How to Create a new Vegetable Garden – Book Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

How to Create a new Vegetable Garden
Producing a beautiful and fruitful garden from scratch
by Charles Dowding
Published by Green Books, 12th February 2015
Hardcover,  224 pages, 23.5 x 16.5 x 1.8 cm
ISBN: 978-0857842442
£19.99

Charles Dowding draws on his years of experience to show how easy it is to start a new vegetable garden. Any plot – whether a building site, overgrown with weeds or unwanted lawn – can be turned into a beautiful and productive vegetable area.

In his foreword to the book Steve Mercer, former journalist for Which? Gardening magazine, says: “Charles has had years of experience growing his own veg (not forgetting fruit and ornamentals) and his advice is founded on his experimental approach to growing, which is the real strength of his latest book. It doesn't just provide advice on starting your own veg plot, but also documents in detail the first year in his own new garden. If there are alternative techniques for clearing land and building fertility, you can be sure Charles has tried them – as you would expect of a teacher and experimenter.”

This is a great book in which the author leads the reader step by step, with every chapter, from planning to running a garden, through the task of establishing a new vegetable garden from scratch, with all different methods and findings presented in a very understandable way, covering all the possible aspects and stages and various different ways of creating and establishing a new vegetable garden (from scratch) via using as example his own experiences and trials establishing a new at Newacres. Not that I would have expected anything less from Mr Dowding.

While this book, or should I better call it manual, is more or less aimed at those starting a new vegetable garden those of us who have an established garden can learn a great deals for it as well, especially as regards to the “no dig method” of gardening for which he is famous.

He proves in this book that there is no plot of land too wild to tame, nor does anyone have all the answers – if you have but a vision then this book will give you the helpful hints and tips to save you time as well as giving you the confidence to have a go and find your own solutions.

Charles Dowding won the 2014 Garden Media Guild Practical Journalist of the Year award. He has written several books including, Organic Gardening, Salad Leaves for all Seasons, How to Grow Winter Vegetables and Gardening Myths and Misconceptions. He is the leading authority on no-dig gardening as well as a gardening writer. He also grows vegetables commercially and runs popular courses for amateur gardeners.

This is yet another book that I would love to be able to give six out of five, but alas, as said so often, as this does not compute it will have to be five out of five. And let's add a star for good measure even though that, once again, does probably not work either. This is yet another book that will, as a manual, be on my bookshelf, but it will sure spend more in my hand than on the shelf, I should guess.

© 2015

One Magic Square – Book Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

One Magic Square
Grow your own food on one square metre
by Lolo Houbein
368 pages Hardback, 20 x 20 cm
Published by: Green Books, 5th February 2015
Price: £19.99
ISBN: 9780857842800

Little Lolo Houbein was delighted with her gift of a cabbage from the friendly German soldier. During World War II, starving during the famine in occupied Holland, she was too weak to carry it, but managed to drag it home to her family. Ever since then, she has been preoccupied with food security and food self-sufficiency and One Magic Square is the result.

Lolo shows how you can have a productive food garden on a single square metre. She provides inspiration for everyone, with easy plot designs for hardy vegetables, and others for tender and exotic produce. She starts with five seasonal plans for salads and leads you in easy stages to just the degree of food self-sufficiency that you want.

Little Lolo feeding the chickens in uncle Wim's garden

Lolo Houbein sees the vast areas of unused spaces around our homes as an opportunity to be more in control of our food supply, with fewer food miles and a healthier diet: you can do a lot in one square meter. You do not have to live in the country or have a large garden, or an allotment. Food will grow where you are. Square meter gardening is perfect for growing in:

• Balconies, terraces and courtyards

• Small gardens with limited space

• Large gardens or allotments with abundant space

It's a myth that you need to spend ages gardening to grow your own food. Some foods you plant once and forget until harvest time. People sometimes see gardens laden with produce and then take on a huge allotment, never having gardened before and fail, dejectedly. Don't to this to yourself! Small is Beautiful, so no matter how unkempt your patch, you can weed one square meter, plant it and keep it tidy and productive. Gradually increase the area if you want, as you get used to the peaceful routine of gardening and the rhythm of the seasons.

