uncertain times ahead. The Book Depository Gardening When It Counts by Steve Solomon - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9780865715530
MPN: 086571553X
GTIN: 9780865715530
Author: Paul Denny
Rating: 5
Review: Excellent book with loads of ideas
Author: A Christy
Rating: 3
Review: I'm a gardening fan that actually gardens. As a suburbanite, I do raised bed gardening organically. I am also very aware of the cycle of oil-into-food and trying to do my part in eliminating it at my home. To clarify: I grow about 80% of my vegetables in season and preserve by canning (should be called Jar'ring) or dehydrating them for about 60% of my off season usage. This book was recommended to me as a counterpoint to raised bed gardening while remaining additive free. Like other reviewers I'll admit right off that the tone of the writer is quite off-putting. While that shouldn't matter to the content it does affect how people receive the content. For the experienced gardener who already has an excellent idea of input versus output and the uses of oil and resources it can bring on a few bouts of eye-rolling. As far as content, this isn't "that one" book that so many people concerned with gardening in a catastrophe are looking for. Perhaps the title brings them to think that, but this isn't meant to take a person who has never so much as tended a potted plant and turn them into a gardener that can provide all their own food. There is a certain level of assumed knowledge in the book, particularly regarding basic gardening concepts and methods. Where the book does shine is in offering a counter to the other prevailing method of gardening. It offers wide-spacing gardens as opposed to intensive. These two methods are inherently different, however it isn't as apples and oranges as the author likes to paint it and that is probably my primary criticism of the book. A very specific and singularly important point that this book misses is: Where you are geographically and what your environment is like will determine if intensive or wide-spacing works for you. And that is the bottom line on whether you, as a potential reader, should actually buy this book or simply check it out of the library. His methods and logic will work exceptionally in areas where it is inherently dry or prone to drought. Since everyone is in some way subject to drought, I'm talking about drought such as you find in the western portion of our country (excepting rainy PNW areas). If you live, as I do, on a river with wetlands and plenty of rainfall even in drought conditions, this is not for you. Even if you live in an area where drought doesn't equal no rain and are prepared to use rain catchment from your roof to store watering water, then this doesn't apply either. Through composting, storage of natural water or use of aquaculture to provide additional nutrients almost all of the east coast, southeast and even big parts of the mid-west won't need this sort of intervention. In fact, intensive gardening (whether raised bed, inter-planting or successive planting) is MORE likely to work better for you since natural shading of plants will keep your moisture in and allow the slight cool under the soil that worms will like. Not to mention that you can grow in very small spaces. I would need approximately 14 times the amount of space I use now to get the same amount of food if I used his method. And I would be wasting a whole lot of natural bounty that I had to clear in order to do it. And, let's face it, the bigger the area you cultivate the more likely others will see it and help themselves. This book is, at its heart, a good book to read if you're at all concerned with the input-output cycle of oil into food, grow your food for health or hobby or if you're simply preparing for a future in which money is much tighter. It isn't A to Z on gardening though and you'll need to buy others for those basic skills. Buying it might be best reserved for those who first determine that wide space planting is correct for them. I suggest Mel Bartholomew (Square Foot Gardening) as the other book to read in determining what is right for you.
