Customer Reviews

The Contrary Farmer's Invitation to Gardening

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the second book of Logsdon's that I have read, and I intend to read the rest of them. In many ways, he reminds me of the old farmers who would sit around the barber shop when I was kid. Mr. Logsdon has opinions on just about everything, and isn't afraid to express them. One gets the distinct impression that he really won't be too bothered by whether his readers are persuaded by his opinions or not.

Amidst his (admittedly spot on) diatribes about industrial farming, government meddling, and modern day prohibitionists he does manage to paint a lovely picture of the garden as the embodiment of the urge to simplicity and living close to the land. Further, he makes it clear that the reader can start whereever they already are, even if it means growing a few plants in a window box.

There is plenty of practical advice, but it is delivered anecdotally. There aren't any pictures or diagrams, but he describes his compost heated seed starting bed so well that one doesn't need a diagram. Likewise for what he calls mulch-bed gardening (basically lasagna gardening). The topics covered include the reason for gardening, vegetable gardening, small scale livestock husbandry (read: pet chickens, at least until they quit laying and end up in the stew pot), and aquatic gardening (ponds and such).

The key thing to keep in mind is that this book is an invitation to gardening, and not a primer or a manual. If you are looking for a how-to guide, this isn't your best book. If you are wondering whether you might enjoy gardening, or if you are already a gardener and you need something to do between the first frost and the last frost, this is an excellent read.

Gene Logsdon's thoughts on gardening are jewels of wisdom and humor, as usual. He's one of those rare writers who can take the reader deep into unimagined worlds under the surface of a topic, exploring whimsical and practical concepts of farming/gardening. Buy this book! You'll read it BR to tatters and beg for more. I'm giving copies to every gardener I know.

While this book is has plenty of good information in it, I think its real value is to provide a peek into life in the country. His practical view of life can be applied to all walks of life

Enjoyed the book but wouldn't have bought it if I'd seen it in person, since I already know basic organic gardening principles. I did pick up a couple of tips/ideas.

I have enjoyed this author's other books and yet never read any of the contrary books. This book is not a how to - how you can do anything, but it is inspiring and a good read. I read it twice already since I ordered it and it makes me once again long for a breath of fresh country air. :)
Heather

The Contrary Farmer's Invitation to Gardening by Gene Logsdon, my new favorite author. Reading what is written by Gene makes me feel like I'm listening to a grandfatherly character talk about his days on the farm. He is a remarkably good storyteller and can make even books about farming and gardening seem like a fun quick read. I have not read any of his novels yet, but I intend to as soon as I can get my hands on one. Our local library only has two of his books, I think he has written thirty or more, so I'll buy them as I can. You can also read his blog post at [...] or Organictobe.org where his post from the first site are posted in conjunction with several other like minded authors.

The Contrary Farmer's Invitation to Gardening is about gardening, but not in the same way that most books on gardening approach the subject. He discusses why we need to garden as a nation, not only to provide food for ourselves, but to break our dependance on industrial agriculture (which will eventually fail). Then he discusses his version of deep mulch gardening. He has animals so his approach is slightly different than Lasagna gardening, or gardening without work. He takes one of his pasture paddocks which has had years of manure added and mulches it in the fall, then plants it in the spring with successive plantings till winter. then the next summer he plants corn, his own open pollinated sweet corn, for people food and animal fodder (the whole plant ears, leaves, stalks, and all). Then he plants winter wheat which starts growing in the fall and comes back in the spring to make grain. In the spring he seeds clover in with the wheat. Then when the wheat ripens in early summer he cuts it, and the clover. This provides animal food and wheat for the kitchen or the chickens. After the cutting the clover grows back for either grazing or making clover hay. He has both permanent pastures, the hilly uneven ground, and temporary pastures, the flat ground. The temporary pastures are for grazing, hay making, and gardening. The wheat leads into Flour gardens and Pancake patches. His discussion on how to grow all of your own grain. He has another book that goes into more detail, but I haven't read it yet. The grain discussion leads to husbandry, chickens at a minimum. With animals he also discusses how to grow your own worm farm, either for money, fishing, or just to turn kitchen scraps into compost fast.

Now that you have a garden you need to protect it from wild critters that want to eat it as much as you do. This does not mean bugs, on a diversified deep mulch garden this isn't a problem, it means wildlife. Did you know that in 1950 that farmers in the USA lost 7% of their crop to insects while only using 5 million pounds of pesticides. Now we use billions of pounds of pesticides and lose an average of 13% of our crops to insects. Then the conversation turns to water gardening, growing aquatic plants and fish to eat. And finally a great essay by him to close the book.

Whether you want to garden, farm, or just enjoy a great read this is the book for you.

He not only helps someone new to gardening find their way, but also provides valuable information about how useful it is for one's community and nation. Well written and full of great pointers.

I had previously read and enjoyed (I think) two of Logsdon's earlier books, At Nature's Pace and The Contrary Farmer, but I was barely able to get through this more recent contribution. Logsdon is clearly knowledgeable about a wide range of small farming and gardening practices. There is much useful information in this book, particularly on mulching garden beds, growing small grains, and using chickens in movable cages for fertilization and insect control. However, acquiring this information, which is also available elsewhere, is a painful experience. On almost every page the defects in Logsdon's writing and thinking stand out. He makes absurd generalizations and broad pronouncements, on all sorts of topics, based on what is clearly cursory, limited understanding of the subjects. A fine example of the latter is to be found in the last two pages of the book, where he discusses the evolution of monarch and viceroy butterflies, and the mimicry of the former by the latter. His reasoning in the course of making arguments is often nearly incomprehensible, and time after time made me shake my head in disbelief. One example (p. 126): "I do not believe in letting nature take its course all the time. In a world where one ethnic group of Rwandans hacked a million of another ethnic group to death with machetes recently, I don't have the time nor the luxury to debate whether I should kill a feral cat that is endangering a rare species of songbird. To make the point clearly [!], if I were a judge, I could sentence a vicious human criminal to death under the law--with fewer qualms than I feel when killing a poor dumb pest animal, which is merely the victim of a situation that is as much my fault, as a human, as the animal's fault. But in either case I would act, not lie down passively and let someone else make the decision. If this sounds unconscionably brutal to you, try arguing the passive-resistance viewpoint with a brood of termites under or house or a panther eying up your child." I just can't follow this. Other, shorter instances abound, as Logsdon draws from his misunderstanding and fractional knowledge of history, ecology, evolutionary biology, and other areas to offer up his opinions on government, economics, sociology, religion, and so on. His writing is also marred by pointless and foolish parenthetical asides, and corniness, as when in the space of three pages in the last chapter he refers six times to his wife as "my lovely" (e.g., "My lovely found what appeared..."). Other readers seem to enjoy Logsdon's self-proclaimed stance as "the contrary farmer," and I am certainly on the same side as he in the struggle against destructive agribusiness and the global hegemony of ruthless corporations, but (obviously) I cannot recommend this book, which is poorly written and seems not to have had the attention of an editor.

An exciting book, full of unusual ideas, practical information, and intriguing possibilities. Real treasure.