Sustainable Food Gardens: Myths and Solutions

"[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.

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.