Gardening book with a difference!

I really enjoy reading gardening books. Not books that tell you what to do and what not to do...but books that expand the concept of gardening and stretch the boundaries of the garden and my green mind.

Right now I'm dipping into a wonderful book by Jackie French, a well-known Australian author (and gardener). This book is called "The Wilderness Garden". In her decades of watching the garden and the animals around her, and of experimenting with hundreds of new growing strategies, Jackie has learnt to grow things by letting the plants - and nature - do most of the work for her.

I'm especially interested in her thoughts about vegetable growing....and such suggestions as "instead of neat straight rows (which I hate anyway... I always plant clusters of vegetables!)...grow a ramble of closely planted veges to disguise them from pests, protect them from frost and heat, choke out weeds and stop too much moisture evaporation."

She says the top half of her garden "hasn't been dug or planted in 11 years! The radish, borage, tomatoes, carrots, sweet william, leeks, turnips, claendulas, parsley, sunflowers, sweet potatoes, dandelions and perennial beans keep coming up year after year. It looks a mess, but it produces masses of edible food - with almost no work."

She says "Don't worry about pests and disease. Worry only if they are killing your plant. Put your effort into growing things instead, plant more, mulch more and pick regularly instead of worrying about killing things!"
Isn't that such a great attitude?!

I've been thinking about how so often our gardening thoughts and practices get locked into old habits and ways ....and therefore we don't see the possibilities and benefits of a completely different approach and attitude. This book is refreshing and absolutely inspiring!

[GardenNut]

Sounds like an interesting gardening strategy!

Maggie, have you heard of Steve Solomon? He used to live in Oregon, wrote several gardening books specializing in vegetable gardening in our climate, and has since moved to New Zealand. He changed the way people thought about gardening here. I was just curious if he's creating the same kind of stir out your way, or if he's settled into a "retired" life.

[Groumma09]

Hi Judy,



Thanks for sharing this with us. I look forward to learning more about your book and I hope you get some responses from the other writers here.



Have a great day,

Esther

[rockguy]

Sounds like a good book. I like to see books written by folks that know the subject matter, not just collections of stories put together by someone who claims to have written the book. I would describe that as more like editing than writing.

[dennichristianthegreate]

A thought just occured to me; this a-here thread mostly consists of someone reading a book and then posing queries regarding. Lets see if works the other way around, no? What book should I - or anyone else, for that matter - read, and why? Could be any book, really, and any subject, doesnt have to be specifically about Islam.

So, recommend a book, please? Pretty please. Pretty please with cherry on top.

[rockguy]

D, read ANY garden book and then come back and make some kind of useful contribution in this thread....

[billowbeard]

Does the Farmer's Almanac count as a book?

[rockguy]

LOL, I already read my almanac from cover to cover.

[PNCTink]

I recently took Gardener to Gardener-Seed Starting Almanac and Primer from the local library and I really like it. It breaks down what you should be doing in which months throughout the year and helpful tips about compost and raised bed gardening.