Explains how to create and maintain fertile soil, including advice on choosing fertilizers, improving new sites, fine-tuning for specific plants, and using compost
Good soil leads to thriving gardens. Encouraging you to get to know the unique properties of your garden’s soil, Elizabeth Snell shows you how to properly use composted plant materials and animal manure to amend your dirt so that it is perfectly suited to your growing goals. Covering a variety of mulching and fertilizing techniques, Snell provides all the information you need to give your garden a healthy foundation of rich, nutrient-filled soil that will ensure a bountiful harvest.
This book,a fascinating companion to The Secret Life of Plants by the same authors, tells the story of the innovative, nontraditional, often surprising things that certain scientists, farmers, and mystics are doing to prevent the slow degradation of our planet. For example, using the techniques of Rudolf Steiner s biodynamic agriculture with its reliance on ethereal forces from the planets,Dan Carlson s growth stimulating Sonic Bloom, and rock dust fertilizer to revitalize depleted soils; or gardening with the help of truly amazing new technologies to reverse serious agricultural problems.The authors illustrate,in a truly enlightening and convincing manner, the pivotal role that the natural elements play in ourlives, and the necessity of cultivating and sustaining a relationship with one most basic of them the soil.
“A Way to Garden prods us toward that ineffable place where we feel we belong; it’s a guide to living both in and out of the garden.” —The New York Times Book Review For Margaret Roach, gardening is more than a hobby, it’s a calling. Her unique approach, which she calls “horticultural how-to and woo-woo,” is a blend of vital information you need to memorize and intuitive steps you must simply feel and surrender to. In A Way to Garden, Roach imparts decades of garden wisdom on seasonal gardening, ornamental plants, vegetable gardening, design, gardening for wildlife, organic practices, and much more. She also challenges gardeners to think beyond their garden borders and to consider the ways gardening can enrich the world. Brimming with beautiful photographs of Roach’s own garden, A Way to Garden is practical, inspiring, and a must-have for every passionate gardener.
Growing awareness of the importance of soil health means that microbes are on the minds of even the most casual gardeners. After all, anyone who has ever attempted to plant a thriving patch of flowers or vegetables knows that what you grow is only as good as the soil you grow it in. It is possible to create and maintain rich, dark, crumbly soil that’s teeming with life, using very few inputs and a no-till, no-fertilizer approach. Certified permaculture designer and lifelong gardener Diane Miessler presents the science of soil health in an engaging, entertaining voice geared for the backyard grower. She shares the techniques she has used — including cover crops, constant mulching, and a simple-but-supercharged recipe for compost tea — to transform her own landscape from a roadside dump for broken asphalt to a garden that stops traffic, starting from the ground up.
"Once in a while you find a book that stuns you. Its scope leaves you breathless. This is such a book." — John White, San Francisco Chronicle Explore the inner world of plants and its fascinating relation to mankind, as uncovered by the latest discoveries of science. In this truly revolutionary and beloved work, drawn from remarkable research, Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird cast light on the rich psychic universe of plants. The Secret Life of Plants explores plants' response to human care and nurturing, their ability to communicate with man, plants' surprising reaction to music, their lie-detection abilities, their creative powers, and much more. Tompkins and Bird's classic book affirms the depth of humanity's relationship with nature and adds special urgency to the cause of protecting the environment that nourishes us.
Build healthy soil and grow better plants Robert Pavlis, a gardener for over four decades, debunks common soil myths, explores the rhizosphere, and provides a personalized soil fertility improvement program in this three-part popular science guidebook. Healthy soil means thriving plants. Yet untangling the soil food web and optimizing your soil health is beyond most gardeners, many of whom lack an in-depth knowledge of the soil ecosystem. Soil Science for Gardeners is an accessible, science-based guide to understanding soil fertility and, in particular, the rhizosphere – the thin layer of liquid and soil surrounding plant roots, so vital to plant health. Coverage includes: Soil biology and chemistry and how plants and soil interact Common soil health problems, including analyzing soil's fertility and plant nutrients The creation of a personalized plan for improving your soil fertility, including setting priorities and goals in a cost-effective, realistic time frame. Creating the optimal conditions for nature to do the heavy lifting of building soil fertility Written for the home gardener, market gardener, and micro-farmer, Soil Science for Gardeners is packed with information to help you grow thriving plants.
Includes information and techniques for testing, fertilizing and conditioning soil, mulching, making and using composts, draining, irrigating, and cultivating gardens.