How to Grow More Vegetables, Ninth Edition: (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land with Less Water Than You Can Imagine by John Jeavons | Goodreads
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How to Grow More Vegetables, Ninth Edition: (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land with Less Water Than You Can Imagine
by
John Jeavons
3.35 · Rating details · 17 ratings · 6 reviews
The world's leading resource on biointensive, sustainable, high-yield organic gardening is thoroughly updated throughout, with new sections on using 12 percent less water and increasing compost power.
Long before it was a trend, How to Grow More Vegetables brought backyard ecosystems to life for the home gardener by demonstrating sustainable growing methods for spectacular organic produce on a small but intensive scale. How to Grow More Vegetables has become the go-to reference for food growers at every level, whether home gardeners dedicated to nurturing backyard edibles with minimal water in maximum harmony with nature's cycles, or a small-scale commercial producer interested in optimizing soil fertility and increasing plant productivity. In the ninth edition, author John Jeavons has revised and updated each chapter, including new sections on using less water and increasing compost power. (less)
Paperback, 250 pages
Published July 25th 2017 by Ten Speed Press
Jun 07, 2017DelAnne Frazee rated it it was amazing
Shelves: reviewed
Title: How to Grow More Vegetables, and Fruits, Nuts Berries, Grains and Crops - 9th Editions
Author: John Jeavons
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Published: 7-25-2017
Pages: 264
Genre: Home & Gardening
Sub-Genre: Garden Beds
ISBN: 978-0-997123-93-7
ASIN: B01M5I294G
Reviewed For: Net Galley & the Publisher
Reviewer: DelAnne
Rating: 5 Stars
Small or big. How to make the most of the space you have. Choosing between rows and raised beds. How to prepare the soil and maintain it Whether you are a novice or expert gardener, you will want a copy of How to Grow More Vegetables in your Gardening Library. Abundant information and guides for the gardener to learn from.
My rating is 5 out of 5 stars.
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Sep 15, 2017Beth rated it liked it
Shelves: 3-early-galley-copy, home-garden
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, provided by the author and/or the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The title of this one is a bit misleading. While ONE of the end-goals of the information presented in this book is to help gardeners and small-scale farmers grow more vegetables in a small space with less water, it's certainly not presented as the main one. The main one would be: building soil health in a natural and sustainable way, to lengthen the longevity of our soils, reduce the need for artificial and harmful fertilizers and pesticides, and then, YES, to increase yields. Don't get me wrong, I found this book to be hugely informative and important. But for novice gardeners who are just getting their green thumbs in the dirt, I think a lot of this book would go over their heads - it's incredibly in-depth, scientific, and dense.
TL;DR: Great, well-researched and hugely important information, but needs a more accurate title. (less)
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May 09, 2017Dee/ bookworm rated it did not like it
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.
This book, How to Grow More Vegetables, Ninth Edition (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land with Less Water Than You Can Imagine by John Jeavons, was so filled with propaganda that it was hard to read. I sadly read about 10% and most of it was about GROW BIOINTENSIVE. I didn't get to the growing or awesomeness that the book description promised, so I cannot say definitive that it was all it claimed to be. But for me it seemed to be more about their product than actual gardening steps. (less)
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Mar 15, 2018Kali rated it it was ok
I didn’t really get much out of this book yet. The text-heavy chapters of this book are all over the place, covering history, science, and a lot of trying to convince the reader that organic farming methods are the way to go. I don’t need that convincing, so I didn’t find those sections very useful. I was really looking for practical tips to improve my gardening practices, and I feel like this book hints at them rather than providing clear blueprints. There are tons of charts with information about companion planting, spacing, and more, but they are somewhat hard to decipher. I plan to spend some more time with those to see if I can pull something useful out of this. (less)
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Mar 27, 2018RANSOM rated it liked it
Shelves: manuals, farm-and-homestead
The book has confidence in its vision and belief, and sticks to it staunchly through its broad claims and pseudoscience spiels. While the gardening method it employs seems to be viable and well-backed, the title is misleading and the book itself is by no means comprehensive, citing other publications, dead links, and its own website (quite often) for the "further reading" crucial to the method itself.
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Aug 03, 2017Melissa Dee rated it really liked it
"How to Grow” is a useful addition to the home gardener’s library. It details the science and practice of sustainable organic vegetable gardening for the dedicated amateur. I particularly found the master charts and sample plans useful, despite the limitations of my small garden.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Praise for How to Grow More Vegetables:
"Possibly the most detailed explanation of the intensive gardening method available."
—New York Times
"John's methods are nothing short of miraculous."
—Alice Waters, author, Slow Food crusader, and founder of Chez Panisse
"There are two kinds of vegetable gardeners--those who garden in beds of some kind and for whom this is the ultimate foundation book, a must-read, and an essential reference. Then there are those who don't garden in beds, for whom it's still a must-read and an essential reference. The full title...actually understates the contents. The book is about how to grow pretty nearly all your food and your garden's fertilizer on a modest amount of land."
