Grow More Food

December 6, 2021
“As your knowledge and experience grow, so will your yields,” write McCrate and Halm, owners of the Seattle Urban Farm Company, in their handy debut guide to growing one’s own vegerables. Their approach is centered on treating a backyard garden like a “small-scale farm,” and they kick things off with a discussion of planning and record-keeping (featuring tricks for picking the best site and an exercise to write down one’s “growing priorities”), followed by a section on maximizing soil health, which includes a guide to interpreting soil test results and fixing common problems. Then comes a chapter on seeds; a section with tips for creating “efficient systems” that achieve adequate lighting, water, and humidity in a home nursery; and a final chapter that offers suggestions for extending the growing season, harvesting, and storage. Though the authors apply the seriousness of professional growers, they don’t lay on too much pressure: “Gardening is fraught with challenges. It will make you lose your mind if you don’t take a step back... and laugh at the whole process.” Backyard gardeners looking to bring crops into their kitchen need look no further.

February 1, 2022
There are many motivations for gardening, and for some, that motivation is to grow as much food as possible in the space they have available. This book is designed for those gardeners. To serve this goal, the authors (whose combined experience in community-supported agriculture and the tech sector are unmistakable) have created a system composed of a variety of component systems in which the gardener can plan every detail and consider all possible factors in the attempt to maximize edible output. Readers who are familiar with optimization techniques in other contexts will find plenty familiar here, including resource inventories, ongoing evaluation, logging and documentation, and many reminders that efficiency and productivity are at the fore. In a time when many are coping with the effects of supply-chain disruption and a distrust of things they do not personally control, this approach may strike a chord. Readers less interested in optimizing may wish to skip to the informational charts and lists, which have good information about plants, soil, and seeds.

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