Chapter 7 – Compost, is essentially a chapter that explains how the home gardener can produce their own fertilizer. Here’s some of the author’s context for this home production effort:

• “… feedlot manures and composted chicken manure are widely available and seem inexpensive to most people right now, and industrial agricultural wastes like seed meals and slaughterhouse wastes are also cheap. But if present trends — peak oil, climate change, irresponsible monetary manipulation by central banks, competition over resources — result in the least desirable outcomes, then ordinary people will find it ever more difficult to afford to eat healthfully. It seems almost inevitable to me that the real (inflation-adjusted) cost of amendments is going to increase substantially. Composting is the alternative to purchasing. It allows small-scale food growers to make their own fertilizer, to manufacture “well-rotted manure” without the need to own livestock.”

And this:

• “If you can’t afford to have your food gardening efforts fall far short of your hopes, if you can’t afford to shrug off this years catastrophe and hope that it’ll be better next time …I suggest that you read this chapter more than once.”

In PH’s opinion, the author understates both the current situation and the effort you should put forth in mastering this abbreviated treatment of perhaps the key subject in hard-times gardening.

Mr. Solomon immediately moves from composting rationales to composting topics and techniques, such as: “Mulch gardening“. “Carbon to nitrogen ratios (with a great “Carbon nitrogen ratios” for additional clarity)”, “Sheet composting (We‘re working with a slight variation of the author’s stated technique here at PH.)”,”Temperature and decomposition“, to “What is this thing called compost?”. From this last topic, this: ”Composting decomposes organic materials before they are put into the soil so they become instant plant food.” and a very informative chart that provides an “Analysis of various composts”.

The author continues with a discussion of low, medium and high grade compost that is combined with a ten page presentation on “Composting procedure”. This is followed by a short treatment of “Green manure and cover crops” – along with their some of their pluses and minuses- to end the chapter.

Sandwiched in (so to speak) between ‘procedure’ and ‘cover crops’ is a small, one page topic called “Humanure”. After giving the reader an excellent reference on the subject, Mister Solomon reminds us again that this book is a serious treatment of hard-times gardening:

“If times got rough enough that I could not afford to spend a few hundred dollars each year on maintaining the gardens fertility, or if the materials to do so got so scarce that there was little choice, then we would definitely start using humanure.”

This chapter has broken down the complex subject of “compost” into a set of topics, any of which could be a book in itself, that are clear to the layman/lay-gardener and yet extensive enough to offer a short reference. It’s hard to offer praise beyond this.

Until next time; keep your eyes on the horizon as the weather’s changing fast.

Steve Solomon was/is a professional gardener and nowhere is this more apparent than in his discussion on seeds. He also continues to demonstrate his understanding of the importance of gardening in our lives and it is in this context that he presents his knowledge of seeds, saying:

“It (gardening) is life itself. It is independence. It is health for my family. And for people going through hard times, a thriving veggie garden can be the difference between painful poverty and a much more pleasant existence.”

The author begins the chapter, topically, with a presentation of “The mail order seed business”. Here he explains the seed business and the development of various seed and seed types from the point of view of the professional seedsman, the retailer and the home gardener.

With the foregoing information in mind he moves on to recommend to the home gardener, in his “Adapted to the region” section, this:
“When you purchase seeds, you have a far higher likelihood of a successful result if the supplier’s trial grounds are located in roughly the same climatic zone as your garden.”

He then continues by presenting and explaining key climates with their individual characteristics until he comes to “Who to buy from”. Here, he presents recommendations for seed buying, based on his years as a seedsman , by climate types. Here is an example for “Warm climates”:

“Park Seed Company: Virtually every variety the company offers represents the finest breeding attainable, entirely appropriate to its semi-tropical climate….It’s as good as it gets.”

