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Growing Good Food: A Citizen's Guide to Backyard Farming
Growing Good Food is a beginner’s guide to growing your own herbs, fruits, and vegetables using organic and sustainable practices. It’s for home gardeners who want to raise food on their own patch of soil—all while cultivating a microbe-rich, carbon-sucking, regenerative foodscape.
Acadia Tucker, a regenerative farmer, gardener, and climate activist, invites us to think of gardening as civic action. By building organically-rich soil, even in a backyard, we can capture greenhouse gases, all while growing nutritious food.
To help us get started, Tucker drafts plans for gardeners who have a little ground or a lot of it. She offers advice on how to prep and clear land, cultivate healthy soil, plant food from seeds, fend off pests and disease, and grow 21 popular perennials and annuals, including fruit trees, herbs, strawberries, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, garlic, beans, peas, and potatoes.
Tucker also describes the climate changes taking place in our own backyards, and the various steps we can take to boost a garden’s resilience.
Growing Good Food includes calls to action and insights from leaders in the regenerative growing movement, including David Montgomery, Anne Biklé, Gabe Brown, Wendell Berry and Mary Berry, and Tim LaSalle. By the end of this book, you'll know how to grow some really good food, and build a healthier world, too.
"Acadia Tucker tells us that what we do matters and if we have access to any piece of ground we can start addressing climate change. My father, Wendell Berry, says that this kind of work is radical now, when public attention is focused on global solutions. This work is what people are for.”
-Mary Berry, New Castle, Kentucky
Acadia Tucker, a regenerative farmer, gardener, and climate activist, invites us to think of gardening as civic action. By building organically-rich soil, even in a backyard, we can capture greenhouse gases, all while growing nutritious food.
To help us get started, Tucker drafts plans for gardeners who have a little ground or a lot of it. She offers advice on how to prep and clear land, cultivate healthy soil, plant food from seeds, fend off pests and disease, and grow 21 popular perennials and annuals, including fruit trees, herbs, strawberries, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, garlic, beans, peas, and potatoes.
Tucker also describes the climate changes taking place in our own backyards, and the various steps we can take to boost a garden’s resilience.
Growing Good Food includes calls to action and insights from leaders in the regenerative growing movement, including David Montgomery, Anne Biklé, Gabe Brown, Wendell Berry and Mary Berry, and Tim LaSalle. By the end of this book, you'll know how to grow some really good food, and build a healthier world, too.
"Acadia Tucker tells us that what we do matters and if we have access to any piece of ground we can start addressing climate change. My father, Wendell Berry, says that this kind of work is radical now, when public attention is focused on global solutions. This work is what people are for.”
-Mary Berry, New Castle, Kentucky
159 pages, Paperback
First published October 31, 2019
11 people are currently reading
1820 people want to read
About the author
Acadia Tucker
3 books67 followersAcadia Tucker is a regenerative farmer, climate activist, and author. She has just published Growing Perennial Foods: A field guide to raising resilient herbs, fruits & vegetables. It’s a call to action to citizen gardeners everywhere, and lay the groundwork for planting an organic, regenerative garden. For her, this is gardening as if our future depends on it. Before becoming an author, Acadia started a four-season organic market garden in Washington State inspired by farming pioneers Eliot Coleman and Jean-Martin Fortier. While managing the farm, Acadia grew 200 different food crops before heading back to school at the University of British Columbia to complete a Masters in Land and Water Systems. She lives in Maine and New Hampshire with her farm dog, Nimbus, and grows hops to support locally sourced craft beer in New England, when she isn't raising perennials in her own backyard. She is also the author of Growing Good Food: A citizen’s guide to backyard carbon farming.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 14, 2020
Your own personal Climate Victory Garden can suck tons of carbon out of the air and store it in the soil and in the bodies of plants, animals, and all the other kingdoms. This is carbon storage, not carbon sequestration, because all those carbon atoms are still part of the carbon cycle; but the actions of each gardener can keep carbon in the carbohydrate step of the cycle for years or centuries, instead of sending them to the landfill, where they will undergo anaerobic decomposition and turn into methane.
Eating fresh tomatoes from your garden is also good. Tucker talks a bit about how to do both, producing tomatoes out of the soil while still driving carbon into the soil.
Eating fresh tomatoes from your garden is also good. Tucker talks a bit about how to do both, producing tomatoes out of the soil while still driving carbon into the soil.
