Newspaper, Pennies, Cardboard, Eggs for
Growing a Better Garden
by Roger Yepsen and the editors of Organic Gardening
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Review by Allie Knowlton
Are you looking for the one book that has almost everything you need to know for successful organic gardening? This just might just be the one! Whether gardening is a hobby or it is a full- time lifestyle, this rich repository of information covers over 400 new, fun and ingenious ideas to support your garden(s) to become exactly what you dream. Even seasoned gardeners are sure to find ideas that find you saying, “Why didn’t I think of that!".
Incorporated in many of the suggestions are ways to save money while remaiining true to organic principles. For instance, one suggestion he offers is to create a wood-polymer lumber that looks like wood and is made from one part wood scraps and one part plastic from shopping bags or pallet wrappings. (p. 290). This book has all you would expect to find in a good gardening book. In every section, there are numerous side bars entitled “Advice Over the Fence” or “Easy Does It” many of which I wish I'd known last year. This book can be read either by the section you most require information on, or the brief additional tips columns, or straight through. How ever you take in the information, you'll find encouragement that a successful organic garden is possible, wherever you may live.
Another plus for this book is the detailed information in tables and graphs for the visual learner. For example, on page 94 there is a table to suggest how much time you'll save by choosing a hose with a larger diameter. There are equally informative tables on how to make your own custom fertilizer blends. Interspersed through out the book are better and best practices. For instance, these include how to protect yourself while using vermiculite and suggestions for skipping it altogether in your potting mix by using peat, sawdust, compost, perlite and bark instead.
Incredibly comprehensive in its coverage, an additional aspect of this book which I enjoyed was the author's sense of humor. For instance, in a section on how to maintain the flavor of the spices you have so carefully grown he offers a suggestion about keeping your carefully labled spices in a tray in your freezer. In sharing that the traditional mortor and pestle brings out the best flavors, he entitled this section “Not the Same Old Grind."
I highly recommend this 346 page book as a prime reference as you continue to expand your own expertise in organic gardening!
-Allie
Newspapers, Pennies, Cardboard and Eggs for Growing a Better Garden
Roger Yepsen and the Editors of Organic Gardening Published in 2007 by Rodale, Inc.
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