Jul 082013
Gardening Without Irrigation: or without much, anyway
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
Price:
Weird print edition, good information,
I don’t quite get what this book is. I think it’s some transcription of some take-off on a ‘real’ book by Steve Solomon, now out of print, called Water Wise Gardening. This has typos starting on the cover, and continuing throughout, and has the feel of some vanity press book- it reminds me totally of a bootleg tape. But it’s cheap and the information is really good if you’re interested in growing a food garden without irrigation. The secret is that you need a LOT of room. I have NO room, or nearly none, so many of the spacing guidelines given for planting are not applicable, but the principles are well-explained and there are definitely some methods I can and will immediately adopt to reduce my water use in the garden.
Steve Solomon is the guru for those of us growing vegetables in the Pacific Northwest, and this reprint or whatever it is of some of his wisdom is worth the low price, for sure.
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|Its all in the preparation,
Recent changes in seasonal weather patterns have presented issues over the past few growing seasons. Rain seems to come only in the spring and fall with very little during summer months. This book was reviewed for some ideas. Two main ideas surfaced that may have application.
First regards the garden bed preparation. The author recommends and describes deep bed preparation. We’re talking feet, not inches, to get down under any existing hard pan. For many, double or triple digging to create deep beds of several feet may be intimidating. The other concerns have to deal with inverting the soil structure to get amendments deep into the bed. The deep bed preparation is where the plants are supposed to find water during dry spells as roots grow to maintain access to the water table.
Second is plant spacing. The author rightly points out that intensive gardening spacing cannot be sustained with-out adequate water and nutrients. The flip side is that not many small plot gardeners will have the space to dedicate to wider spacing. Even with wider spacing, the author recommends ‘fertigation’, or periodic foliar feedings or deep drip irrigation with nutrients.
As with all books of this nature, careful consideration of the techniques and how they can be applied is necessary.
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|Gardening without irrigation,
There is some useful information in the book. The planting information in the book is helpful if you are a new gardener
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