Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times
- ISBN13: 9780865715530
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
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 appli… More >>
Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times
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.
This book claims to tell you how to ‘garden when it counts’ and specifically mentions gardening during times of economic hardship (i.e. Peak Oil). Yet, it’s not nearly as comprehensive or as down-and-dirty survivalist as I had hoped. I wanted simple to follow, bullet point format, but the book did not deliver.
Sometimes the narrative left me behind and I didn’t follow. Gardeners in general (not just this book) tend to gloss over details as if we’re just supposed to know. For example, the fertigation section of the book doesn’t have a really good definitive statement of what the heck fertigation is. Nor do I recall any specifications being provided on the size of the hole or how you make the hole in the first place. Good definitive (and idiot proof) topic sentences would’ve been a huge help.
Also, it was frustrating for a book that purported to teach gardening for hard times to say it’s not worth it to garden in clay soil or rocky soil. I would’ve thought there would be a focus on things that can be done to maximize growth in all conditions. This is Gardening When It Counts, not Gardening In Ideal Conditions.
That and gardening is more expensive than I thought. Especially as the author notes that once oil prices go up so will the cost of all the fertilizers he advises you will need. Can I afford to garden when it counts? I’m not sure.
Plus, unless you can buy seeds at least every other year, you are S.O.L. (which I would’ve hoped there would’ve been more discussion on alternatives, perhaps some discussion of exchanging seeds with local gardeners etc…)
In addition the author recommends at least 2700 square feet of garden space times two (so you can rotate your crops). This is not practical for most of suburbia.
Again, back to my point that this book is not supposed to be about Gardening In Ideal Conditions With Unlimited Funds And Space, but it often seems to take that tack.
There are some positives.There is no question that the author is a master gardener so whatever info you do glean from the book is solid. Composting is covered in great detail. There are some excellent nuggets of information that make the book worth a read (the seed company recommendations were much appreciated). However, you will not learn everything you need to know in this book alone and I question whether it truly does offer any good advice on how to garden when it counts for the average person in the average house.
This is an excellent vegetable gardening book. Although Mr. Solomon has moved to Tasmania and now expands his scope to much of the English speaking world; if you have read his “Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades”, you will find much that is familiar here. If not, you will find excellent information on seeds, where to buy them, how to prepare the garden bed and plant them, how to choose and maintain quality tools, composting and fertilizing, pest and disease problems, irrigation, and some specific plant growing advice.
The books subtitle, “Growing food in hard times”, refers to the coming shortage of oil and the economic troubles ahead. Don’t let this scare you away, the author spends very little time on this soapbox. The book falls a little short of the promise, though; after explaining why fertilizer, including the organic kinds, water, fuel for machines, etc. will be scarce and expensive, he spends a lot of space discussing imported fertilizer ingredients, sprinkler systems, and large plant spacing, none of which, by his own assertion, will be available to most of us in the future. He does discuss a few short term strategies, including compost cropping, increased plant spacing to save water and nutrients, but does little to help us prepare for the coming shortages.
This is one of those rare books that improve with the second reading. There is plenty of well-presented information. If you are new to gardening, or want to expand your harvest, this book is an excellent choice. If you are an intensive method gardener, this book will introduce an alternative perspective; read with an open mind, you will learn much about the strengths and weaknesses of both methods.
A previous reviewer was being nice in describing the author’s writing style As ‘grandfatherly’. Personally, my grandfather never talked down to me like I was an idiot, and did not pat himself on the back every other sentence.
While the book is intended to help the novice gardener, the tone made this title a difficult book to read. The author spends a great deal of time ridiculing other garden writers (John Jeavons in particular) that he refers to as Everyone Else. While describing these authors as foolish slaves to production quantity (apparently Everyone Else includes every person who believes in raised bed, intensive gardening), Steve Solomom extolls the virtues of planting in rows and giving plants ‘room to grow’. He provides his own example of having not one, but TWO 2400sq ft garden beds – he allows one lot to lie fallow each year with a green manure while the other is planted.
Steve also seems to loathe clay soil, so much so that he doesn’t even bother giving any advice on how to improve it. He says clay is the worst, nutrient-sucking soil (like a battery that eats nutrients) and that even when adding lots of organic matter, it will still hurt your crop production. So instead of recommending a realistic and effective means to address this soil type, the author recommends paying someone to haul in a truckload of topsoil to create the ideal garden bed. That’s what he did (spending $1200 in the process), and of course he has beautiful results. Seeing as how I am reading the book to learn how to garden ‘in hard times’, and I do live on northeastern American clay soil, I had to look past this ridiculous recommendation to get to the good information in the book.
The book does contain very good information that covers many aspects of how to treat a garden if you are to truly rely on its production. He provides an inexpensive recipe for a complete organic fertilizer (noting that today’s chemical concoctions of potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus are creating vegetables that do not give maximum nutritive value – garbage in is garbage out). He also explains the importance of seed quality and provides information on how to obtain the ideal variety for your area, as well as selecting plants for seed to improve future yields.
While I did find a lot of good information, Steve Soloman’s writing style made this book torturous to read.
Everything the author discusses is downright the opposite of what I have found to be true. He even discusses his numerous failures on what he just directed as the only way to do something but doesn’t get why it failed as he aggressively dismisses other very successful methods as worthy of doing he crushes Rodale. He just doesn’t get it. I could give dozens of examples but here are 2. He can’t grow celery because he has clay soil and celery roots can’t tolerate clay, yet he is aggressively (and I mean aggressively) against raised beds that would solve this problem. His chapter on composting states ‘I have not mastered the art of making the highest-quality compost. I have read about it at length. I have attempted it and never quite succeeded’ Even as a baby gardener I managed to create a pretty darn good compost pile turning leaves, grass and kitchen scraps into ‘black gold’ used to feed an intensive garden that wowed every guest that came to pick the overabundance of goodies from my small garden! I have probably gotten twice the production per sq. ft. out of an area gardened since 1954 then this guy could dream of. I can’t think of one thing he got right.