March 16, 2021
I am a beginner gardener and this book is perfect for people like me. Tucker gives lots of tips from soil, the best plants to grow, composting, and just how to start your garden. I love the idea of an environment victory garden and learned how important such a garden can be for the environment. I would recommend this book to anyone considering growing plants for eating. The book will make you wish for spring!
February 7, 2021
In this book, Acadia weaves her personal narrative as a regenerative farmer into a handbook for the everyday person. Growing Good Food provides a holistic birds-eye view of climate victory gardening and regenerative agriculture, and is a great guide for both amateur and avid gardeners alike. If you are a beginning gardener looking for a climate-friendly approach to growing your own food, Acadia discusses these principles in a digestible, but not watered-down way! I'm a home gardener with a background in plant and soil science and learned new things from this book, including how climate change is specifically affecting farmers in each region of the US. For only being 150 pages, this book is chock-full of practical tips, compelling statistics, and informational tables, and is a great place to begin your climate victory gardening journey.
October 9, 2019
The perfect mix between storytelling and helpful information! The reader gets a view into Acadia's journey as a farmer, and how the ups and downs enriched her knowledge and as well as inspired her to understand the world of plants. The writing is easy to follow and informative, with helpful illustrations to clarify any tough spots. I work on a small farm part-time, I'm excited to share this book with the owner and see if there are any changes to make. The emphasis on world of soil is particularly exciting, as something that is often left out of gardening books. Great read!
October 12, 2019
Acadia Tucker has done it again. This book is expertly written, and shares an important message. Her steps to gardening are approachable for gardeners of all levels. Tucker not only shares how to grow gardens, but also why we should grow them. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn how to grow a variety of produce and for those who care about taking steps to mitigate climate change. This book is also beautifully illustrated and would be a thoughtful gift for garden lovers!
October 17, 2019
You'll have a new appreciation for the life beneath your feet and its remarkable potential to suck carbon out of the air. Acadia weaves together charming anecdotes, climate science, and practical advice for starting a garden (lots of trouble-shooting questions answered!). When the scale of our climate crisis brings hopeless thoughts, Acadia reminds us that we have the soil around us and that *regenerative* gardening is a powerful act! This book needs to be shared with anyone who has a backyard.
October 10, 2019
Acadia’s view of helping the future of us all is absolutely astounding. She possesses a clear map of the way each of us can help to make our environment better with the little things we can do.Imagine if all of us tried? Way to go Acadia Tucker!
October 25, 2021
An excellent entry-level book on backyard carbon farming. Tucker’s main arguments center around improving the soil through composting, disturbing the soil as little as possible once it is established, and planting deep-rooted perennials. My primary qualm with the text is that much of the carbon farming insights could have been summarized in 2-3 blog posts, and the practical tips for composting, planting, and maintaining your plants organically can be found elsewhere in similar or greater detail (see, for instance, The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible). I love the concept of the book, and I adore the art, but as someone who is already gardening and composting, I wanted more details about the science and practice of carbon farming—not just entry-level tips.
Folks looking for a practical beginner’s guide will love this book, however—and it’s clear that Climate Victory Gardens are a key way forward for everyday climate activism!
Folks looking for a practical beginner’s guide will love this book, however—and it’s clear that Climate Victory Gardens are a key way forward for everyday climate activism!
November 4, 2019
This is a great, informative book. I like her other book too. They are already helping me avoid the inconsistent results I have gotten in my kitchen garden. I feel better informed about what I have done wrong and what I can do to manage my soil.
March 18, 2022
This was okay. I got the principle of it, but I have a lot of specific questions about this method as it relates to clay soil and the book did not address that.
September 29, 2019
I bought Acadia's last book, Growing Perrenial Foods, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I use it as a reference guide for my own garden and also homegrown food inspiration. I can't wait to get a copy of this latest book.
September 29, 2019
Important information!! Written by a smart, funny, intelligent, hardworking woman. I always guide folks to start small and then you can grow with your gardens. This is a perfect place to start. <3 this book!
September 30, 2019
Everything that Acadia writes is thoughtful, inspiring and useful. Don't miss this one. It's a "keeper".
February 6, 2021
Inspirational and very informative! I learned so much about how to cultivate healthy soil and its positive impact on the planet. As a beginner gardener, this book was easy to read and filled with practical advice for understanding how to plan my garden and keep it alive.
