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K**E
EXCELLENT FOR EXPERIENCED GARDENERS
I thought this was an excellent reference for EXPERIENCED gardeners.I always read 5 star reviews and 1 star reviews before buying any book to get other reader's pros and cons, and this book certainly has both. However, after reading the book, I did feel that some of the negative reviews were grossly unfair. I might not have bought the book after reading the virulent negative reviews, but I had already purchased and read Mr. Solomon's book The Intelligent Gardener and found it was filled with outstanding information on raising nutrient rich vegetables.I have been a gardener for a long time. In that time I have definitely formed opinions on the best way to garden in my climate. Mr. Solomon has as well. He certainly comes off as authoritative, which I believe some interpreted as mere arrogance. I interpreted that attitude as confidence in his methods in the climates he has gardened in. Let's face it, he certainly has a lot of experience and should be able to speak with authority. Certainly, he doesn't know everything about gardening in every climate - no one does - every gardener has their own special challenges - but I, for one, had a lot of ah-ha moments, even after 40 years of gardening and certainly was not offended at his tone.In addition, I was not offened by Mr. Solomon's supposed "trashing" of unethical seed growers, companies, etc. Evidently, I have had some of the same experiences he has with unethical companies and happen to agree with him. He's just willing to "put it out there" and tell the truth. Personally, I appreciated his candor. Yes, some of the seed companies I deal with are not on Mr. Solomon's list, but he described exactly how he determined who he was going to include so you're not in the dark about his choices. And, if your favorite seed company wasn't in business or didn't respond to his questionnaire about their practices, well, it's not going to be included.As far as hard to find, expensive amendments and such, he constantly gives alternatives. One reviewer complained that she/he would never be able to find coprameal (from coconuts). OK, then use the cottonseed meal, soybean meal, linseed meal, or canola seed meal that were all suggested in addition to the copraseed meal. All of these options were included and just about any farm store in America will have cottonseed meal at a reasonable price. If you don't want to use, or can't find tankage, Mr. Solomon's advice is to simply use a bit more of his organic fertilizer mix. Personally, I will not be using tankage, I'll just mix in some bloodmeal for the extra nitrogen needed.I do believe that this book is more for experienced gardeners. I would not give this to a novice who wants to putter in the garden on the weekends and grow a some vegetables for the table. That is not who this book is written for anyway. This book is written for the serious gardener who wants to grow a great deal of their own food and wants it to have the maximum amount of nutrition so they can stay healthy. As a nurse in a farming community, daily caring for people with chronic disease, I am acutely aware of how horrible the American diet is and how nutrient deficient our soils are. Every spring I watch as my farmer neighbor plows his fields and the top soil blows away in the wind, and I watch him spreading 100's of gallons of chemicals on his 600 acre farm to get anything to grow because there is NOTHING in the soil. The chemical Law of Conservation of Matter basically says, "Whatever goes in, comes out," which applies to soil AND compost AND manure as well. I am thankful that Mr. Solomon has done the research on what to put into the soil to get nutrient rich vegetables to come out.This book IS technical which could be construed as "dry". Personally, I want technical. I want to be told exactly why and how something works. If I have to read a little slower because of that, to sit and think about what was written, to intellectually "chew" on an idea, that's OK. If I want light reading, I'll buy a novel.I certainly can understand why some people came away with the idea that the book was negative. It deals honestly with the difficulties of gardening. I garden in pure sand in a sub-tropical climate, beset by humidity, disease and insects, where growing temperate climate vegetables like tomatoes and peppers in a 90 day window between the last frost and 95 degree heat is a challenge at best and often a disaster. I can identify with his perceived negativity. For some of us, gardening is not spreading a little compost, planting a seed, giving it a little water and watching the magic happen. I'm not sure where that place is, but it's not my garden. I would say his "negativity" is "reality" for many of us. Gardening is HARD!I do, however, think that he was unnecessarily negative in regards to seed growing/saving. Gardeners have grown, improved, and saved great seed for 1000's of years. If we had not, we all would have starved by now. He does make it sound like it is pretty much an impossible task for the home gardener to save anything except self-pollinated varieties of vegetables. While difficult, it obviously can be done by the average person. I do think the attitude expressed in the book about seed saving could discourage gardeners from even trying. I would encourage you to read Carol Deppe's Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties and Suzanne Ashworth's Seed to Seed for a more positive, and in my opinion, more helpful view on this topic.Overall, this was a great book with a tremendous amount of information that you won't find many other places. I don't purchase many gardening books any more because nearly all of them are so basic they are a waste of time and money for an experienced gardener. Not this one. This book is definitely not a waste of money for the EXPERIENCED gardener. I also highly recommend that you purchase Mr. Solomon's book the Intelligent Gardener where he has updated the information in this book, especially regarding nutrition. I truly appreciate the fact that he is willing to revise his work and say, with more research and information, that he has found some better ways to do things. That certainly doesn't sound like someone who is arrogant!BUY THE BOOK. YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED.
G**S
Gardening Made Simple
Plant Sale 2011One of the perks of working the Plant Sale each year is the chance for long visits and discussions with other growers during some of the more quiet times.Julie Holderith of Eclectic Gardens is an avid reader and it's always fun to learn her latest favorite books. She mentioned Steve Solomon's books which I promptly ordered from Amazon. Julie was right when she suggested his books and website.Steve Solomon, has two best sellers which have been reprinted. Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times is in it's ninth printing in 2011.Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Organic Gardening is in it's the 6th edition.If the name sounds familiar, Steve Solomon created Territorial Seed Company in Cottage Grove in 1979. It was a homestead-based mail-order vegetable-garden seed business. He ran variety trials with his seeds, growing plants far enough apart so they could develop to their full potential. He noticed that the trial plots did not need as much water. Another bonus was that these well-separated plants got much larger; they tasted better than the crowded veggies. He sold the seed company in 1986.With time on his hands, and several acres of garden land, Solomon researched putting plants extremely far apart and used no irrigation. He wrote Waterwise Vegetables, now out of print.He gardened through his own hard times. After years of research his books offer an alternative to the more "popular" forms of gardening we see today.Steve also has a website Steve Solomon's Place. It is on the "Island of Tasmania (Australia). Our garden provides more than half the total caloric intake of two adults in the form of fresh vegetables. This garden work, plus almost daily yoga practice, keeps me fit. I share life with Anne."I understand plants and so I write how-to-vegie-garden books. My best two are in print at this time: Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades published by Sasquatch Press, Seattle, and Gardening When It Counts, published by New Society Publishing, Gabriola Is., B.C. Two older gardening-related books of mine are available on this web site."Steve also developed an online library now run by Dr. Justin Crawford. It's called the Soil and Health Library. soilandhealth.org "Health begins in the soil; Healing begins with hygiene; Liberty begins with freedom.""This website provides free e-books, mainly about holistic agriculture, holistic health and self-sufficient homestead living. There are secondary collections about social criticism and transformational psychology. No fees are collected for this service.The library's subject seemingly-diverse topic areas actually connect agricultural methods to the consequent health or illness of animals and humans, shows how to prevent and heal disease and increase longevity, suggests how to live a more fulfilling life and reveals social forces working against that possibility."