You can change your lifestyle instantly by digging up one square meter. It won't take much time or work, but it will relax and delight you, rejuvenate you and get you in touch with your wild side without leaving home! In no time at all, you'll discover a great sense of achievement in growing the smallest salad, carrot or potato. You'll be eating a wider variety of fresh food, some of which is not available in shops.

This is a very detailed and highly informative book on all aspects of square foot gardening, only that here it is geared at a square meter rather than a square foot, and a square meter equals approximately three square foot (or should that be feet), though I will continue to refer to the method as “square foot gardening”, if the reader does not mind. It is easy and even fun to read and fact-filled book that also makes you look at the toilet roll tube with completely different eyes.

“One Magic Square” is, probably, one of the most detailed manuals for square foot gardening I have – so far – seen. At the same time it is easy to read and not just full of theory. The author also leads the reader into cooking of the vegetables grown, and much more.

“This book has been inspired by the chaotic times we live in. It aims to put you in control of the production of at least part of the food you need”, says the author on page 74 and with this she speaks right from my own heart also. Personal food security, at least to some extent, is what it is all about.

Lolo Houbein was born in Holland and later moved to Australia. Since surviving the famine in Holland in 1944-1945, food security - and the absence of it - has been a lifelong preoccupation for her. She is an author of both fiction and gardening books.

If I could give this book more that five out of five I certainly would but six out of five does not really compute and neither does a five plus. So, I guess it just has to be five out of five. Great book and I can but recommend it, and not just to the newbie.

© 2014

Learning with Nature – Book Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Learning with Nature
A how-to guide to inspiring children through outdoor games and activities
By Marina Robb, Victoria Mew and Anna Richardson
Published by Green Books, 29th January 2015
Paperback, 208 pages, 210mm x 210mm   
ISBN: 9780857842398
Price: £17.99

Learning with Nature is full of fun activities and games to get your children outdoors, to explore, have fun, make things and learn about nature and help them grow up happy and healthy. Suitable for groups of children aged between 3 and 16, the graded activities help children develop:

• Key practical and social skills

• Awareness of their place in the world

• Respect for the natural world

all while enjoying the great outdoors.

Written by experienced Forest School practitioners, using tried and tested games and activities, it provides comprehensive information for enriching childrens’ learning through nature. The games and activities are clearly categorized, with step-by-step instructions, age guide, a list of resources needed, and invisible learning points.

This new book aims to connect children with nature and through a broad range of outdoor activities and games, young people are encouraged to engage their senses and interact with nature. Doing this not only leads to a better understanding of the natural world but can also contribute to much broader agendas including personal and social development. Only by enjoying our natural world, and everything in it can we all to to a better understanding of how we are all connected to the greater natural world, develop the empathy needed to wanting to conserve and care for the environment. Proper care for the environment, for our woods and everything else, does, however, mean and require management.

This book is a unique must-have resource for families, schools, youth groups and anyone working with children. So, whether you are a parent or educator, “Learning with Nature” is full of ideas for fun in the great outdoors. It caters for children and young people of all ages and abilities – and comes with clear instructions and illustrations.

About the authors

Victoria Mew has followed her love of nature and curiosity in indigenous cultures since she was 12 years old She trained with Wilderness Awareness School, WA, USA, before gaining a BscHons in Human Sciences at UCL. She has since founded ‘Cultivating Curiosity’, an organization that works with people of all ages outdoors facilitating deep nature connection. She is also a qualified forest school practitioner.

Anna Richardson is teacher of foraging workshops, and works with children of all ages. Over the last 20 years, Anna’s interest in plants and traditional skills has developed through training, teaching and practicing bush craft. Passionate about new and indigenous ways to educate, Anna co-creates local community projects that enable people to share and learn together to reconnect with nature.