Mr. Solomon then briefly discusses importing seeds and follows with his “Making seeds come up” section and intro into a series of discussions of seeding techniques. This series includes germination, watering, and thinning of your garden plants. This a serious discussion providing not just techniques but the all important “Whys”.

The author then moves on to “Growing your own” . Here he discusses topics like “Dry and wet seed “ and “Seed from hybrids” and other seed varieties (i.e., open – pollinated) with an informative chart on “Vegetables by method of pollination”.

There’s a small section in about the middle of this chapter we’d like to call particular attention to: “Saving on seed purchases”. In this little gem-of-a-section, Mr. Solomon not only tells you how to save money in buying your seed but explains the nature of the seed itself and then gives the home gardener clear and concise instructions on how to simply and inexpensively save/preserve your seeds at home. Invaluable!

Chapter 5 would rate as a valuable reference piece for the home gardener all by itself but , fortunately, it is surrounded by a lot of equally important gardening information in the preceding and successive chapters. We plan on reviewing Chapter 6 in the coming days. Stay tuned.

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

It is because of the serious nature of gardening and providing food in hard times that the author wants to provide information on the gardening center. His goal here is to aid the home gardener avoid the pitfalls and mistakes abundant in dealing with these centers. He’s very aware that most of us family gardeners get our seeds and vegetable transplants from this/these sources and with that in mind he reminds us:

“… the garden has to be given the same degree of attention that other enthusiasts give to selecting the right fishing lure, modifying their automobile, or refining their golf swing.”

Mr. Solomon begins with  the topic of “Transplants ” and by identifying some of the vegetables that are very difficult to transplant and some that transplant relatively easily.

He continues his presentation by discussing the problems of seedling mislabeling and poor variety choices along with what to look for when choosing seedlings for transplant. By way of further guidance he offers this; “… make sure you can trust the seller.”
The author then moves on to the topic of growing your own seedlings and presents an easy way to do so; beginning with having the right soil for growing seedlings and then proceeding on with how to use it in various containers.
Fertilizer for seedlings comes next, in a careful discussion combined with recommendations  that include the all-important “whys and how’s”. Here’s a brief example concerning the use of coffee grounds:

“Used coffee grounds are a seed meal that hot water has been passed through. Judging by how coffee makes leap forward, I would reckon the grounds to be about half as strong as chicken manure. … They could also be put in a compost heap in place of chicken manure.”

“The garden center seedrack” gets its own section with this critical seed-choice guideline: “… I learned that every product or service could be compared to a three-legged stool with the legs being price, quality, and service. If lowered one leg, you had to lower the others accordingly or the stool tilted…”.
Commercial quality seed is discussed as well in this chapter along with the critically important aspect of vigor. These areas of discussion are enhanced with an excellent two-page “Germination standards” chart that shows a number of common garden seeds with their germination standards/rates from the USDA, a high quality seedsman, and commercial quality seeds. Also presented is a column that gives seed-storage longevity graded in years.
Lastly, “Regionality” is presented as an important aspect in seed choice that allows the home/family gardener another way to improve gardening results.

PrudentHome Comments: Mr. Solomon’s Chapter 4 reminds us, directly and indirectly:

1. Choose your garden seeds from a regional seedsman or one with a climate that is similar to yours.
2. One of your gardening reference BOOKS should be geared to gardening in your climate and your micro-climate if possible.
3. The serious gardener/food producer must keep good records. Like all long-term sustainability: it has to begin, operate, and end with a pencil and a notebook.

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

Note: You can read the first part of our review here.

‘Continued Review’: Chapter 2 – Basics

The really smartest teachers and instructors begin their class with the assumption that the students know little or nothing about the subject matter that’s going to be presented and they begin from the beginning.  Mr. Solomon begins his class the same way in his Chapter 2 – Basics:

• The author notes that vegetable plants are very much the product of human development and as such require an environment that is highly favorable to their development with sunlight, shelter, water, fertilizer and little competition from other (wild) plants or animals.
• “ … heirloom varieties, bred before the use of chemical fertilizers, are especially good at growing in ordinary soil.”
• Mr. Solomon breaks down vegetables, by name, in a chart according to the level of care needed to have them productive: Low Demand (carrots and turnip greens), Medium Demand (sweet corn and tomatoes), and High Demand (cauliflower and Italian broccoli).
• He points out that soils are richest where rainfall is just sufficient and therefore plants, animals and people are healthiest when growing in/on/from these soils. His example is prairie soil.
• The author continues by describing and defining a complete organic fertilizer (COF) he has developed, which along with compost  will provide optimum plant nutrition. He describes it as a “… concocted by the gardener.”
• On page 24, Mr. Solomon offers a key reason for growing your own vegetables: “… a comparison of nutritional tables published by the USDA over the past 25 years (covered in the March 2001 issue of Life Extension Magazine) shows that the average nutritional content of vegetables has also declined about 25 to 33 percent across the board — all vegetables, all vitamins and minerals. …”
• An excellent chart of “Fertilizing values of manures and simple fertilizers” is presented on page 28 and is sandwiched in between informed commentary on variables for the listed values with  suggested uses in/for your garden. Here it is also noted that the healthiest animals with the soundest nutrition provide the most valuable manure.
• In his section on Increasing soil fertility, Mr. Solomon shines by speaking to a broad economic range of readers and enabling almost anyone to improve their soil in a step-by-step program.
• His last chart in Chapter 2  is “Soil improvement in a nutshell”. This chart discusses soil improvement in terms of the demands placed on the soil by the types of vegetables to be grown in it: Low demand, Medium Demand, and High Demand. Preceding and subsequent pages of the chapter discuss soil improvement with clarity by presenting definitions, examples, and usages/applications.
• In his chapter Summary, Mr. Solomon says, “This chapter has provided the bare minimum of information and some basic techniques. If you knew nothing more than this, and if you spread some manure and lime (or, better, manure and COF), dug the ground once a year, followed the vague instructions on the back of seed packets, put in some seedling and a few seeds, hoed the weeds, and did a bit of thinning, you would have a productive garden.” — He’s absolutely right.

Chapter 1 and 2 alone should give the idea that Mr. Solomon’s book isn’t just a good gardening book but an excellent gardening “reference book” also. It is and we’ll be continuing our review and discussion of subsequent chapters shortly.

Until a little later; keep your eyes on the horizon as the weathers changing fast.

Chapter I, con’t: “Size of your garden”

• “As a rough gauge, take the 2,00-square foot wartime allotment plot in the United Kingdom. Britain’s cool and frequently cloudy summers mean that most vegetables grow more slowly than they usually do in the United States or southern Canada. But on the plus side, the mild English winters allow gardeners in many areas to harvest frost-hardy crops year-round. The wartime British were not expected to make a complete family diet pot of 2,700 square feet of vegetables. Their staff of life was bread from the local baker. … Probably during the war years vegetables, including potatoes, did not make make up more than a third of the family’s total caloric intake.”
• “ … If your goal is to produce not half, but nearly all the calories and nutrition needed year-round, and your family can depend on the ordinary potato as their healthful staff of life, then you can add more land in order to produce sacks and sacks of nutritious spuds or sweet potatoes. … The good thing about potatoes is that working plots of this scale (from 500 t0 750 square feet per each adult depending on water conditions/SS) can be done entirely with hand tools. To produce the same amount of nutrition by growing cereal grains would require five to ten times as much land per person. The healthful potato is really the thing for getting through hard times.”

PH Comments: We are in strong agreement with Mr. Solomon in his comments regarding the nutritional value found in both Irish and sweet potatoes (and recommend growing both where possible) but again we part company as regards his method of gardening requiring relatively large amounts of land.

Based on our own experience, our observation that the average homeowner/gardener in America has significantly less land to work with than Mr. Solomon proposes,  and at least two major gardening methods that require relatively little land and have proved reliable/productive here and around the world: we support/advocate the more intensive gardening systems found in John Jevons’ “ ‘How To Grow More Vegetables’ “ and Mel Bartholomew’s “Square foot Gardening”.

We plan to continue reviewing Mr. Solomon’s excellent book (and to continue commenting where we think appropriate) coming up as he has produced a wealth of gardening information and insights for dealing with gardening in hard times.

Until a little later then: keep your eyes on the horizon as the weathers changing fast.

An Apology: We have missed a full week “plus” of posts due to illness within our family. Our health concerns seem to be diminishing with this brief time in treatment and we hope to have all well and about soon.

We have just a couple of post’s planned for this week with a full schedule beginning the next week. Thank you for your understanding.

Continuing Book Review – “ ’Gardening When it Counts’ “ by Steve Solomon: Introduction/Chapter I-  con’t:

“The coming hard times”

• “We are soon going to base our civilization on something other than oil … or else we aren’t going to have much of a civilization left. Soon, everything made with oil is going to cost a lot more; gasoline, food, clothing, transportation, heating of houses, etc. And after that, if oil is still the basis for almost everything we do, then everything is going to cost even more.”
• “… those practicing raised-bed intensive methods will discover that intensive use of land requires large quantities of water, manure/compost, and fertilizer.’
• “Water has become scarce in many places. … watersheds are becoming ever more degraded, lessening the recharge of groundwater.”
• “Chemical fertilizers and many organic ones too, are made with petroleum or natural gas, so they are going to become more expensive.”
• “This book is for people who must have a good result.”
• “The successful home gardener must start with strong seeds and truly healthy transplants of varieties that are dependable and productive.”
• “Actually, to veggie garden successfully you only need a few hand tools, used properly.”

PH Comments: We agree with most of Mr. Solomon’s statements. We sincerely question his observations/conclusions however regarding the use of raised/intensive planting beds as requiring “large quantities“ (what are “large quantities” here and how does that square with these intensive techniques being taught/used successfully in some of the most difficult terrain, climate and poorest countries in the world? – Check out and follow up on some of this work being done via Bountiful Gardens catalog) of  “…water, manure/compost, and fertilizer.”

Again, we are going over Chapter I carefully to establish where Mr. Solomon is coming from in his observations and conclusions. There’s plenty of room, in our view, for honest yet differing opinions as to what might work well or best in particular situations. We have an open mind.

Until next time; keep your eyes on the horizon as the weather’s changing fast.

Just In Case by Kathy Harrison

Two suggestions seem appropriate before beginning to read Kathy Harrison’s book:

1. Begin reading her book by reading the Epilogue first and you’ll then be a reader who is assured from the beginning that the author clearly understands the world context in which her book is written
2. Read the whole book. Not just the sections or chapters you have immediate interest in as this text has great value for family preparedness throughout.

An appropriate analogy for reviewing this book might be that of a river journey. The river itself is the world in which we live. The family is our boat and it is propelled by OAR; a preparedness system. The boat’s compass, manifest, and ships log is enclosed in The Preparedness Notebook. Our map will be the four-part table of contents which gives us directions to final destination: family preparedness.

Our journey begins by establishing The Preparedness Notebook. Kathy describes it as “The most valuable tool you can have for assessing your needs … a dedicated preparedness notebook. Hers is a “ … three ring binder divided into categories such as food, home systems …first-aid … and evacuation kits. ” Each section contains “… a list of items my family needs; the lists make up an inventory of what I have on hand and what I need to locate. I also have a section dedicated to skills I want to have such as canning food, CPR, …”

The map, the four-part table of contents, provides for four essential stops along the journey:

1.The OAR System (Organize, Acquire and Rotate),

2. Preparedness (Getting Your home And Family Ready To Handle Crisis) covering Personal Preparedness through Evacuation,

3. Dealing With Disaster (What To Do In An Emergency) covering Loss of Power through Terrorism

4. Doing It Yourself (The Arts Of Self-Sufficiency) covering Skills for Independence through The Stored Food Cookbook.

Each part of the table contains from two to seven chapters of important/vital preparedness information.

