Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

The decline of cheap oil is inspiring increasing numbers of North Americans to achieve some measure of backyard food self-sufficiency. In hard times, the family can be greatly helped by growing a highly productive food garden, requiring little cash outlay or watering.

Currently popular intensive vegetable gardening methods are largely inappropriate to this new circumstance. Crowded raised beds require high inputs of water, fertility and organic matter, and demand large amounts of human time and effort. But, except for labor, these inputs depend on the price of oil. Prior to the 1970s, North American home food growing used more land with less labor, with wider plant spacing, with less or no irrigation, and all done with sharp hand tools. But these sustainable systems have been largely forgotten. Gardening When It Counts helps readers rediscover traditional low-input gardening methods to produce healthy food.

Designed for readers with no experience and applicable to most areas in the English-speaking world except the tropics and hot deserts, this book shows that any family with access to 3-5,000 sq. ft. of garden land can halve their food costs using a growing system requiring just the odd bucketful of household waste water, perhaps two hundred dollars worth of hand tools, and about the same amount spent on supplies - working an average of two hours a day during the growing season.

Steve Solomon is a well-known west coast gardener and author of five previous books, including Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades which has appeared in five editions.

Average Customer Rating:

Easy to use for both beginners and advanced gardeners	Customer Rating:
This book is easy to read and comprhensive. It even tells a person how to start a garden in the spring. Great for first timers who didn't know to get the garden prepared the Autumn before. It also provides lists on which veggies are easy to grow and hearty and which require more care and are delicate.

Sound Gardening Advice	Customer Rating:
Comprehensive, to the points, easily read but full of gardening goodness. I would HIGHLY recommend anyone considering a garden reading this book first to ensure you don't waste: money, time, or energy. My family put off building our garden just so we can finish the book and ensure we build it right the first time.

practical advice not found in other gardening manuals

Customer Rating:

Whoa... talk about turning my whole world of gardening upside-down! This tome has earned a permanent spot on my bookshelf by telling me things that make good common sense I've never read elsewhere. Solomon really laid it out to me about composting. It turns out everything I've thought I should do... like turning my compost frequently and chopping it into tiny bits to get it to decompose faster... burns up much of the nutritional value of the stuff by making it burn too hot. The most earth-shattering for me was discovering that I am not leaving anywhere close to enough space between plants for their roots to develop. Solomon's sketches of the root systems of vegetables alone make this book worth it to get ahold of a copy. I'm just glad I got this before I started planning for next spring. Thanks, Steve!!

Things I Never Knew About Gardening!

Customer Rating:

I am a gardener and I read books and magazines in addition to my hands on efforts. This book has made me think about the way I have been gardening and the complications that I have put on my efforts. This is a much more simple way to do things and I have learned so much about larger spaces, the effort levels of fruits and vegetables, simple tool use and care and water resources. Excellent book. Although I bought it for myself, I had to get it away from my husband.

Good book, very detailed

Customer Rating:

I think this book is a very honest account of how to grow veggies under difficult circumstances. He has honest criticisms of the seed/garden center/etc businesses and how to avoid buying stuff that is of poor quality. His advice on simple methods for determining your soil type, making your own compost fertilizer, spacing for various crops, type of sprinklers that work best and where to get them, and a whole lot more is here and very valuable. I especially liked his advice on simple garden tools; how to find them and how to use them and how to maintain them. Truly great stuff that does not always mean a rototiller (although he tells how to use them, too, and which kinds work best). The only reason I did not give it a 5 is MY problem. I have not finished the book yet but I am still reading it. Just MY lack of time right now. Here is the deal. What if the grid is down and you cannot irrigate your crops with city water? How do you grow a garden without irrigation? How do you grow a garden without a gas-powered tiller? How do you save seeds for the next year's crop? Where do you find open-pollenating seeds? It's all here and more. Thanks for a great read. Warren of Kansas