Marina is founder and Managing Director of Circle of Life Rediscovery CIC, a leading outdoor learning organization. A qualified teacher who has specialized in environmental education, Marina’s approach brings together best practice from environmental education, Forest School, eco-psychology, and indigenous wisdom. She draws upon many years of working with young people of all ages and backgrounds to create unique and fun learning experiences.

As a professional woodsman I must take issue – unfortunately – with a couple of points about using a saw, whether this be a bow saw or a pruning saw. Do not, ever, put the free hands in the way described in the particular chapter. It is not safe – though it may appear thus – at all but a disaster waiting to happen. The hand belongs, with a right handed person, about one hand width to the left. With a pruning saw, if the limb is still attached to the tree (or otherwise totally secure), the free hand can be placed over top of the working hand on the handle. This gives a little more pulling power. Also please note that a pruning saw is designed to cut on the pull only and thus should not be pushed back forcefully.

Contrary to stated in the book when using saws the free hand should be “protected” by an all-leather work glove or a work glove with leather palm and Kevlar material back. The hand holding the tool should, however, be glove-less.

Please do not use a knife of the Mora kind (as in the picture in the book) to split a log using a mallet. Using a mallet on the back of the blade for this purpose may be fine when using a machete or a billhook but not for the kind of knife as shown. Is is not safe for knife or user.

Forest schools and forest kindergartens in the UK, alas, are still nowhere near the way that they are on the European mainland and our health and safety culture is to blame for that in the same way that it is to blame for the nature deficit disorder in our children in general.

Aside from those caveats indicated above this is an important book to bring children closer to the great outdoors and in proper contact with Mother Nature once again. There was a time when this kind of play came natural to most, at least the boys, such as exploring the woods, building camps, and while illegal, yes, even building fires.

Unlike today's children, and my own childhood only lies some 40+ years back, who spend most of their time in front of a screen, and that often even at school, we played outside, explored the countryside and everything in it from dawn till dusk, always carried a knife on us, and no one stabbed another. We didn't need to teach us the countryside; we lived it.

This is what makes this book so very important as today's children – and even their parents – are so very far removed from the way we grew up and could explore, and it should be a manual that not only be used in kindergartens and schools but also in the homes. We must get away from mollycoddling our kids and packing them in cotton wool and allow them the freedom to explore and understand Nature and how everything is interconnected, including everyone of us.

Due to, in my opinion, problems with some of the advice as regards the use of saws, etc., I can but give this book a rating of 4.5 our of 5. That does not, however, diminish its great importance and value.

© 2015

Beyond flying – Book Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Beyond Flying
Rethinking air travel in a globally connected world
By Chris Watson Edited by Chris Watson with Chris Brazier, Rob Hopkins, Saci Lloyd, John Stewart, Kevin Anderson, Kate Andrews, Tom Bennion, Susan Krumdieck, Ed Gillespie, Adam Weymouth, Lowanna Doye and Nic Seton
Published by Green Books, March 2014
208 pages, paperback, 198mm x 130mm
ISBN: 9780857842091
Price: £9.99

Fourteen authors from around the world share their stories about how they came to the conclusion that reducing their air travel was necessary to avoid playing their part in climate change, and how they changed values and attitudes to businesses and personal travel. These are the stories of how these remarkable people found easy and better ways of living and working in a globalized world with less air travel.

Friends of the Earth: rethinking travel
Foreword by Peter McManners

Preface
Introduction

Part 1 Thinking beyond flying
1. To fly or not to fly? Chris Brazier
2. Deciding never to fly again Rob Hopkins
3. Young people and climate change Saci Lloyd
4. Waking up to the downsides of flying John Stewart
5. Slow and low – the way to go: a systems view of travel emissions Kevin Anderson

Part 2: Business beyond flying
6. A green travel experiment Chris Watson
7. Trains versus planes: building a low-carbon travel agency Kate Andrews
8. Going cold turkey: a law practice without any flights Tom Bennion
9. The no-flying conference: Signs of Change Susan Krumdieck
10. Slowlier than thou: why flight-free travel is about better, not less Ed Gillespie

Part 2: Savouring the journey
11. The human engine: bicycling to Beijing Chris Smith
12. Walking distance: Europe on foot Adam Weymouth
13. bike2oz: the world going through you instead of around you Lowanna Doye
14. A small matter of distance: trying not to fly to climate talks Nic Seton
15. Travel on a hot planet: exploring the global tourist industry overland Anirvan Chatterjee and Barnali Ghosh

How to fly less
Index

So why fly less?

