Book Review, Part 3: “Gardening When It Counts – Growing Food In Hard times”

A continuing of review and commentary on the book, “Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)” by Steve Solomon

Chapter 3 – Tools and tasks: If Mr. Solomon’s book title and his first two

Photo Credit: Marc Smith

chapters left you with the slightest doubt about his seriousness concerning gardening in hard times then his ‘Chapter 3’ on tools and tasks will dispel that doubt.  His first section begins:

• “The basic three and a file – To handle a garden up to a quarter acre (1,000 square meters) in size, if are minimally fit (I said “minimally fit”; I did not say male nor did I say huge), only four tools are essential: an ordinary combination shovel, a common hoe, a bow rake, and a 10- to 12-inch long (25- to 30 centimeter) metal file (with handle) to periodically sharpen the  shovel and hoe. … “
• “Please do not buy cheap discount store tools. If you are what Australians call ’skint’ (broke). You will do better pawing through secondhand shops until you find good ones. Where can you find quality new tools? I suggest a visit to a commercial hardware store, landscapers or nursery supply company, or contractor’s supply store and inspect what they sell to trades people. … Quality tools aren’t cheap, but they work out to be the least costly in the long run.”

PH Comment: Here we would add a fifth tool; a “file card” to clean the file’s grooves after use each use and before a coat of oil is applied to prevent rust in- between filings. Also, consider -since there are only four basic tools- having a reliable back-up for each of these important four. Too, the standard “T” rake works very well for us in place of the bow rake (later in the book, Mr. Solomon acknowledges “I could do it with a “T” rake …”) and is easier to find.

Each of these ‘basic three and a file’ are discussed thoroughly, including their application, from the beginning with ’How to start a new garden” through  several types of gardens, including ’Raised beds and raised rows’ and ’Making hills’. Mr. Solomon keeps it clear, simple and workable

The author has a very special and brief section in the chapter called “Hills and survival gardening“.  Here’s just a small piece:

• Imagine this : It is spring planting time, but nothing has been dug and you urgently need to make a garden. There is sod. You have a shovel, some seeds and not much else. What do you do? Garden like the Native Americans taught us … . Don’t even consider growing any demanding vegetables. You’ll grow easy stuff: winter squash, corn, sunflowers, … tomatoes … .”
• Mr. Solomon then goes on to tell us how to prepare the soil, plant, fertilize and expand the garden under difficult conditions. Here also, he gives special attention to the potato and it’s growing.
• The balance of the chapter contains some expanded gardening instruction, tool selection, tool use and tool maintenance as well as an excellent chart on measuring soil amendments.
• There is then a section on miscellaneous tools such as the wheelbarrow, sprayer, small kitchen knife and bucket. As with the ’basic three and a file’, all are thoroughly, if briefly. discussed as to types, acquisition, use and maintenance.

Then the final section: ’Care of tools’. It’s here that the author shows us a brief glimpse of the complete gardener: “Once tools were expensive, valued, and cared for. … people have forgotten how to care for valuable tools.” Mr. Solomon reminds us of the value of tools: the value in using them well and maintaining them well especially under conditions where they might be hard to come by.

Until next time; keep your eyes on the horizon as the weathers changing fast.