24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you are serious about growing your groceries, this book is for you., Feb 18 2012
By Eloise Martindale "GreenGrammie" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How to Grow More Vegetables, Eighth Edition: (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine (Paperback)
I am an urban farmer. I use this book as a reference more than any of the more than 25 other books I have on the subject of growing fruit & vegetables. The sheer volume of practical information in this book is amazing. It includes not only how to prepare the soil, but at what temperature specific seeds are able to germinate. This means you don't have to plant things several times to get a crop, because you just check the soil temperature and you know whether the seeds will germinate or not. It gives you charts that tell you how close together you can plant each vegetable, how much harvest you can get from a 100 sq. ft. bed, how long it takes a particular vegetable to grow to harvest size, how long the harvest period is for a particular crop, and on and on. It makes suggestions on crop rotation, so that you maintain the fertility of your soil and continue to maximize your harvest. It also gives you suggestions about how much of each crop one person would likely eat in a year, so you know how much to plant. The companion planting suggestions are great. I used to have trouble with tomato worms. Now I plant tomatoes with Calendula, Basil & Borage and no more tomato worms. My tomatoes grow 7-8 feet tall and I have gotten 35 lbs of tomatoes off one tomato plant.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very in depth AND starts at the beginning for newbies-LOVE IT, Feb 29 2012
By Dee - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How to Grow More Vegetables, Eighth Edition: (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine (Paperback)
There are lots and lots of ways to garden. There are lots and lots of books on gardening. What this book has is an in depth explanation of old and new methods. HE focuses on the ones he's been sucessful with. When I say in depth I mean it. The guy must have been an engineer in some time of his life. Best book I've read so far. I have over 60 gardening books in my personal library, but if I include the public library's publications I would say 150 books. I usually only copy a page or two out of a book that I found interesting and pass it on. This one I would have had to copy the whole thing. So I bought it!
34 of 45 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Self promotion overwhelms useful advice, Feb 13 2012
By flavor8.com - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How to Grow More Vegetables, Eighth Edition: (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine (Paperback)
If you enjoy reading a book where the author's company's core technique is repeated in CAPITAL LETTERS two or three times every page, then this book is for you.
The book does contain some useful information, but it's infuriating to read; almost every page has the phrase GROW BIOINTENSIVE multiple times in all caps. The copy editing is sub par; there are many misspellings - GROW BIOINTENSIVE is even spelled incorrectly on at least one occasion. Aside from the numerous references to GROW BIOINTENSIVE, the author frequently refers to his company, and his other publications; for example: "Calorie and sustainable soil fertility min-farming and gardening is the next step, which needs to be catalyzed by each one of us. Ecology Action publications Once Circle, The Sustainable Vegetable Garden, and the Self-Teaching Mini-Series Booklets, 14, 15, 25, 26, 28, 34, 35 and 36 deal with growing a complete diet."
To add insult to injury, the book is written as if to a reader with ADHD. Frequently a paragraph will rehash the same information that was in the previous paragraph. There are entire half pages of fluff.
Author(s), if you are reading this, please remove ALL mentions of GROW BIOINTENSIVE (except in a prologue or epilogue); please remove all references to other Ecology Action publications (except, perhaps in footnotes); and tighten up the text (you can lose easily 50 pages).
In summary, I recommend against buying this book. There are better books focused on the techniques covered here, without attempting to give you the hard sell.