- ISBN13: 9780970501608
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Extreme Gardening is the quintessential gardening guide to organic gardening against all odds. Written by the well-known gardening guru, the “Garden Guy,” David Owens shows the experienced and novice gardener how to grow organic foods in hostile climates (all desert climates) and land. Simple to understand with user-friendly spine, the book covers all topics from watering, design, tools, schedules, fertilizing, companion planting, and soils. The book is easily d… More >>
Extreme Gardening: How to Grow Organic in the Hostile Deserts
Tags: companion planting, david owens, desert climates, gardening guide, hostile deserts, novice gardener, organic gardening
I’m an organic vegetable gardener who lives in the desert Southwest. I get the extreme hot summers but cooler winters than Tucson or Phoenix. I like this book mostly for plant culture. All the plant culture information most gardeners ever need is on-line, but desert gardening is bit counter-intuitive. It’s helpful to have desert specific information. Most folks aren’t planting their melons in March, but I am.
For example: Owens’tomato growing information is right on. I know because I do it his way. I raise my tomatoes in the shade. That wouldn’t work well way back East where I was raised. Last summer I had a great harvest despite a late visit from grasshoppers. I brought in 45 tomatoes to ripen indoors the day before our first frost of Oct 27. We enjoyed the last tomato of year December 6th—not bad.
I’m talking real tomatoes you can slice and put on your sandwich, not just cherry tomatoes.
I own two other desert gardening books: Mary Irish’s Month-by-Month gardening in the Desert Southwest. This one is good for figuring out when to plant everything. And,Desert Gardening Fruits and Vegetables, The Complete Guide by George Brookbank. This book isn’t organized as well as the other two books, but it was the first desert specific gardening book I bought. I’ve read it cover to cover several times and despite the poor black and white photos, it’s my favorite of the three. I consider my desert gardening library complete with these three books.
Rating: 4 / 5
I, too, have had the opportunity to catch Dave on television from time to time here in Arizona. I’ve been a pretty dedicated ornamental gardener for well over 10 years now. We enlarged our yard by nearly 1000 square feet and I decided to use the space for vegetable gardening. I thought I had met all the pests in my area! NO. That’s OK, Dave has nifty organic recipes to help eradicate those who would eat your garden before you can. I love the fact that a ring-bound version is available and have referred to this book at least once a day since I got it. Gardening in such a hot, arid zone is not impossible, you just have to work around it. My garden is flourishing and we eat home-grown, organic produce every day.
THANK YOU DAVE!!
Rating: 5 / 5
We are blessed with a long growing season but have difficulties with soil and timing of which plant to grow and when. Worry no longer. This book tells you how to create a good soil. Which companion plants to plant with others to naturally repel bad insects and attract the beneficial insects. An old art that I thought was lost when my grandfather died. Easy to read and understand. A must have in these trying economic times. The biggest threat to Communism is the Farmer.
Rating: 5 / 5
live in a desert region? get this book and see how to grow organically your own fruits and vegetables.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is the best book on gardening in the desert. It has the most specific information relative to gardening here in the Phoenix area. It will be the gardening bible in our house.
Rating: 5 / 5