June 22, 2020
I'm a big fan of Acadia's writing! Overall, it's a wonderful and important guide with specifics on which delicious plants to grow and detailed charts, on everything from soil preparation to any challenges you may encounter along the way. But more importantly, this book offers compelling evidence, hope and a pathway to solving our environmental crisis by using our own small back yards to "grow good food". Acadia is instructive about soil healing and the virtues of growing specific plants vs. others, and truly convincing about the dramatic difference it makes in drawing carbon out of the atmosphere, as well as the cumulative and overwhelmingly positive effects of many of us "growing good food" in our own separate yards. I'm hooked on this book and plan to give several copies away as holiday gifts to friends and family who want to help our environmental crisis, especially if they enjoy gardening
January 9, 2020
Incredibly readable and very useful for beginning gardeners who want to eat well and make an impact!
February 18, 2020
Good foundational primer.
February 19, 2020
Most people are familiar with WWII Victory Gardens where the government encouraged citizens to grow their own food so that more food could be sent overseas to our troops. Acadia Tucker has the idea for citizens to grow their own Climate Victory Garden to help the land absorb more carbon dioxide which helps with climate change. I would also add that whatever your motivation growing your own food is fun and empowering - and you KNOW where your food comes from and don't have to worry about the next lettuce recall if you're growing your own. In this short, but information-packed book, Tucker gives tips on starting your own garden in whatever available space you have. There is a large section in the book with suggested perennial vegetables and some popular annuals like squash and cucumbers. Throughout the book there are lots of charts, drawings, and other inserts to help you plan out and benefit from your own backyard garden. This is a great book for a beginner, but also has a lot to offer a more experienced gardener as well.
A quote I liked:
"Researchers at the Rodale Institute calculated that replacing conventional farming practices around the world with regenerative ones would allow us to sequester 100 percent of annual global carbon emissions." (p. 4)
A quote I liked:
"Researchers at the Rodale Institute calculated that replacing conventional farming practices around the world with regenerative ones would allow us to sequester 100 percent of annual global carbon emissions." (p. 4)
August 2, 2021
Such a comprehensive, informative guide to growing food! Acadia Tucker is a wonderful writer, and she weaves her own anecdotes beautifully in with a breakdown of how to start growing your own food--both for the climate, and for yourself. Tucker anticipates a lot of the questions readers may have and answers them right in the text, like how can I know what will grow well where I live? This attention to detail shows real care, and I appreciated it. I also loved how she breaks down every food so that you know what's right for you: where different plants thrive, the amount of sun they need, when and how to plant them, and any challenges you might expect. It's everything you'll ever want to know about beginning to garden. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to start their gardening journey, those who want to start a climate victory garden, and anyone in between! A wonderfully informative read.
May 30, 2022
I love this book! It’s well organized and easy to read; the concepts and science behind them are made accessible to anyone interested in starting a climate victory garden. Tucker empowers her readers, demonstrating how small actions can make a big difference. The book is filled with enlightening testimonials, helpful graphics, answers to FAQs, and plenty of convenient charts (e.g., perennial and annual plant characteristics, how to grow and harvest a variety of specific plants, and organic pest solutions). There’s even a guide for which tools to use and a seasonal checklist! You can really choose your own agricultural adventure and make an impact with “Growing Good Food.”
January 2, 2024
If you want a book about simple regenerative gardening, this isn’t it. If you want a book filled with climate change propaganda, this is it.
As a small farm owner, I was really excited to further my reading about regenerative gardening. In the first chapter the author tells about how she returned to school for her graduate degree in land and water management. She then pushes climate change and carbon stock propaganda throughout the rest of the book.
If you’re looking for a book about regenerative gardening to improve your soil I would recommend ‘Dirt to Soil’ by Gabe Brown. Lots of useful information without the brainwashing/gaslighting propaganda.
As a small farm owner, I was really excited to further my reading about regenerative gardening. In the first chapter the author tells about how she returned to school for her graduate degree in land and water management. She then pushes climate change and carbon stock propaganda throughout the rest of the book.
If you’re looking for a book about regenerative gardening to improve your soil I would recommend ‘Dirt to Soil’ by Gabe Brown. Lots of useful information without the brainwashing/gaslighting propaganda.
May 1, 2021
Wonderfully practical and enjoyable to read. I’m going to buy a copy for my gardening shelf(this one is from the library).
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews