50 in '08: 08
May. 6th, 2008 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76Yes, tonight I'm powering through some of the books that have gotten stacked up on my desk, why do you ask? :)
Title: The Organic Home Garden: How to Grow Fruits & Vegetables Naturally
By: Patrick Lima, photographs by John Scanlan
This one was a whimsy pick-up at the library. I've never been real big on pesticides and have at this point stopped using them and chemical amendments period. My mental chain of thought goes kind of along the lines of "if I wouldn't want this in my body, why am I putting it in/on my food?" Therefore, books on organic gardening appeal to me. Not all of them... I think I skimmed and put two or three back on the shelf before picking this one up and deciding it was worth further investigation. Mr. Lima bases his information on techniques he's done himself, with accompanying photographs of his garden at Larkwhistle in, I believe, rural New York. My gardens have usually been pretty basic: peppers, tomatoes, herbs. He delves into asparagus, corn salad, brussel sprouts, cabbages and kale. He covers soil amendments, composting, watering techniques, crop rotation, and then goes on to demystify different crops one at a time. I came out of this book thinking I could grow pretty much anything in it... maybe not as successfully the first time, but he took away a lot of the "oh, no, I could never do that!" vibe associated with a lot of home gardening. It's due to this book that I've planted potatoes in my plot at the community garden. In short: I love this book and highly recommend it and curse the fates that it's out of print and over $40 per used copy. It shall be mine, yes it shall, precious. In the meantime, anyone with an interest in fruit or vegetable gardening should check it out of their library. I'm glad I did.
Title: The Organic Home Garden: How to Grow Fruits & Vegetables Naturally
By: Patrick Lima, photographs by John Scanlan
This one was a whimsy pick-up at the library. I've never been real big on pesticides and have at this point stopped using them and chemical amendments period. My mental chain of thought goes kind of along the lines of "if I wouldn't want this in my body, why am I putting it in/on my food?" Therefore, books on organic gardening appeal to me. Not all of them... I think I skimmed and put two or three back on the shelf before picking this one up and deciding it was worth further investigation. Mr. Lima bases his information on techniques he's done himself, with accompanying photographs of his garden at Larkwhistle in, I believe, rural New York. My gardens have usually been pretty basic: peppers, tomatoes, herbs. He delves into asparagus, corn salad, brussel sprouts, cabbages and kale. He covers soil amendments, composting, watering techniques, crop rotation, and then goes on to demystify different crops one at a time. I came out of this book thinking I could grow pretty much anything in it... maybe not as successfully the first time, but he took away a lot of the "oh, no, I could never do that!" vibe associated with a lot of home gardening. It's due to this book that I've planted potatoes in my plot at the community garden. In short: I love this book and highly recommend it and curse the fates that it's out of print and over $40 per used copy. It shall be mine, yes it shall, precious. In the meantime, anyone with an interest in fruit or vegetable gardening should check it out of their library. I'm glad I did.
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Date: 2008-05-07 10:11 am (UTC)My mom and I are accidental gardeners. We tossed extra onions into the flower bed, and a while later they sprouted and turned into edible plants. We moved into an apartment and did nothing, and the banana tree in the front courtyard gave us 40 bananas. It's like nature is trying to tell us something... >.>