Showing posts with label beginning gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beginning gardening. Show all posts

36% Off Discounts: Buy Cheap The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre Review

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre

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The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre Review

Like most of the people who buy this book, I'm interested in urban farming and the DIY ethos. So I found this book really exciting for the breadth of topics it covered. How to select a breed of beef cow? Goat? Chicken? Cool! But as I read through some of the sections covering topics I know about I was surprised how out-dated and incomplete they were, which makes me suspicious that the rest of this book is equally poorly researched.
I've been a homebrewer for 5 years, and I grow wine grapes at home. The home-brew beer recipies in this book are from 1989, and are based around buying pre-made beer kits from Coopers or Muntons. Some of the ingredients listed are archane: "Laaglander malt extract" good luck finding it, Laaglander went out of business nearly a decade ago, or "Russian Malt beverage concentrate" whatever that is, you don't need it to make good homebrew.
The wine grapes section is terribly out of date as well. The American hybrid grapes she recommends were the best varieties availible 20 years go (DeChanuc, Baco, Foch) leaving out newer varieties that are much better (Traminette, Marquette, Corot Noir). She refers to Baco, Foch, and Chardonel as European varieties which they aren't. (there's a great book on growing a back-yard vineyard if you search for that phrase)
It may seem like I'm nit-picking, but it leaves me to wonder what careless mistakes are in the sections I don't know anything about? How out-of date are the other varietal recommendations? I get the impression that she culled all of this info from old books and has little experience of her own.
I'm returning my copy.

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre Overview

Put your backyard to work! Enjoy fresher, organic, better-tasting food all the time. The solution is as close as your own backyard. Grow the vegetables and fruits your family loves; keep bees; raise chickens, goats, or even a cow. The Backyard Homestead shows you how it's done. And when the harvest is in, you'll learn how to cook, preserve, cure, brew, or pickle the fruits of your labor.From a quarter of an acre, you can harvest 1,400 eggs, 50 pounds of wheat, 60 pounds of fruit, 2,000 pounds of vegetables, 280 pounds of pork, 75 pounds of nuts.

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41% Off Discounts: Best Buy for All New Square Foot Gardening Review

All New Square Foot Gardening

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All New Square Foot Gardening Review

I've square-foot gardened for a number of years (mostly following the statutes of Mel's original book), and last season, upon moving to a new house, I made raised beds based on Mel's all-new method in this book. My thoughts almost exactly match those of reviewer S. L. Hutchison in his May 19, 2006 Amazon user review of this book entitled "Great concept but keep in mind..." It's a review worth reading.
The two things I would add to Hitchison's review are:
1. In many ways this "All New" book lacks a lot of the scope and detail of the original book. The old book seemed a bit more balanced and complete in the range of specific plants discussed, for instance. While I now follow the "rules" of this new book, I occasionally refer back to the old book for specific plant info, etc., not included in the new book. If you can buy a cheap used copy of the original book along with this new one, I don't think you'll regret it.
2. The editing on this new book was lacking. Some of the information is redundant, and some information in the planting charts is obviously incorrect--information "copied and pasted" into the wrong plant's section, etc. Nothing that will ruin your garden, but enough to leave me feeling cautious about the info. in the book as I read onward.
All in all, I like Mel's improvements to square-foot gardening, and I'm very glad he has written this book.

All New Square Foot Gardening Overview

Do you know what the best feature is in All New Square Foot Gardening?
Sure, there are ten new features in this all-new, updated book. Sure, it's even simpler than it was before. Of course, you don't have to worry about fertilizer or poor soil ever again because you'll be growing above the ground.

But, the best feature is that "anyone," "anywhere" can enjoy a Square Foot garden. Children, adults with limited mobility, even complete novices can achieve spectacular results.

But, let's get back to the ten improvements. You're going to love them.

1) New Location - Move your garden closer to your house by eliminating single-row gardening. Square Foot Garden needs just "twenty percent" of the space of a traditional garden.

2) New Direction - Locate your garden "on top" of existing soil. Forget about pH soil tests, double-digging (who enjoys that?), or the never-ending soil improvements.

3) New Soil - The new "Mel's Mix" is the perfect growing mix. Why, we even give you the recipe. Best of all, you can even "buy" the different types of compost needed.

4) New Depth - You only need to prepare a SFG box to a depth of 6 inches! It's true--the majority of plants develop just fine when grown at this depth.

5) No Fertilizer - The all new SFG does not need any fertilizer-ever! If you start with the perfect soil mix, then you don't need to add fertilizer.

6) New Boxes - The new method uses bottomless boxes placed aboveground. We show you how to build your own (with step-by-step photos).

7) New Aisles - The ideal gardening aisle width is about three to four feet. That makes it even easier to kneel, work, and harvest.

8) New Grids - Prominent and permanent grids added to your SFG box help you visualize the planting squares and know how to space for maximum harvest.

9) New Seed Saving Idea - The old-fashioned way advocates planting many seeds and then thinning the extras (that means pulling them up). The new method means planting a pinch- literally two or three seeds--per planting hole.

10) Tabletop Gardens - The new boxes are so much smaller and lighter (only 6 inches of soil, remember?), you can add a plywood bottom to make them portable.
Of course, that's not all. We've also included simple, easy-to-follow instructions using lots of photos and illustrations. You're going to love it!

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