Flying has for so long been seen as an elite activity with the promise of status, luxury, leisure and freedom that we’ve blinded ourselves to the impact this First World activity has on climate change and on the damage it causes not only to the developing world but to us, too. We only have to look at the flooding this month in the UK, Argentina, Uruguay and elsewhere to see that.

Flying is never zero carbon. Despite aviation engineers making huge advances in efficiency, there is a limit to how much more they can do. Burning fuel in the sky is more than twice as bad as burning it at ground level.

Since the recession, 47% of UK businesses have reduced their flying and are committed to flying less and videoconferencing more. Why? Because of cost savings, greater staff productivity and lower CO2.

Fourteen individual travelers from across the world share their stories about keeping in touch in their business and personal lives while flying less.

From commercial, professional, academic, NGO, literature and science backgrounds, they have managed to find easier and better ways of living and working in a globalised world that readers can identify with. What is stopping the rest of us, then?

The book offers:

• An inspiring catalog of reasons to fly less

• 10 steps to reducing flying

• Many examples of the delights of richer travel

• An urgent plea for us all to change our ways

• Ongoing royalties donated to Friends of the Earth

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Watson grew up in an airline family, flew light aircraft and was passionate about flying, but after reading extensively on climate science it became apparent that flying less is necessary. He is an architect, who regularly writes for journals and conferences.

Personally I am a no fly person; I don't drive either and neither do I own a car. As to flying: I do not fly well in the first place unless I can wear – and I do mean wear – my own personal parachute. No, no kidding!

It is almost insane that it is today cheaper to travel to the European mainland from the UK by plane than by train and the same is also true, in fact, as regards to rail travel in the UK itself. It is cheaper to go from London (Gatwick) to Birmingham by plane than it is by train. Does not make sense, does it.

The book, by means of essays by a wide variety of people who have chosen to give up flying or, at least, to seriously reduce it, makes a compelling case against the madness of our time which is this more or less tax payer subsidized air travel.

As flying, and aviation in general, as it includes air freight, is one of the greatest culprits as to pollution affecting the climate it is absolutely insane for the aviation industry to be blessed by tax breaks, tax relief on fuel and other things, and other concessions that are heaped upon it.

I would recommend this book to everyone to gain some insight as to how flying affects the Planet and how those less likely ever to fly are the ones who are going to feel – and are already feeling – the brunt of the result of our obsession with air travel.

Considering the adverse affect that flying has on the environment it is beyond my comprehension that not just politicians but especially members of “green” organizations jet off to climate conferences and such without almost a second thought, while preaching to or even at others to change their ways.

It would appear that they consider themselves exempt and important and it is a definite “do as we say not as we do” attitude. But we, in the environmental movement, and that includes them, must lead by example and the example is to use less polluting ways of doing things.

Rating: Definitely five out of five.

© 2014

Gardening Myths and Misconceptions – Book Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Gardening Myths and Misconceptions
by Charles Dowding
Published by Green Books, March 2014
Hardback 96 pages, with illustrations
£9.99 hardback
ISBN: 9780857842046

• Have you ever wondered how certain gardening practices arose?

• Have you wondered whether they were just eyewash, but followed them anyway, because it's been too confusing to work out the kernel of truth behind it all?

• Have you ever asked yourself why containers must have pottery shards for drainage? Why cucumbers and tomatoes should not be grown together? Or why we must water only in the evening?

