The Sustainable Vegetable Garden: A Backyard Guide to Healthy Soil and Higher Yields

I am thankful to find this book, because it is so rare to find any gardening book that actually tells you how many seeds you need for so much ground, or how to predict yield. The reviews that complain about this valuable information give me an idea why that might be. People are too stupid to either value or use that information. Well, if you are intelligent enough to be looking for that information, then you'll be happy to have this book.

This is not a book to read in winter when you're dreaming of your perfect garden. This is a book that correctly lists the five plants that have been proven to help deter the Striped Bean Beetle when it's eating your garden down to the nubs. And the intercropping to keep the bean beetle away next year. And soil treatments to keep it from coming back. And what kinds of flowers will attract the beetle's predators. And did you know that veggies will generally produce just fine with up to 30% of their leaf surface eaten, or even produce more when it's attacked just like this? I didn't, until I read this book. Great information, essential information, complicated information. If you're a dreamer who likes a couple of nice sprays of hybrid cherry tomatoes to munch on each September and want a nice book with pretty color pictures, this isn't the book for you. If you've got dirt under your fingernails and a problem with your French Intensive beds, you will eventually need exactly this book.

What is 'biointensive vegetable gardening? In brief it features the following methods: - focus on the health of the soil as the starting point for a productive garden (this is the meaning of 'bio-'); - emphasis on growing the most vegetables in the least possible space for maximum efficiency (hence '-intensive'); - vegetables grown in narrow beds (for ease of access and positive microclimate)which have been 'double-dug' and composted; - closer spacing of plants than usual due to greater depth of soil, assisted by companion planting; -organic nutrition and pest control throughout.This short book is a great introduction to organic vegetable growing, especially the 'biointensive' method. It is also a useful work for experienced gardeners who want to know about John Jeavons' highly successful methods, but don't have lots of time to study the weightier 'How to Grow More Vegetables'. That book is a real classic of organic gardening, and stands alongside Elliot Coleman's 'The New Organic Grower' as a 'must-have' reference book. However, 'The Sustainable Vegetable Garden' is more than just an abridged version of Jeavons' earlier book. It actually makes many of the key concepts easier to understand and put into practice. It is full of useful diagrams which will be invaluable to the novice and expert alike. You don't just read about how to 'double dig' a bed - there are step by step images to help you see exactly how it's done.For beginners, just about everything you need to know is covered. Its rare to find a book that explains the details to clearly and concisely. For more experienced gardeners, you will almost certainly discover tools and methods you can use by reading this book. I found I could more or less skip the chapter on composting but was particularly interested in Coleman & Cox's approach to planning how much of each crop to plant in a season. A number of charts and plans are included for you to photocopy and use yourself. In fact, the approah to planning a vegetable garden outlined here is a particular strength of the book.Here's what the book includes: 1. Thinking about raising food sustainably 2. Before you start 3. What do you want to eat? Choosing what to grow 4. Preparing a biointensive bed: Double-Digging 5. What to feed a biointensive bed: Compost 6. Seedlings 7. Planning and planting crops 8. Growing compost crops 9. Growing more calories 10. Arranging what goes into a bed: Companion planting 11. Keeping the garden healthy 12. Seeds for next year's garden Appendices on supplies and resources and additional tools for garden planning.So what are you waiting for? Buy it and get growing!

This is an excellent book for new gardeners and for old gardeners new to the biointensive method. Tells how to build a garden the right way, from the bottom up. If growing one's own food is the best way to stop the insanity of agribusiness, then John Jeavons is a mild-mannered but effective revolutionary leader. He enlightened hundreds of thousands of us with his 1974 groundbreaker How to Grow More Vegetables (than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine).