Customer Reviews

One Magic Square: The Easy, Organic Way to Grow Your Own Food on a 3-Foot Square

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3 star:		(1)
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I picked up this book at my local Library. Spring is here and I am always on the look out for a gardening book that is going to motivate me. I did my usual flip the book to the back, and began perusing backwards and came upon the chapter entitled "Hardware In the Food Garden". The first sentence reads "Those lovely pictures of vegetable gardens featuring colorful rows in beds and heaped black soil may be reality somewhere, but not in my climate and not always in gardens run on clean and green principles." Suddenly I wanted to know more. How often have I looked in books and magazines and felt intimidated by the ornate beauty and presentation of the designs. I have never been a confident gardener, but I have always wanted to take control of my own food supply . This book speaks to me on so many levels. It helps me design plots based on what my needs will be (salad plots, stir-fry plots, the herb plot, curry plot etc.). It tells me what I can plant, it lays it all out for me. It tells me how to prepare and maintain my garden without having to spend a fortune. It reads like a book that has been passed down from your favorite Grandmother who is sharing all her secrets with you. I will definitely be purchasing this book. It gets a huge organic green thumbs up from me.

My garden happens to be based entirely on multiple 3'x3' beds, so I was THRILLED to find a book whose entire premise is supposed to be gardening on 3'x3' units.

The book is authored by a lady who has survived a childhood in WWII Europe, and who advocates growing your own food. While I really liked the upbeat, sweet vibe of the text that reminded me of my childhood in my grandmother's garden, I found the book to be very unrealistic in it's claims.

I have been veg gardening for 20 years, using the biointensive method (which means: plants spaced as closely as possible, grown in raised beds, with very deeply worked, excellent quality soil), and I find that the book's bed layouts are completely useless and misleading. The author suggests such crowding of plants that it is preposterous to expect any harvest at all!

For example, in her pizza/pasta plot, the author crams not only 3 eggplants and 6 peppers into one 3'x3' square (which would already be very crowded), but also 3 tomatoes (!), 1 arugula, several red onions, one basil. In addition, all this is grown around a center filled with more onions, while chives are sprinkled around 3 of the peppers!

As I have mentioned, I have gardened for 20 years, and for at least part of this time, I have been using the 3'x3' layout. I have raised tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and all the other plants mentioned above, and believe me, they can't even begin to fit into one square, all at the same time. Typically, if the weather cooperates, and you have great soil, you can just barely fit 2 tomatoes into one of those beds, and if all the stars align, then maybe 1 pepper and 1 basil in addition. And that would be pushing it! If you go ahead and plant all of those plants in one bed, you will guarantee that you will get next to no harvest, and that your plants will be so stressed by the intense competition with the others, that they will be a prime target for every pest and disease within a 10 mile radius.

In another example, the author has you place 3 flowering broccolis, 6 cabbages, and 5 mini cauliflowers just in the very corners of one bed, while the center is occupied with many, many more plants.

If there is one veggie that I am an expert on, it is cabbage, and I can tell you right now that even if you use miniature cabbages, you can barely fit 9 within one square, but if we follow the spacing in this book, I should be able to grow all 9 plus 5 more in just the corners, leaving the center open for many more plants.

The reason why for me the spacings in this book are such a deal breaker, is that if you are an inexperienced gardener and/or rely on your garden to feed your family (and in this economy, many do), a season of growing veggies in this way can be dissapointing to the point of turning a new gardener off of gardening forever, or in a worse case scenario, it can spell a disaster to a family in need.

On the whole, despite it's happy vibe, I can not recommend this book, because of it's sheer impracticality.

You could probably use this book to garden for the next 10 years and not experience everything that she proposes. The instructions are easy, the index of fruits/veggies/trees in the back is indespensible, and the colored pictures are timely. Yes, the theme is of a magic square, but before you know it you'll have 4 or more going, without that much effort. I'm using this book to plan my garden in Bavaria and can't wait to companion plant some rosemary with our pear tree, or see the mustard plant take off.

She relies heavily on Blood & Bone and manure as fertilizers, and considering I own a Mini Cooper, that doesn't sound easy to acquire, so I'll probably just try it with some compost this year and see how the plants take to that.

Warning, the book is written from an Australian perspective, so when she says "north," you know she means "south" for the southern hemisphere. Also, she can plant through winter, and the weather where we are is below freezing for about 4 months out of the year. If you've gardened a little bit before and want to take things to the next level, this is for you.

Inspiring book written by a woman who understands how fragile the food chain is. Ms. Houbein grew up in Europe in the 1940's when, due to war, her region suffered a famine. Houbein learned how easily your food supply can be cut off and how important it is to take responsibility for at least a portion of your own food production.

Despite this harsh experience, her joy and love of gardening come through loud and clear and she is rather laid back about it. Still, she warns about things like terminator seeds (food which has insanely been altered with terminator genes so that they yield no viable seeds) and how to save your own seeds. There are tons of creative and practical gardening ideas. Her story is as compelling as her gardening tips and this is a fascinating read.

I "won" this book in a drawing from the local newspaper here in North Carolina. I have now purchased two more copies for my "non-vegetable gardening" brothers in Oregon and Nevada. Not only are there step-by-step instructions, but the need for and love of planting your own food is expressed so touchingly and basically here.

With this inspiration and guidance, the first garden can be so fun and productive that you will never stop.

As I said in the title - a wonderful book!
You don't need to buy anything but some seeds and start growing veggies like salads on a 3-foot-suare.
Everyone, even a child can take care of such a small area. And so you will be tempted to make the next square, this one with some tomatoes or snow peas, and just another one with summer squash and beans and a few corn stalks...and so on.
Before you recognize it you're a veggie gardener with lots of your own homegrown veggies and it's a lot of fun.
Everyone seems to think that growing a veggie garden is lots and lots of back breaking hard work - the author proves that it can be easy and fun.
Just start small, one square at a time.

I love this book and wish it had been there 30 years earlier when I started gardening.

This book is a well spring of information it takes you step by step in how to choose your plot your seeds,

How to improve your dirt. Tips and tricks for getting plants to grow healthier and stronger. websites that offer info.

This is a well thought out book from a very experianced gardener. For new gardeners or seasoned gardeners there is something

for everyone. A chapter on how to use inexpensive items like toilet rolls and empty margarine containers

to grow your seedlings. I highly reccomend this book. I have bought other books on gardening and saving seeds.

This book is my favorite. Easy to reand and understand.

I loved this book. I am a new veggie gardener and it had great ideas and answered several of my questions regarding how to supplement soil, start seedlings etc. I love the rotation plans that are in this book. I love the idea of taking seeds from your spice drawer and planting them - saves money to buy at local international food store, rather than little packets at the garden store for $3 each.

A friend of mine had told me about this book. I read it from top to bottom and went into action. All I can do now is to keep staring at my magic squares. I still can not believe that I did it. This book takes the guesswork out of having a self-sufficient garden. My husband was skeptical at first but he is not anymore. I am telling everyone I know about this book. The author makes it crystal clear that we can no longer sustain this madness of having vegetables being shipped across the world. This book is definitely a must have for home gardeners who want to embrace organic gardening with healthy eating. LOVED IT!!!

This is an awesome book!!! It describes how to get started in the garden, and gives good advice on what you may need. Good for novices, and for more experienced gardeners.