In this collection of common gardening myths, Charles Dowding examines how some of these practices, though started for good historical reasons, have become unbreakable rules.

Asking why gardeners are always told to do things a certain way, he debunks some of these myths and clears up some misconceptions. Based on his own vast experience, he tests the relevance of such hard and fast rules himself and radically rethinks them into simpler, quicker and more successful ways to garden.

Conventional wisdom is difficult to question, even when it is misguided and contains many contradictions. Gardening has its share of such 'myths' - some with discernible origins in history, others that have become established for no obvious reason - and they often obscure simpler and easier methods of working. This delightfully illustrated book reveals how common sense triumphs and crops are more successful when these 'rules' are overturned.

This is a fascinating but practical book that will save the seasoned gardener time and give new gardeners heart.

Beautifully illustrated, this is an invaluable book, full of good sensible gardening advice.

Being a professional gardener and – originally – a forester it is absolutely amazing the myths that we have been taught and that we have used without, all too often, questioning them. Though I have advised against staking trees for years and years but always met with resistance for colleagues with the comment that all newly planted trees must be staked; it says so. Well, it is a myth and it is best for trees not to be stakes in the great majority of cases with a few exceptions.

This is indeed a beautiful little book. Hardback bound and with its own little red ribbon bookmark. A book to keep and cherish and to give as gift.

This book will make a great gift for any gardener and with Father's Day coming up soon it might just be the ticket. It won't break the bank and even the most seasoned gardener will appreciate the information contained within the pages of this book.

Charles Dowding is an internationally recognized organic gardening expert and adviser, and author of 'Organic Gardening', 'Salad Leaves for all Seasons' and How to Grow Winter Vegetables'. He says: "I have always been interested in looking 'behind the scenes' and asking why things are as they are, and questioning practices that are taken for granted. This led me to grow organically, at a time when the chemical approach was rarely challenged." He talks on radio and television and writes for many magazines on his unique approach to gardening.

© 2014

Disclosure: I received a copy of  Gardening Myths and Misconceptions for review purposes, but all opinions here are mine.

The GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW received no compensation for any component of this article.

Eat Your Weeds

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Eat your weeds is, basically, what the book “The Weeder's Digest: Identifying and enjoying edible weeds”, by Gail Harland, 192 pages paperback, at £12.95, published June 2012 by Green Books, is telling us and she makes a great pitch for using weeds which are edible, and many, indeed, are.

Readers will be surprised, of that I am sure, as to the amount and variety of common weeds )and not so common) weeds in our gardens, fields, parks, woods and elsewhere are, in fact, valuable foods and medicines.

Some of them, however, should not be consumed in large quantities as they, like many where the leaves are useful in salads and as greens, contain oxalic acid. The author, however, gives the appropriate warnings, as and where necessary, for each and every plant and thus people are put on notice.

Another point to take into consideration when using wild foods of all kinds, whether weeds or whatever, is that some edible weeds, just like some edible mushrooms, have poisonous “cousins” and lookalikes. Again the the author also points this out with great care.

The listed weeds that can be used for food by humans an d animals to a great extent are a valuable source of many minerals, vitamins and trace elements and Stinging Nettle, used like spinach, for example, has a much higher iron content than does have spinach.

This book is a gardener's dream come true. A manual of how to get your own back on pesky weeds: you eat them.

“The Weeder's Digest” is a must for anyone thinking about the possibilities of wreaking revenge on the weeds in his or her garden by eating them.

It is a lovely presented paperback book with many photos that is a pleasure to read, to use, to peruse and to consult. The £12.95 is definitely money worth invested in this book. I got my review copy of this great book free, however.

