From Booklist
Gardening in the 1990s, as Bird explains, involves organic growing, raised beds, limited space use, and what the author calls intensive planting. There are techniques today that enable you to grow all the vegetables you want in half the space and with half the work. Bird says there are plant varieties that have been bred to grow smaller, resist disease better, and produce bigger and tastier fruit. Raised, intensive beds drain well and provide warmer soil. Raised beds are easier, he points out, because the soil can be bought from a landscaping company, thus saving the gardener the work of digging into hard ground. For intensive planting, Bird suggests leaving no room for paths between rows of plants, thereby using every inch of space for growing. He also suggests starting plants from seeds ordered from mail-order companies where the selection is better. Included is a frost data chart; a vegetable spacing, seed depth, and days-to-germinate chart; and a list of the 10 most common mistakes. George Cohen
