Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series Book 5)

by Steve Solomon

unwanted ones. The good guys can be helped out with crop rotation and a bit of compost. I stated a few paragraphs ago that presently my own garden for two is 2,000 square feet (200 square meters) of irrigated, well-fertilized growing beds. Now I will confess in full: I have nearly two such vegetable gardens. A large section of my land is always resting — not being fertilized, not being watered, growing rough grass and clover like a pasture. The grass areas are roughly mowed a few times each summer, and all the cuttings are allowed to lie in place to decompose. The British name for this practice is a ley. Lasting three to five years, a ley rebuilds the soil’s content of organic matter and restores the biological process to a stable, healthy balance. Every four or five years, most of my vegetable beds are put to rest in grass, and the grass beds are turned over and begin to grow vegetables. For

any dictionary because I made it up. When I’d lecture, someone would always ask me if I was a vegetarian.“No,” I’d quip,“I’m a vegetableatarian. That’s a person who mostly eats mostly vegetables most of the time.” Since vegetableatarianism is my own word, it is a lot like I am — imperfect.

Here’s something you probably don’t already know about plants.The business of construction, of growth, is mainly done at night.

plant growth mainly at night.

For every 10°F (5°C) increase in temperature, the speed of growth doubles, meaning the size increases from 1 to 2, then to 4, and then 8, 16, 32, etc.When

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.

Quality tools aren’t cheap, but they work out to be the least costly in the long run.

hold the file so that the angle between the blade and the file is about 15°.Maintain that angle firmly. Do not let the file change its angle. Now stroke the file along the edge, pressing down firmly but not so hard that you lose control of the unchanging angle of the file.

cabbage seedlings from one little tray survive. Two

successes; there are so many tomatoes to pick that the

up with considerably poorer germination.

Start solanum seeds (tomato,

Start solanum seeds (tomato, pepper, eggplant) about six weeks before you’ll want to transplant. Sow the tomatoes first. When these are up and growing, start pepper and eggplant seeds.When these are up and growing in your sunny window, consider starting the hardiest cucurbits: first the zucchini and squash. A few weeks later, after outdoor conditions have become warm and settled enough to put out the tomatoes, think about starting cucumbers and melons. Cucurbits take less than two weeks from the first sowing of seeds to the move out into the garden. This schedule works nicely with one small, heated, germination cabinet.