| Pages: | 486 pages |
| Book Art: | Full-color illustrations throughout; 453 illustrations total |
| Size: | 8.5 x 11 inch |
| Publisher: | Metamorphic Press |
| Pub. Date: | October 15, 2021 |
| ISBN: | 9780961584887 |
Sustainable Food Gardens
Myths and Solutions
Paperback
Original price was: $69.95.$45.47Current price is: $45.47.
“[A] tome that holds the secrets to science-based organic and sustainable food crops. It joins a handful of essential books on the topic, and delves deeper and in more granular detail into the process of gardening with nature than any other book I know of.”—Jeff Cox, author of From Vines to Wines and The Organic Cook’s Bible, and contributing editor of Horticulture magazine
Dismantle your gardening myths. Grow a garden grounded in fact.
Edible landscaping pioneer Robert Kourik deftly guides the reader through the mysteries of growing plants and designing landscapes in temperate climates and suburbs, and the use of all-natural, sustainable methods to grow and maintain a healthy variety of plants.
Would you like to garden without digging, composting, buying fertilizers, spraying with pesticides, or lamenting low yields?
If so, Sustainable Food Gardening is the book you’ve been waiting for, with over 450 pages, 13 chapters, and 487 color photos, illustrations, charts, and graphs. Author Robert Kourik began his career in natural landscape design and maintenance in 1974, with one of the first sustainably oriented organic gardening businesses in the country.
In Sustainable Food Gardening, you’ll learn to:
- Design your own “edible landscapes.”
- Use no-till techniques to preserve the integrity of your soil
- Adapt your growing space to fit into a wide range of USDA garden zones
- Review alternative ways to change “guilds’ (well-intended clusters of trees and shrubs jumbled together) to more effective and labor-saving plantings.
- Grow new kinds of beautiful and productive Victory gardens
- Plant Native American “Three-Sisters” gardens that actually work
- Learn many myths about roots, and what to do to help them thrive
- Attract many beneficial insects to your garden with strategic flower plantings
Here are some of the other topics covered in depth:
- Rainwater catchment/cisterns.
- Hügelkulturs (do you really need raised garden beds filled with rotten wood?).
- Options for better, faster ways to maximize and improve soil.
- “Dynamic accumulation”—a myth with some useful guidelines.
- Avoiding hours of tree-pruning and encouraging fruiting with a few dozen clothespins.
- Clever ways to install and simplify drip irrigation
- Using plants to lure good insects that prey upon pests.
- Promoting beneficial soil life.
- Adding food crops to a native-looking landscape.
In Sustainable Food Gardening you’ll learn how to achieve that Holy Grail of gardening—productivity, tasty food, and a beautiful, sustainable garden, yard, or landscape.
Reviews and Praise
"Robert Kourik's gardening expertise is renowned, his enthusiasm infectious. In Sustainable Food Gardens, he demonstrates the endless opportunities, joy, and fulfillment that are available to us when we reunite with our food systems and the earth."—Paul Hawken, author of Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation
More Reviews and Praise
"If you're a novice, this book will explain everything you need to know. If you're a practicing permaculturist, it will make you question what you thought you knew! With his science-based approach, Robert Kourik busts myths that have been part of sustainable-gardening dogma for years."—Amy Campion, co-author of Gardening in the Pacific Northwest: The Complete Homeowner's Guide
"Robert’s practical solutions to common garden problems are accompanied by detailed charts, graphs, and illustrations based on science, but presented in ways that are useful to the lay gardener. His discussions of soil, fertilizers, companion planting, container gardening, and insects are some of the most complete I’ve read."—Jere Gettle, founder and owner of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
"It’s not hard to find garden advice: ask anyone who has done some gardening, and they will certainly have 'facts' to share. It is less common to find sources for these facts, backed by science and distinct from myths and superstitions. Prolific garden writer Kourik notes that he has not always cited his sources and uses this sequel to his 1986 permaculture classic Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape—Naturally to remedy that. One might expect that this more academic methodology would result in a dry text, but the author has managed to maintain his flexible, readable approach, using in-text references to the many sources he’s collected. While the facts are clear, there is still plenty of room for gardeners to use that information in the way that serves them best—lots of guidance, but no strict directives required. Illustrated primarily with hand-drawn graphics and some color photos, this guide feels almost like a gardener’s notebook, with perhaps more substance than style, but plenty of charm and valuable information."—Booklist
- "Sustainable Food Gardens is a superbly thorough and beautiful guide to growing food from annuals to perennials. Robert has done it again!!"—Matt Powers, author of Regenerative Soil
Reviews and Praise
"Robert Kourik's gardening expertise is renowned, his enthusiasm infectious. In Sustainable Food Gardens, he demonstrates the endless opportunities, joy, and fulfillment that are available to us when we reunite with our food systems and the earth."—Paul Hawken, author of Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation
"If you're a novice, this book will explain everything you need to know. If you're a practicing permaculturist, it will make you question what you thought you knew! With his science-based approach, Robert Kourik busts myths that have been part of sustainable-gardening dogma for years."—Amy Campion, co-author of Gardening in the Pacific Northwest: The Complete Homeowner's Guide
"Robert’s practical solutions to common garden problems are accompanied by detailed charts, graphs, and illustrations based on science, but presented in ways that are useful to the lay gardener. His discussions of soil, fertilizers, companion planting, container gardening, and insects are some of the most complete I’ve read."—Jere Gettle, founder and owner of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
"It’s not hard to find garden advice: ask anyone who has done some gardening, and they will certainly have 'facts' to share. It is less common to find sources for these facts, backed by science and distinct from myths and superstitions. Prolific garden writer Kourik notes that he has not always cited his sources and uses this sequel to his 1986 permaculture classic Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape—Naturally to remedy that. One might expect that this more academic methodology would result in a dry text, but the author has managed to maintain his flexible, readable approach, using in-text references to the many sources he’s collected. While the facts are clear, there is still plenty of room for gardeners to use that information in the way that serves them best—lots of guidance, but no strict directives required. Illustrated primarily with hand-drawn graphics and some color photos, this guide feels almost like a gardener’s notebook, with perhaps more substance than style, but plenty of charm and valuable information."—Booklist
- "Sustainable Food Gardens is a superbly thorough and beautiful guide to growing food from annuals to perennials. Robert has done it again!!"—Matt Powers, author of Regenerative Soil
About Robert Kourik
Robert Kourik installed his first edible landscape in 1978, and is the author of Drip Irrigation, Understanding Roots, Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape, and Lazy-Ass Gardening
In the course of his 40-plus years of first-hand experience in sustainable horticulture, he’s received many accolades. Sunset magazine described Robert’s Drip Irrigation book as “The last word on drip irrigation” and “infused with good humor.” Paul Hawken extols his work as “uncommonly valuable.” Rosalind Creasy calls Robert’s books “encyclopedic.” All of Robert’s work and writings were oriented towards sustainability long before the term became popular.
Robert’s books, articles, and essays have covered organic, natural, sustainable and integrated systems; permaculture; water conservation and drip irrigation; environmentally sound homes; and edible landscaping. His articles have appeared in national publications such as The New York Times, Garden Design Magazine, Landscape Architecture, National Gardening, Fine Gardening, Horticulture Magazine and Mother Earth News.
Books by Robert Kourik
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