Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series) |  | Author: Steve Solomon
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
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Seller: healthy-eating
Rating:  71 reviews
Sales Rank: 1936
Media: Paperback
Pages: 360
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 086571553X
Dewey Decimal Number: 635
EAN: 9780865715530
ASIN: 086571553X
Publication Date: April 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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 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.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 71
 Oldtime simple techniques that work when needed March 20, 2007
M. Swaim (NC United States)
316 out of 320 found this review helpful
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.
Great hands-on resource March 25, 2007
Mom's in the Garden (Virginia)
37 out of 38 found this review helpful
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.
Get Mad But Keep Your Copy! You May Need It Someday. May 14, 2009
Tricia Huff (Cincinnati, OH)
25 out of 25 found this review helpful
"If your food gardening is little more than a backyard hobby, an amusement, an entertainment that leads to a random mix of positive outcomes and disappointments, then getting great seeds and seedlings is of little consequence. But for me, gardening has never been a minor affair. It is life itself. It is independence. It is health for my family. And for people going through hard times, a thriving veggie garden can be the difference between painful poverty and a much more pleasant existence." (page 105, @2005 New Society Publishers, Canada)
If you are a hobby gardener or a staunch enthusiast of intensive methods you are going to dislike this book. You may even get your feelings hurt. Gardeners are an opinionated lot and Solomon doesn't pull any punches concerning his own experience successfully running a mail-order seed business or working a homestead.
Plants are not political nor are the insects that feed on them. Much current garden literature perpetuates a garden of eden myth that purports to be an enlightened response to the supposedly brutal crass monoculture practices of the past. The methods and products sprouting from this glorified ideal make for good sales but often leave home gardeneners feeling like failures when their efforts do not pay off. Solomon provides a revealing if somewhat depressing look at the gardening industry and explains why I have been so often puzzled by low germination rates, low yield, or a piece of equipment simply not performing adequately.
No matter your gardening persuasion, if you are beyond beginning gardening, Solomon is worth a read. His strengths as an advisor are:
1) If you take away nothing else, at least learn how to sharpen your tools from this man. No other gardening book is going to tell you how to do this simple thing that every farmer knows.
2) Solomon never loses his emphasis on cost containment and the little balancing trick we all must do on this subject. Most organic gardening guides don't approach the subject because most of their advice is quite costly, such as irrigation, growing of transplants and doubling up on seed for the necessary companion planting. Cost is a real world struggle for most of us and this issue permeates Solomon's experience and advice.
3) A soil thermometer! What a novel idea for starting those seeds directly in soil! I don't see this item in the gardening shops as often as the light meters and such. But I am going to look for one. A sensible piece of equipment that I had never thought of seeking out.
4) Low germination rates - it may not be your fault! Don't take to heart your failure to start plant from seed and resign yourself to buying costly transplants. Read the seed chapter and you are going to learn a lot from an ex-seedsman about what makes a good seed, how to save and buy seed, and for how long seed can be kept to contain your purchasing costs.
5) Professional farmers know about the plow pan where the soil compacts over multiple plowings and they understand that managing soil fertility is more than applying Miracle-Gro a few times a year. If you plan to keep the same garden lot for many years you may find that you have decreased yield over time. Solomon's strength is bringing professional information to the lay person and his writing will actually hold your attention as he talks about trace minerals and other arcane bits of soil fertility.
6) A soil amendment is provided in his COF formula (page 21) that addresses the trace minerals needed by plants over time and that doesn't flood the soil with one nutrient to the detriment of others. The ingredients are accessible and it is worth a try.
7) When you are paying for water knowing just how much is needed can save you a bundle. Solomon provides a system for measuring your sprinkling system water output and gives ideas for cost management and placement that could be a huge help to someone whose environment makes irrigation a must.
8) The cornstarch gel for laying out seeds, or fluid drilling, (page 126) what an awesome idea I have never seen anywhere else! Though seed is cheaper than starters if you have to buy enough seed the bill can run high. That means utilizing the seed you buy as efficiently as possible. Again cost containment is integrated in his approach and he brings some of the most valuable insider knowledge to the serious home gardener.
Solomon's one recurring limitation is one that we all share, he has a hard time imagining a life vastly different than his own. Having homesteaded so many years he doesn't have experience with the average shady city lot and may not realize just how much many urbanites relish home grown produce. Part of the intensive movement is a response to urban gardeners wanting to engage in more sustainable responsible environmental practices and partly due to an increased interest in gourmet, ethnic and traditional foods. More people are cooking from scratch and they want to cook vegetables they have grown. They don't want to move 50 miles from work so they can have a large garden plot and the world still needs doctors, lawyers and such who keep our infrastructure going. Homesteading is not for everyone nor should it be.
When considering your particular environment raised beds, irrigation and intensive planting schemes may be your best or only option. If you must garden intensively I recommend Sally Jean Cunningham who is as chummy as Solomon is crotchety. Actually I recommend that you read both authors, both organic growers whose well-explained diametrically opposed approaches will give you a strong broad knowledge base that will support you through years of gardening.
Gardening is as simple as putting a seed into dirt, but it is also a craft with a large body of research, experience and debate. This book is an articulate beginning primer into the actual science behind gardening. Possibly overwhelming for a beginner, but intriguing and blessedly honest for the gardener or homesteader seeking to push ahead their soil management skills and increase their yields significantly.
Solomon who describes himself as "gardening grandfather" is like all grandfathers, set in his ways, a bit crabby and way past any pretense of political correctness. When he trashes a practice he admits to his negative tone but does not soft peddle his recommendations. He shoots straight from the hip and be prepared to hear some of your more cherished notions challenged.
That is how we humans grow, not just as gardeners but as people. Don't let any irritation with the old man lose you the chance to take in what he imparts. A contrarian voice is sometimes needed when the prevailing wisdom fails us. Get mad but don't throw away your copy. There may come a time when you will need it.
Highly recommend this excellent resource April 17, 2006
alwayslearning (USA)
81 out of 93 found this review helpful
This is the first book I've EVER liked enough to spend my time writing a review. It is thorough, well-researched, straightforward, and well-written. Solomon is expert, yet not self-congratulatory. He supports his opinions, discloses his politics, and gives genuinely useful advice in clear terms. Worth every penny.
gardening when it counts May 28, 2006
N. Webb (Monroe, WA)
34 out of 37 found this review helpful
I own Steve's previous book and have gardened for years using his method. This book explains in great detail how plants grow and survive down to the line drawings of root structure for most vegetables. That helped me to understand just how important it is to space my plants correctly. His description of how to manage the soil before planting is great! I can't wait to get out in the garden and amaze my neighbors!!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 71
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