Oldtime simple techniques that work when needed

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	• Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series) Steve Solomon New Society Publishers, 2006 - 360 pages average customer review:based on 30 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great hands-on resource

I have a whole shelf of vegetable gardening books, but I turn to this one again and again. Solomon gives clear information on tools, making garden beds, mixing up your own fertilizer (this alone is worth the price of the book), selecting seeds, storing them (another great section), and growing individual crops.

I especially appreciate his perspective as an ex-seedsman, as well as his discussion on different types of brassicas (cabbage, kale, broccoli, and the like) and onions. I had no idea what the difference between long-day and short-day onions were until I read this book. While I garden intensively, I find his discussion on the differences between the intensive method (John Jeavons, Square Foot Gardening, and the like), and the row method.

This book is worth reading and rereading.

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Great for first time gardeners

I will be starting my first garden this summer and this was the first book on gardening I read. It makes for a great introduction. Solomon goes into detail about how plants grow and what they need from the gardener. He has a good formula for Organic Fertilizer. He has a good list of what tools you need and what to look for when buying them. He has a great section is the back of the book that goes vegetable by vegetable and explains how to grow and harvest them. He also has a great bibliography in the back that points you to a lot of additional reading.[...]

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Oldtime simple techniques that work when needed

This book is written as if Steve Solomon is the grandfatherly type telling those who know nothing of gardening what's what. Initially, I was a bit put-off by this tone, but the author has earned a right to that tone and his opinions. I quickly became very interested in what he has to say, in that he rejects many ideas and fads on intensive, hyper dense garden production. Steve Solomon has been around long enough to have tried some of the high density, intensive gardening ideas and found them wanting.

I had to really chuckle when I read his rudimentary back to basics tool list consisting of a shovel, a bow rake, a hoe and a file to keep them sharp and useful. A simple wheelbarrow, buckets, knife and stone fill out his recomendations. He's so very right when he suggests that it doesn't take an armada of gadgets and do-hickies and specialty tools to make a very sucessful garden. And his comments on using some commonly sold garden gadgets make for humorous images for those who have suffered too short handles, stooped backs and the associated aches and pains. Many folks pondering the latest garden knick-knack catalog could do well to remember Solomon's basic tools will get the job done advice. Admittedly, he does sound like what MY grandfather would've said in the tool chapter. ("Put down that dreambook, pick up that hoe, and get to doing something useful." ... )

What I particularly thought useful was the idea of returning to planting based on choosing plant spacing not for intensity of harvest if thoroughly irrigated, but rather choosing less dense spacing based on potential for drought. In the drought chapter, Solomon makes the case that earlier gardeners more concerned with crop survival than sheer bulk of harvest knew to choose spacing that allows for stronger, more durable plants that better survive droughts. There's a lot more to it than that. I'm oversimplifying his points to make a point, and that is that there is something useful in this book for everyone; from those who've never dug their hands in dirt to those who think that they have a "better way".

I'm currently recommending this book as a good solid intro to veggie gardening that will produce the produce for those interested in delving beyond the picture books. Frankly, I've got lots of gardening and permaculture books and yet this was the first that I've seen fit to review, as I think it bears some recommendation to a wider audience.

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Sort of Gardening When it Counts

Very good book in general. For a book on extreme situation gardening he does spent too much time on sprinker systems. The author gives a very different perspective than most standard gardening book, utilizing alternative nitrogen sources most folks would not even imagine. Overall worth the cost. I am rereading it for the third time now.

Great info!

This very informative book is easy to read. I can't wait to put Mr. Solomon's years of experience to practice!

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6

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