Compost and Companion Planting

Earth, Plant and Compost

A great little book! Everything you've ever wanted to know about composting - including HOW to do it! Well illustrated, too!

Topics include:

• General principles of composting
• Source ingredients for composting
• Composting methods
• Sheer or surface composting
• Evaluting compost quality
• Compost uses
• Compost mulching
• Composting for kitchens and family gardens
• Special composts
• Glossary of technical terms for compost and soil
• Compost and related bibliography
• Useful addresses - technical assistance

 

Compost

An early classic of biodynamic gardening and farming literature, Koepf's booklet is the most concise, jam-packed description of the art of creating soil fertility from refuse. All the information you need to successfully build your own compost piles is included in the 18 pages of Compost. Can't be beat for usefulness and economy!

Note: for those of you who are visual learners, please be aware that there are no pictures in Compost. If illustrations are important to you, you will be much happier with Earth, Plant and Compost, sold above.

Roses Love Garlic

Having covered the realm of companion planting with vegetables better than anyone else in Carrots Love Tomatoes (immediately above), Louise Riotte turns her attention to flowers - and all their friends and enemies, too. Her knowledge is deep and broad, her humor evident everywhere, and her experience and practicality are unequaled. Another gardener's treasure.

Companion Plants

Companion Plants was my first introduction many years ago (early 1970s) to what to me was "garden magic." When I came upon Philbrick and Gregg's little classic, I had never heard of companion planting and could find no one among my acquaintences who knew about it, either. And thus, my world in the garden opened up to include the relationships between various plants, and I came to stand back, amazed, at how very much differenct it really did make whether I planted Marigolds (Tagetes) among the tomatoes or onions around the borders of my vegetable beds.

I think this book went out of print sometime in the early 1980s and hadn't been heard from since save on the shelves of used book stores (if you were lucky). Happily, it is once again in print, to guide and astonish a whole new generation of gardeners. In it, you'll discover such a wealth of information that it really seems inexhaustible.

I should add that Companion Plants was the ground-breaking work that inspired Louise Riotte to make her own discoveries and record them for us in her books Carrots Love Tomatoes and Roses Love Garlic - if books can be seen as seeds, then Companion Plants has one of the highest germination rates possible. But, I'll leave you to discover that for yourself.

 

Weeds and What They Tell

One of the most useful books for gardeners, one that has taught me again and again not only what my garden needs, but also how very wise nature herself is.

Pfeiffer's approach begins with the premise that nature really does know what she is doing, and that weeds grow where they are needed. By learning what each weed is offering to the soil, the discerning gardener or farmer can use organic matter and minerals to effect that same balance. The weed, no longer needed, will soon disappear from the cultivated area.

The added bonus of this little book is what you can learn about the nature of plantlife and the wonders of the world.