Download or read book The Regenerative Grower s Guide to Garden Amendments written by Nigel Palmer and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2020-08-07 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revitalize your garden—and go beyond compost—by making your own biologically diverse inoculants and mineral-rich amendments using leaf mold, weeds, eggshells, bones, and other materials available for little or no cost! In The Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments, experimental gardener and author Nigel Palmer provides practical, detailed instructions that are accessible to every grower who wants to achieve a truly sustainable garden ecosystem—all while enjoying better results at a fraction of the cost of commercial fertilizer products. These recipes go beyond fertilizer replacement, resulting in greater soil biological activity and mineral availability. They also increase pest and disease resistance, yields, and nutrient density. Recipes include: Extracting nutrients from plant residues using simple rainwater techniques Extracting minerals from bones and shells using vinegar Fermenting plant juices and fish Culturing indigenous microorganisms (IMO) Inspired by the work of many innovative traditional agricultural pioneers, especially Cho Ju-Young (founder of the Korean Natural Farming method), The Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments also includes a primer on plant-soil interaction, instructions for conducting a soil test, and guidance on compost, cover cropping, mulching, measuring the quality of fruits and vegetables using a refractometer, and other aspects of sustainable gardening—making it a must-have resource for any serious grower.
Download or read book Teaming with Nutrients written by Jeff Lowenfels and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2013-05-07 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 2014 Garden Writers Association Media Award Winner Just as he demystified the soil food web in his ground-breaking book Teaming with Microbes, in this new work Jeff Lowenfels explains the basics of plant nutrition from an organic gardener’s perspective. Most gardeners realize that plants need to be fed but know little or nothing about the nature of the nutrients and the mechanisms involved. In his trademark down-to-earth, style, Lowenfels explains the role of both macronutrients and micronutrients and shows gardeners how to provide these essentials through organic, easy-to-follow techniques. Along the way, Lowenfels gives the reader easy-to-grasp lessons in the biology, chemistry, and botany needed to understand how nutrients get into the plant and what they do once they’re inside.
Download or read book No Till Intensive Vegetable Culture written by Bryan O'Hara and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-21 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "No-till farming is the new best practice for preventing soil erosion, building soil biology, and providing growing conditions for vibrant, healthy crops. But for organic vegetable farmers and gardeners-and any farmer who wants to avoid herbicide use-the seemingly insurmountable dilemma with no-till has been how to control weeds without cultivating. In this thorough, practical guide, expert organic farmer Bryan O'Hara provide the answers. O'Hara systemically describes the growing methods he developed and perfected during a multi-year transition of his Connecticut certified organic vegetable farm to a no-till system. O'Hara asserts that this flexible, nature-friendly agricultural methodology is critical to vegetable farming success both economically as well as to maintain the health of the soil and the farm ecosystem. His methodology has proven itself over years of cropping on his home farm, Tobacco Road Farm, as well as other farms in his region, often with stunning results in yields, quality, and profitability. In No-Till Intensive Vegetable Culture, O'Hara delves into the techniques he has experimented with and perfected in his 25 years of farming, including making and using compost, culturing and applying indigenous microorganisms to support soil biology, reduced tillage systems, no-till bed preparation techniques, seeding and transplanting methods, irrigation, use of fertilizers (including foliar feeds), pest and disease management, weed control, season extension, and harvest and storage techniques. O'Hara also explores the spiritual understanding of the nuances of the soil and a farm ecosystem and how that influences practical production decisions such as when to plant, water, and fertilize a crop. O'Hara goal is to pass on his knowledge to those who feel the impulse to make their livelihood in harmony with nature, requiring a relatively small land base of a few acres or less and little capital investment in mechanization. Home gardener and large-scale farmers will also find value in his methods. This manual will provides farmers with an advanced agricultural methodology not available in any other single book on organic vegetable production, a methodology that will allow farmers to continue to adapt to meet future challenges"--
Download or read book The Organic Seed Grower written by John Navazio and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2012-12-17 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in Paperback “A fantastic guide for organic seed breeders and producers. [Navazio] has taken organic seed production to a higher level.” —Suzanne Ashworth, author of Seed to Seed The Organic Seed Grower is a comprehensive manual for the serious vegetable grower who is interested in growing high-quality seeds using organic farming practices. It is written for both home seed savers and diversified small-scale farmers who want to learn the necessary steps involved in successfully producing a seed crop organically. Detailed profiles for each of the major vegetables provide users with practical, in-depth knowledge about growing, harvesting, and processing seed for a wide range of common and specialty vegetable crops, from Asian greens to zucchini. In addition, readers will find extensive and critical information on topics including: • Seed-borne diseases • The reproductive biology of crop plants • Annual vs. biennial seed crops • Isolation distances needed to ensure varietal purity • Maintaining adequate population size for genetic integrity • Seed crop climates • Seed cleaning basics • Seed storage for farmers • and more . . . This book can serve as a bridge to lead skilled gardeners, who are already saving their own seed, into the idea of growing seed commercially. And for diversified vegetable farmers who are growing a seed crop for sale for the first time, it will provide details on many of the tricks of the trade that are used by professional seed growers. This manual will help the budding seed farmer to become more knowledgeable, efficient, and effective in producing a commercially viable seed crop. Written by well-known plant breeder and organic seed expert John Navazio, The Organic Seed Grower is the most useful guide to best practices in this exciting and important field.
