Customer Reviews

How to Grow Vegetables and Fruits by the Organic Method

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Organic gardening is the only way that really makes sense when you get right down to it. Nature's perfect cycle of plant's growth, bearing fruit, and decomposition back to the soil can't be improved upon by ANY artificial means. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are dangerous, expensive, and totally unnecessary if you will take the time to understand the very simple methods of organic gardening. There are few things quite so satisfying as watching your garden grow and thrive using the organic method. You will be shocked at just how productive even a relatively small garden can be, and once you see how easy it is to go organic, you'll never use anything synthetic on your plants again. This book sold me completely on organic gardening, and I'll bet it will do the same for you.

This book covers everything you ever wanted to know about growing fruits and vegetables. It's arranged well, with each plant getting a quick history, seed starting/planting basics as well as harvest/storing information. There are also great stories of old timers who have used these methods with amazing results. I grow produce to sell, and I do own other books on the subject, but this book lives on my dining table and gets used regularly, while the rest get taken off the shelf for occaisional reference. You can"t go wrong buying this book.

This review is for the copyright 1961 edition by J.I. Rodale, Eleventh Printing-November 1975. In this book, you will find chapters of planning the vegetable garden,starting with the soil, improving soil structure, fertilizing your soil, how to make compost, preparing the soil for planting, starting plants from seed, seeding, planting and transplanting outside, how to use mulches, summer garden care, watering and irrigating, when to harvest, fall and winter garden care, storing the surplus, controlling insects and disease, freezing and canning vegetables, marketing organic foods, growing vegetables in the greenhouse and year-round schedules of garden activity. There is also 16 chapters of fruit gardening. Index included.

I have had a copy of this book for 30 years. I recently got another for a gift, my neighbor wants to start a vegetable garden, so I went to Amazon and sure enough there it was. This book is timeless, the Organic Method it describes hasn't changed, only the people have. The section describing each vegetable and how to ready the soil is detailed and easy to understand. If you are interested in protecting your kids, pets and yourself from pesticides and chemicals this book is for you. Again, I have been using it for over thirty years and I grow the best vegetables in the neighborhood. When I give the surplus away I am confident that no one will be harmed with poisons.

Michael Lortscher, Utah

I was lucky enough to find this one in a bookstore about thirty years ago. My copy is old, with cracked binding and falling pages, but it has been a resource like no other. This guy's got the goods. Some information on varieties is no longer current, but that's almost beside the point. The information on soil care, cultivation, and composting is timeless. I find the 1950s pictures and text charming. And while I also refer to the more current Rodale Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening from time to time, this one is, to me, the gold standard.

There is no doubt that this book is the best that has ever been written on the subject of ORGANIC GARDENING. J.I. Rodale was years ahead of his time.

The language is a bit stilted in places, and the photos are from the original publication date, but some things never change and gardening is one of them.

The most interesting parts are the ones about gardening in inhospitable climates. If they can do it, you can too! Gardening doesn't have to be a lot of work unless you want it to be, and this book explains the shortcuts as well.