© 2012

THE BIOCHAR DEBATE – Book Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

THE BIOCHAR DEBATE
Schumacher Briefing No.16
by James Bruges
published by Green Books November 2009
ISBN 978 1 900322 67 6
210mm x 148mm 96pp in b&w paperback
£8.00
available in the USA via Chelsea Green Books

“There is one way we could save ourselves [from global heating] and that is through the massive burial of charcoal. It would mean farmers turning all their agricultural waste - which contains carbon that plants have spent the summer sequestering - into non-biodegradable charcoal and burying it in the soil ... this scheme would need no subsidy: the farmer would make a profit.” – James Lovelock

Charcoal-making is one of the oldest industrial technologies, and in the last decade there has been a growing wave of excitement about its potential for combating climate change.

This is because burying biochar, that is to say, fine-grained charcoal, is thought to be a highly effective way in which to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

In addition, so usage seems to show, it can increase the yield of food crops and the ability of soil to retain moisture.

Some people are concerned, though, that awarding carbon credits for biochar could have seriously damaging outcomes, and I can but agree with them.

The Biochar Debate agrees with this but describes an alternative approach to carbon credits called the Carbon Maintenance Fund (CMF) that avoids the dangers and pitfalls of the credits.

This would give every government the incentive to enable its businesses, farmers and individuals to increase their country’s carbon pool.

It is based on remote sensing by satellite, a tried and tested technology, which would be applied globally each year to measure the increase or decrease of carbon in plants, soil and roots.

The Biochar Debate sets out experimental and scientific aspects of biochar in the context of global warming, the global economy and negotiations for the future of the Kyoto protocol.

It concludes with suggestions for how any individual – you and me – can make our contribution to saving the Planet.

While it all sounds very nice indeed the question that stands out first and foremost in my mind is “where is all the material for the biochar come from?” And the other question is, obviously, “how well does this work.”

We must also not forget, and the author did not either, in fact, the living carbon sinks, the woods and forests, in my opinion, but then I am a forester.

We would not be in this dilemma today had politicians listened when already in the 1890s scientists warned that basing the economy on fossil fuels, a finite resource, was dangerous, with regards to pollution as well as to the fact that one day the supply would come to an end.

Had we then, and in subsequent decades, listened and begun developing renewables we would, more than likely, not be in the state that we are in today.

Had we also listened to those that were standing against the chemicalization of farming soils would be in a much better health and shape and would absorb carbon properly.

In addition to that we have created a consumer economy and -society where everything is made just no longer to last, where everything has obsolescence after a few years factored in, that we must buy new every few year. This is yet another totally unsustainable way of living. And that aside from the way that advertising leads people to want new things every few years if not even months, and the way people go through cell phones is one example here.

When a book that I am reviewing has about as many Post-It Notes stuck as annotations to the pages then there are pages in the book this is either a sign that it is a good book or one that requires a lot of comments because of errors or what-have-you.

The Biochar Debate falls into the former rather than the latter category and the notes are, in fact, primarily for my own future references.

The author makes a great and convincing point for the use of biochar as a soil enhancer and as a means of extracting carbon (and other greenhouse gases) from the atmosphere.

Remains but the question as to why nothing is being done so far. We do not have another 1,000 years.

The author's point against, basically, carbon trading and carbon credits and especially here about not incorporating biochar into that are well made and very valid indeed.

Carbon credits and the trade in them is nothing but a trade in modern day indulgences permitting rich countries to carry on business as usual with emissions buying credits from the poor nations. What a farce.

The author, James Bruges, was brought up in Kashmir until the age of twelve. He worked as an architect in London, Sudan and India before setting up the practice of Bruges Tozer Partnership with Howard Tozer in Bristol. His books include Sustainability and the Bristol Urban Village Initiative, The Little Earth Book, The Big Earth Book and part of What About China?. He participates in FEASTA and the Quaker Economics Issues Group. With his wife Marion he

keeps in touch with and visits Gandhian NGOs in southern India.

The Biochar Debate is another one of those books that should be made compulsory reading for politicians the world over but especially those in the developed world and here especially the USA and Britain. They may just learn something here in how the fouled up, their predecessors for sure, here and how they must not permit the fossil fuel lobby to block things yet again. And that aside from the fact that oil is way to valuable to be burned.

© 2010