We’ll discuss only Part 1 as the OAR System is our brief example because it is the propulsion system for our journey. OAR is the acronym for Organize, Acquire and Rotate.

It is essentially “… the process of organizing, acquiring, and rotating supplies.” It is organizing that permit’s the determination of what one already has and what future needs might be. This is done via The preparedness Notebook enabling the acquisition of future supplies to be done in a systematic and orderly way.

Rotation refers primarily to using the oldest items first ( a first-in-first-out/FIFO system) especially where expendables, such as food and water, are concerned. Suggested items for a number of “Kits” ( first-aid, sewing, etc ) are provided as well as lists for essential supplies (laundry, kitchen, etc.).

The OAR System allows for the customizing of family preparedness to meet the unique needs of your family.

Kathy describes the goal of preparedness this way “…taking care of the family in good times and bad is what preparedness is all about.” We couldn’t agree more.

‘Just In Case’ is a family preparedness book designed and written with the welfare of the family in mind. With financial crisis, wars, and pandemics on the horizon, this comprehensive text is a “must have” for families today.

This book review was accessed thru Energy Bulletin (energybulletin.net) from it’s 3/14/09 Food & agriculture section. The review itself was found at transitionculture.org, 3/11/09.  John Jeavons’  How to Grow More Vegetables is perhaps “The Book” when one talks about  the Sustainable family vegetable garden. PrudentHome has recommended it since we began.

The reviewer begins by acknowledging that How to Grow More Vegetables isn’t a new book but notes that it is one of such  stature that it “… might lay claim to being one of the greatest gardening books of all time.” (We believe that is certainly, at least, one of the greatest!)

Continuing, the review notes that the book “…sets out to teach you to do exactly what the title suggests.”  and the definition of it’s biointensive method of food production supports it’s avowed aim: “The ‘biointensive’ method is an organic agricultural system which focuses on maximum yields from the minimum area of land, while simultaneously improving the soil. The goal of the method is long term sustainability on a closed system basis. It has also been used successfully on small scale commercial farms.”

TIP: Lehman’s has a complete line of canning and preserving equipment for all your needs. Click here to view their selection.

The reviewer points to the biointensive method’s split with the past practices of digging and fertilizing large spaces for gardens (row gardening) which included the fertilizing (and watering) of the paths between rows which allowed access to the plants. The paths themselves then required maintenance such as weeding.

A key element in the biointensive method is compost. The book gives excellent instruction in the development and use of this nutrient-rich soil amendment.

The review focuses in on the book’s argument “… that the key aspects of biointensive food production are deep bed preparation, composting, close plant spacing, companion planting, the use of open pollinated seeds, and taking a whole system approach.”

In conclusion, the review points to John Jeavons application of “…the biointebsive concept to what he calls ‘mini-farming’. This is the growing of a range of grains and pulses, on the same system. In ‘How to Grow’…, Jeavons argues that if the U.S. were to convert all the land it currently dedicates to lawns to biointensive food production, something like 97% of the landscape could be returned to natural systems and wilderness.”

Prudent Home would like to point out that in our view the biointensive  method/system is one of low cost, low technology and low effort combined with discreet use of the resources of land, fertilizer/compost, and water to produce a maximum sustainable yield of food from the garden. It doesn’t get much better than this.

If you don’t have a copy of  How to Grow More Vegetables may we suggest that you just click on any of  How to Grow More Vegetables links in this article and order a copy for your family. Also, don’t forget to follow up and let us know what you think of Jeavons’ book.

Until the end of the week, keep your eyes on the horizon as the weather’s changing fast.