Practical Organic Gardening: The No-Nonsense Guide to Growing Naturally

by Mark Highland

Get your hands dirty in the garden! Practical Organic Gardening is a comprehensive guide to organic gardening practices that focuses on hands-on, up-to-date information and high-quality visual information.

Practical Organic Gardening sprouts homegrown, healthy edibles and other safe plants that are nourishing and tasty for your family, pets, and beneficial wildlife. Organic gardening isn't just for environmentalists anymore. Over the last several years it has been a popular gardening method. Believe it or not, it organic gardening has actually been around for most of the last century, but interest in organic gardening has soared in recent years as gardeners have become more aware of the quality of their food. 

Now is your chance to learn with this comprehensive book. Written by Mark Highland, founder of The Organic Mechanic, this is far from a hippie manifesto; it is a scientifically driven, modern-day dive into the organic methods, products, and practices that will appeal to any home gardener looking to make the transition from conventional to organic.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

Published December 26, 2017

Reviews

[Mutated Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodreads Synopsis:
Practical Organic Gardening sprouts homegrown, healthy edibles and other safe plants that are nourishing and tasty for your family, pets, and beneficial wildlife.

Organic gardening has been a popular gardening method for most of the past century, but interest in organic gardening has soared in recent years as gardeners have become more aware of the quality of their food.

Now is your chance to learn with this comprehensive book. Written by Mark Highland, founder of The Organic Mechanic, this is far from a hippie manifesto; it is a scientifically driven, modern-day dive into the organic methods, products, and practices that will appeal to any home gardener looking to make the transition from conventional to organic.

My Review:
I received a copy of Practical Organic Gardening from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Now I hate saying this, but I really don't usually read books like this. I thought, hey I want to get into gardening, saw this in the catalog, and decided to give it a shot since it was pre-approved. Though this book is full of pictures, which I wasn't expecting, you really learn a lot reading it, not only about gardening but the background of it as well. It read like a textbook, but I knew what I was getting myself into. The book is really informative about climate change, and although only having one organic garden might not change the world, it does actually do wonders for the soil and the animals around the area. Definitely check it out if you want to be more informed on the world of organic gardening.

Here's a link to the book on Amazon and another link to the authors twitter.

https://www.amazon.ca/Practical-Organ...

https://twitter.com/organicmechanix

Thanks for reading! Check out this review and more at my blog.
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[Jess Macallan · Rating 4 out of 5]

New or veteran gardeners interested in organic methods will appreciate the comprehensive but reader-friendly layout of this book. It's thoughtfully organized with step-by-step pictures and charts to break down the more involved recommendations. The author starts with soil and explains the importance of creating and maintaining soil health so readers will have a thorough understanding of why and how to do it. I enjoyed learning more about how to make compost tea and ideas for container gardening. I also appreciated the charts on pests. Many gardeners will find this book to be a helpful reference each year as they plan their gardens, work to combat pests naturally, maintain soil health, and expand their garden.

I received an e-copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great resource! This book lays out everything you need know to organically grow healthy, vigorous plants (edible and ornamental) from root to leaf, from soil prep to harvest. There are helpful pictures, graphics, diagrams and charts to visually explain complex information, and a few how-to sections that walk you through a process step by step. This book takes away the intimidation/complexity worry that many have about growing organic.

*Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, provided by the author and/or the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Gaby F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiring book to get back in touch with nature in your own back yard:
My parents used to have an organic garden long before anybody called it organic. Our fruit and vegetables always were delicious. Now I would like to grow some herbs and vegetables in my backyard, and I believe doing this organically is the best way to go. This book delivers a practical overview over the philosophy behind organic gardening and organic gardening methods. Mark Highland covers a lot we should know about organic gardening in his book: analyzing and preparing the soil, planting and propagating plants, organic pest and weed control, watering, lawn maintenance and proper care of container plants. I like Mark's idea of leaving the garden a little bit "messy" to supply food and cover for the birds. I especially love the beautiful organic landscape transformation of a front yard with grains and flowers and I am trying to figure out how I could do something similar in my own front yard. I can only recommend this book to all beginning gardeners and those who have not been gardening organically before.