Download or read book The Beginner s Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables written by Marie Iannotti and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2012-01-11 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Growing your own vegetables has never looked, or tasted, so good. Are heirloom vegetables more difficult to grow than conventional hybrids? The Beginner's Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables debunks this myth by highlighting the 100 heirloom vegetables that are the easiest to grow and the tastiest to eat. Marie Iannotti makes it simple for beginning gardeners to jump on the heirloom trend by presenting an edited list based on years of gardening trial and error. Her plant criteria is threefold: The 100 plants must be amazing to eat, bring something unique to the table, and—most importantly—they have to be unfussy and easy to grow. Her list includes garden favorites like the meaty and mellow 'Lacinato' Kale, the underused and earthy 'Turkish Orange' Eggplant, and the unexpected sweetness of 'Apollo' Arugula.
Download or read book The Living Soil Handbook written by Jesse Frost and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2021-07-20 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Principles and farm-tested practices for no-till market gardening--for healthier, more productive soil! From the host of the popular The No-Till Market Garden Podcast—heard around the world with nearly one million downloads! Discovering how to meet the soil’s needs is the key task for every market gardener. In this comprehensive guide, Farmer Jesse Frost shares all he has learned through experience and experimentation with no-till practices on his home farm in Kentucky and from interviews and visits with highly successful market gardeners in his role as host of The No-Till Market Garden Podcast. The Living Soil Handbook is centered around the three basic principles of no-till market gardening: Disturb the soil as little as possible Keep it covered as much as possible Keep it planted as much as possible. Farmer Jesse then guides readers in applying those principles to their own garden environment, with their own materials, to meet their own goals. Beginning with an exploration of the importance of photosynthesis to living soil, Jesse provides in-depth information on: Turning over beds Using compost and mulch Path management Incorporating biology, maintaining fertility Cover cropping Diversifying plantings through intercropping Production methods for seven major crops Throughout, the book emphasizes practical information on all the best tools and practices for growers who want to build their livelihood around maximizing the health of their soil. Farmer Jesse reminds growers that “as possible” is the mantra for protecting the living soil: disturb the soil as little as you possibly can in your context. He does not believe that growers should anguish over what does and does not qualify as “no-till.” If you are using a tool to promote soil life and biology, that’s the goal. Jesse’s goal with The Living Soil Handbook is to provide a comprehensive set of options, materials, and field-tested practices to inspire growers to design a soil-nurturing no-till system in their unique garden or farm ecosystem. "[A] practical, informative debut. . . .Gardeners interested in sustainable agriculture will find this a great place to start."—Publishers Weekly "Frost offers a comprehensive, science-based, sympathetic, wholly practical guide to soil building, that most critical factor in vegetable gardening for market growers and home gardeners alike. A gift to any vegetable plot that will keep on giving."—Booklist (starred review)
Download or read book The Market Gardener written by Jean-Martin Fortier and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grow better not bigger with proven low-tech, human-scale, biointensive farming methods
Download or read book The Gardener s A Z Guide to Growing Organic Food written by Tanya L. K. Denckla and published by Storey Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A single-volume reference for organic food gardening is arranged in an A-to-Z format that covers planting, watering, fertilizing, harvesting, storing, working in a greenhouse, and preventing and combating plant diseases and garden pests. Original.
Download or read book Self Sufficiency written by Abigail R. Gehring and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Complete Guide to Baking, Carpentry, Crafts, Organic Gardening, Preserving Your Harvest, Raising Animals, and More! The inspiring guide to back to basics living, now fully updated! Now, more than ever, people across the country are turning toward simpler, greener, and quieter ways of living—whether they’re urbanites or country folk. Following in the footsteps of Back to Basics and Homesteading, this large, fully-illustrated book provides the entire family with the information they need to make the shift toward self-sufficient living. Self-Sufficiency provides tips, advice, and detailed instructions on how to improve everyday life from an environmentally and organic perspective while keeping the focus on the family. Readers will learn how to plant a family garden and harvest the produce; can fruits and vegetables; bake bread and cookies; design interactive and engaging “green” projects; harness natural wind and solar energy to cook food and warm their homes; boil sap to make maple syrup; and build treehouses, furniture, and more. Also included are natural crafts readers can do with their kids, such as scrapbooking, making potato prints, dipping candles, and constructing seasonal decorations. Whether the goal is to live entirely off the grid or just to shrink their carbon footprints, families will find this book a thorough resource and a great inspiration.
Download or read book Living Above the Store written by Martin Melaver and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not Merely Sustainable. Restorative. A viable business is a living thing, embedded in the complex web of economy, community, and ecology. Done right, business can help correct the modern stresses of environmental degradation and social fragmentation and create value for workers, shareholders, and additional stakeholders in the community. Living Above the Store explores a road less traveled, and chronicles how business can navigate a new path toward successful, restorative practices. Book jacket.
