Book : Gardening when it counts

[Rev]

Ive seen all the sheetmulching stuff and tried it with varying sucess

its great for turning lawn to forest

but shit for vegetable gardens

not enough nutrition, not enough soil depth, too many snails and slaters

i found this book very helpful in finding a new and old way

with extensive low input cultivation methods

http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-When-Count...r/dp/086571553X

ITEM OVERVIEW

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.

ive found this book very refreshing

for instance ive rediscovered the value of sharp tools lol

and im in love with my Hoe

not all is gospel and im happy to talk about percieved errors in the method - mostly to do with the fact that being brier subtropical im on the edge of the useful territory. And to do with seed quality

but the majority of it is very good in practice

The mulch is back aroundthe trees and on some paths where it belongs

theres a great recipe for COF (complete organic fertiliser) ive switched to usining on edibles over various crappy organic and some potent inorganic ones

ill copy it out later

bit busy now

anyway great book

its really the second opinion you need if youve tried other methods and you arent winning

or if you think its hard work growing veggies

[Ace]

We all love your hoe Rev!

[ENtiTY]

3000 Sqr FT! Damn my house block isn't even that big. If wishes were horse...

Edited April 19, 2007 by Harry

[Rev]

i realise that

its a real problem weve all gone down to tiny blocks

the main reason for the large space is that the rotational garden bed thing works OK

but when you end up getting clubroot (stays in the soil for YEARS) or bad nematodes as you will eventually

you can abandon it/sow it to pasture to fallow a few years

this gets rid of the pathogens and also rejuvenates humus.

permanent pasture is an excellent carbon sink

after reading it i remmeber how my grandparesnt used to get huge crops

they had 3/4 acre and would rotary hoe up a patch in the large lawn and plant veggies. the first year was a bumper crop and declines the year after, then theyd abandon it to the kikuyu again and do a new area, and rotate. the yield was perpetual. doen the back was a large chook run and this provided waste disposal and fertliser for the veg patch

like slash and burn, or ley farming

in a low energy world this is the way to go

if you cant then i guess u have to make do and accept lower yields due to pathogen buildup

my veg gardens measure maybe 6 x 20m

but 25% of that is currently a shadehouse and cactus and a chook run too

i can easily see its not enough

but anything is better than nothing