—Carol Deppe, author of The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times
"A masterpiece."
—Alan Chadwick, master horticulturist
"Possibly the most detailed explanation of the intensive gardening method available."
—New York Times
"John's methods are nothing short of miraculous."
—Alice Waters, author, Slow Food crusader, and founder of Chez Panisse
"There are two kinds of vegetable gardeners--those who garden in beds of some kind and for whom this is the ultimate foundation book, a must-read, and an essential reference. Then there are those who don't garden in beds, for whom it's still a must-read and an essential reference. The full title...actually understates the contents. The book is about how to grow pretty nearly all your food and your garden's fertilizer on a modest amount of land."
—Carol Deppe, author of The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times
"A masterpiece."
—Alan Chadwick, master horticulturist
About the Author
JOHN JEAVONS is the director of Ecology Action, an environmental research and education organization that has been working to revolutionize small-scale food production through biointensive growing around the world since 1972. To learn more, visit growbiointensive.org.
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Showing 1-8 of 21 reviews
January 9, 2018
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
5 people found this helpful
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September 23, 2017
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
2 people found this helpful
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8th edition
March 13, 2014
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
9 people found this helpful
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On bio intensive methodFebruary 9, 2016
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
I really enjoyed the grow biointensive method and felt the book covered areas of interest for the beginning gardener. I would definitely recommend this book to someone new to gardening or a person with a year or two of experience and wanted to expand. I would not however, consider this book as a sole source for information and would encourage a person reading this book to continue to learn and to not adhere too strictly to any one gardening method. Instead I would suggest that a person try things out and experiment to see what works for them and to continue to learn, making changes when new information becomes available. Some criticism I had of the book were points of misinformation such as the use of pine needles to acidify your soil - this is a garden myth which has been disproven in recent studies. I also couldn't bring myself to double dig and substituted raised beds instead.
5 people found this helpful
CommentFebruary 29, 2012
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
If you are interested in the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method, this book is for you. If you want to live a totally self-sufficient lifestyle in which you have to bring no materials in from outside to improve the soil, this book is for you. What it is NOT is a general information book about growing vegetables. The book assumes that the reader desires to live self-sufficiently and directs the reader to grow all the carbon materials necessary to produce all the compost required for the plot. Nitrogen-fixing cover crops and manure from your own animals provide all the nitrogen needed. There is some useful information, but there's a lot more that is very specific to the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method.
12 people found this helpful
CommentMarch 4, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition
This method of growing food is well thought out after decades of carefully recorded experiments and getting the best ideas from dozens of countries. If you don't want to go hungry, this is a far better methodology than permaculture, though certainly you should go ahead with permaculture principles, but these can take over 10 years or more to actually implement. Figuring out crop rotation and other components is also fun, it makes farming far more interesting. If you get a chance, try to take the biointensive workshop, it will inspire you!
July 20, 2012
Format: Paperback
In this book Jeavons covers the Grow Biointensive method. This is a raised bed technique that focuses on sustainable practices such as composting, seed saving and using closely spaced crops. This book is in its umpteenth revision, and with each revision it gets a little bit better because Jeavons keeps incorporating new information.
This is an excellent book to teach you the ideas behind sustainable and intensive agriculture.
The one place where the method falls down, in my opinion, is that it is designed really for the developing world. That is, many of the techniques such as continually transplanting seedlings are designed for people with a lot of time, and that may not work well for busy people.
But despite that one criticism, this is really an excellent and comprehensive book full of well-researched data. Everyone who gardens should not only have this book in the bookshelf, but should take it off the shelf and read it.
This is an excellent book to teach you the ideas behind sustainable and intensive agriculture.
The one place where the method falls down, in my opinion, is that it is designed really for the developing world. That is, many of the techniques such as continually transplanting seedlings are designed for people with a lot of time, and that may not work well for busy people.
But despite that one criticism, this is really an excellent and comprehensive book full of well-researched data. Everyone who gardens should not only have this book in the bookshelf, but should take it off the shelf and read it.
2 people found this helpful
CommentJuly 21, 2013
Format: Paperback
This is my first year doing a "real" vegetable and flower garden and I just wanted some more information to add to what I've already learned from experience so far. This is not the book for that. In fact, I felt like I was reading a brochure for BIOINTENSIVE gardening and how that type of gardening is the ONLY way to garden and basically if you don't do it the BIOINTENSIVE way, you're ruining the earth. At least that what I came away with. There's not much information in the book regarding plants, seeds, planting times, planting methods....so, why exactly did they give it the title they chose?? It's mostly propaganda driven and there's no real information to help a gardener looking for basic, hands-on information to help them grow more and more efficiently. Two of the best books I've found recently were in stacks of old books in my parents attic. One is The Readers Digest Complete Book of The Garden (seriously, tons of basic information) and The Country Journal Book of Vegetable Gardening by Nancy Bubel.
11 people found this helpful
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