Download or read book The Organic Gardener s Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control written by Fern Marshall Bradley and published by Rodale Books. This book was released on 2009 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consumers are increasingly aware of the dangers of garden chemicals. "The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control" offers a reliable and comprehensive guide that makes it easy to garden without the use of pesticides.
Download or read book The Complete Guide to Restoring Your Soil written by Dale Strickler and published by Storey Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 716 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Healthy soil is key to sustaining life on Earth. While more and more people are starting to see the need for soil restoration, there is very little understanding of just how it can be accomplished. There is a rapidly emerging demand for a “how to” manual for soil restoration. Dale Strickler is an expert on building healthy soil and restoring degraded soil, and in The Complete Guide to Restoring Your Soil, he presents the science of soil, along with proven methods of restoring depleted soil and agricultural practices from around the world that continue to build soil, rather than cause it to deteriorate. Strickler provides a solid foundation in the science of healthy soil, explaining how soil has become so degraded over time and the dire consequences for the human species, not just in terms of food scarcity but also the social, health, and environmental consequences of growing food in poor soil. He addresses the chemical, physical, and biological principles behind soil function, and presents actual farming practices that can be used to regenerate soil, techniques and strategies for remediating contaminated soil, and agriculture systems both past and present that functioned to build soil, such as the ancient chinampas systems of Mexico and the permaculture systems of today. This publication conforms to the EPUB Accessibility specification at WCAG 2.0 Level AA.
Download or read book Teaming with Fungi written by Jeff Lowenfels and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2017-01-11 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of Teaming with Microbes and Teaming with Nutrients Teaming with Fungi is an important guide to mycorrhizae and the role they play in agriculture, horticulture, and hydroponics. Almost every plant in a garden forms a relationship with fungi, and many plants would not exist without their fungal partners. By better understanding this relationship, gardeners can take advantage of the benefits of fungi, which include an increased uptake in nutrients, resistance to drought, earlier fruiting, and more. Learn how the fungi interact with plants and how to best to employ them in your home garden.
Download or read book The Natural Way of Farming written by Masanobu Fukuoka and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ...A natural way of farming that renounces all human knowledge and intervention. - preface.
Download or read book Garden Alchemy written by Stephanie Rose and published by Cool Springs Press. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Garden Alchemy is a hands-on guide for do-it-yourself gardeners who want to turn their garden into gold using natural recipes and herbal concoctions (while saving both time and money!). This gardening recipe and project book is packed with over 80 ideas to naturally beautify your garden, using organic methods that regenerate your soil and revitalize your plants. By following the processes that are closest to nature, it brings the gardener in sync with the garden, allowing plants to thrive with less effort and less cost. Recipes for mixing your own potting soils and homemadeorganic fertilizers give you the freedom to choose what ingredients make their way into your garden. Step-by-step instructions for building a compost pile, concocting soil tests, and constructing inexpensive DIY seed-starting equipment are accompanied by gorgeous, full-color, step-by-step photography. You'll also find recipes for natural pest deterrents and traps, garden teas, and growth-boosting foliar sprays to help your garden grow strong all season long. Garden Alchemy starts with home experiments to help you get to know your soil and customize recipes for your individual needs. The rest of the chapters share how to decipher and combine natural ingredients to make the best quality amendments and elixirs. Detailed descriptions of earth-based materials demystify common ingredients, such as mycorrhizae, biochar, and greensand, and help you learn how to fix common garden problems with minimal effort. The simple method of making use of what you have available supports plants better than brand-name products. Dozens of recipes and projects include: Homemade seed bombs, disks, and tapes Granular and liquid natural fertilizer recipes DIY rooting hormone Herbal anti-fungal spray Plant propagation instructions Soil care recipes to adjust the pH and manage fertility 13 specialty potting mixes 7 clever traps for common garden pests Written by Stephanie Rose, the creative gardener, permaculturist, and herbalist behind the popular website Garden Therapy, this fun and beautifully illustrated book is packed with great ideas and inspiration for DIY gardeners who want to embrace their creativity and have more control of the garden's care.
Download or read book GROUNDED written by LIZ. ZORAB and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Teaming with Microbes written by Wayne Lewis and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2010-09-10 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Healthy soil teems with life—not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. Chemical fertilizers injure the microbial life that sustains healthy plants, and the soil becomes increasingly dependent on artificial, often toxic, substances. But there is an alternative: by strengthening the soil food web—the complex world of soil-dwelling organisms—gardeners can create a nurturing environment for plants. Teaming with Microbes extols the benefits of cultivating the soil food web. It clearly explains the activities and organisms that make up the web, and explains how gardeners can cultivate the life of the soil through the use of compost, mulches, and compost tea. With Jeff Lowenfels’ help, everyone—from devotees of organic gardening techniques to weekend gardeners who simply want to grow healthy, vigorous plants—can create rich, nurturing, living soil.
