Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)

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:

Things I Never Knew About Gardening!

I am a gardener and I read books and magazines in addition to my hands on efforts. This book has made me think about the way I have been gardening and the complications that I have put on my efforts. This is a much more simple way to do things and I have learned so much about larger spaces, the effort levels of fruits and vegetables, simple tool use and care and water resources.

Excellent book. Although I bought it for myself, I had to get it away from my husband.

2008-10-01

Good book, very detailed

I think this book is a very honest account of how to grow veggies under difficult circumstances. He has honest criticisms of the seed/garden center/etc businesses and how to avoid buying stuff that is of poor quality.

His advice on simple methods for determining your soil type, making your own compost fertilizer, spacing for various crops, type of sprinklers that work best and where to get them, and a whole lot more is here and very valuable.

I especially liked his advice on simple garden tools; how to find them and how to use them and how to maintain them. Truly great stuff that does not always mean a rototiller (although he tells how to use them, too, and which kinds work best).

The only reason I did not give it a 5 is MY problem. I have not finished the book yet but I am still reading it. Just MY lack of time right now.

Here is the deal. What if the grid is down and you cannot irrigate your crops with city water? How do you grow a garden without irrigation? How do you grow a garden without a gas-powered tiller? How do you save seeds for the next year's crop? Where do you find open-pollenating seeds?

It's all here and more.

Thanks for a great read.

Warren of Kansas

2008-09-06

Detailed, Valuable Advice

Gardening When It Counts is truly a book for our times. There's already a well-deserved buzz about this book among home gardeners I know. For one thing, it firmly refutes the supposed advantages of mulch gardening. In the burgeoning nationwide return to growing our own vegetables, it's important to produce the most food for the least amount of effort and expense, and this book offers the very advice we need. The author is a Master Gardener from whom beginners and experienced gardeners alike can learn much. Steve Solomon has provided full details on everything from soil preparation to harvesting, and the illustrator Muriel Chen has contributed helpful drawings for even further clarification.

2008-08-24

Fascinating crankiness

This is a serious manual for subsistence gardeners. Steve Solomon differentiates himself from "everybody else" and the result is a no nonsense guide delineating the right way to get maximum yield from a piece of land using organic methods. He has no time for hobbyists, so this book is meant for those who are really trying to feed themselves from their gardens. I really appreciate the advice here, but for a light read, I would stick with Barbara Damrosch, who provides good advice in a more light-hearted way.

2008-08-22

Self obsessed author who talks down to his readers

I would give this book zero stars if I could. I am so surprised this book has such high ratings. First, the author can not stop himself from talking down to his readers, and making himself appear as he is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Half the book is about how great he is and how "Everybody Else" is stupid and worthless. This is the most negative book on gardening I have ever read. I do not recommend this book at all.

2008-08-02