[Gabby Z · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was also pretty awesome. I learned a lot on seed collection, composting methods, companion plants, and soil components and amendments.

[Victoria Peipert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well curated and written guide to gardening. Lots of useful images, tips, and information. It's also very easy t digest making it a great introduction for new gardeners or a nice reference for more intermediate/advanced gardeners.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book, for free, in exchange for an honest review.

I found this to be an average gardening book. That being said, I like a very particular type of content and layout. For example, I tend to like nice tables showing things like what grows well in each season, pests vs remedies, companion planting, etc. I also tend to be hard to please, at least in terms of gardening books (I've only found a few that distinguished them from the herd). Based on the other early reviews I am a bit of an outlier in my average rating, so take this review with a grain of salt.

Negatives:
there weren't many of insects and plant diseases (which is a flaw shared with most gardening books). The topics didn't seem that useful. I am mostly interested in garden knowledge and topics of planning, reuse and lawns don't reach me. That being said, this book is certainly better than many gardening books (I shrink away from any gardening book with the word "design" in the title).
Not much space dedicated to the specifics of growing particular plants.

Positives
This book was well written and beautifully layed out. Additionally, the book had plenty of beautiful pics

[Sheryl Normandeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite aspects of Mark Highland's book Practical Organic Gardening is his attention to soil health. His discussion of the significance of the relationship between the microbial activity in the soil and organic gardening/no-till (or low-till) principles is one many gardeners may be interested in. No matter if you garden organically or not, knowing something about the biological and physical properties of your soil will help you offer the very best for your plants. And understanding how to conserve your soil brings your garden closer to sustainability.

When he’s not presenting valuable tips about boosting soil health, Highland covers everything from irrigation and siting, to amendments and mulching, and using organic controls within Integrated Pest Management. He talks about food forests and mushroom farming. He offers solutions for container and raised bed gardening, and explores xeriscaping design. He wades into the lawn/no lawn debate. Chapters explore planning your garden, seed starting, and vegetative propagation.

With its accessible layout, excellent photography, and straightforward, experienced voice, Practical Organic Gardening is comprehensive and highly informative; I can easily see this as a go-to manual for both novice and experienced organic gardeners.

[Kin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book on gardening for beginners, yes definitely it’s difficult to read a book these days when you can just see YouTube videos on gardening live in action.
Author gives you whole perspective of organic environment , starting from soil , planting seeds, watering, pests and disease etc.

Learnings:
We shouldn’t disturb garden bed soil since there is already microbial life.

When we plant monoculture I.e. only one type of tree/crop or one variety of flower across your entire yard we invite pest outbreaks.

When plant is not grown in ideal conditions like weather, location it invites more insect infestations.

To add water holding capacity in soil we can add compost. Fine textured soil high in organic master drain slowly.

[Critterbee❇ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical Organic Gardening: The No-Nonsense Guide to Growing Naturally is correctly titled. This non-nonsense gardening manual is filled with wonderful photographs and pretty encyclopedic knowledge of gardening.

The millions of photos are so helpful, especially for newer gardeners / farmers who don't know what the heck stuff is supposed to look like (me). There are key tips and charts of everything from common plant diseases and plants that attract pollinators to seed longevity and crop rotation planning.

I would love to have a print copy of this book to keep on hand for all my gardening questions.

*eARC Netgalley*

[Annie Oosterwyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent overview of organic gardening for beginners. Covers a wide range of topics in a straightforward way. I have put it on the list for my Hs library/agriscience teachers.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very informative. There's a lot more to gardening then putting a seed in the ground, watering it, and hoping it grows. It being about organic gardening is a big plus.

[Tim Milligan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very practical book, many good reference tables. Not everything, but enough, I think

[Gaby]

DNF

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a readable guide to the basics of organic gardening with many step-by-step instructions, beautiful photos, and tested tips. It's an excellent resource for those wanting to understand and implement organic gardening on a small scale.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

For general public. This book can be consulted to create or maintain a community garden or a backyard garden. Very good tools, step by step techniques and educational section.

[David Johnson]

Fantastic read, full of useful and helpful ideas. A must read for the serious gardener.