Solar Gardening: Growing Vegetables Year-Round the American Intensive Way

by Leandre Poisson, Gretchen Vogel Poisson, Robin Wimbiscus (Illustrator)

This book introduces a comprehensive gardening system that allows you to concentrate and retain the sun's energy in order to grow more vegetables on less space -- organically and efficiently, all twelve months of the year.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Horticulture, Food

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1994

Reviews

[Felicity Fields · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a recommendation from a permaculture/food forest gardening book, and I picked it up because after learning to garden in Oklahoma with a long, hot growing season, I'm moving to New York and have been reading up on cold-climate gardening.

This book was an excellent read. It presented the same principles in Eliot Coleman's the 4-Season Garden with a different method of execution. There are merits to both systems, although the solar appliances in this book also work to shade plants in the summer, giving it a broader geographic range and more uses than just the northeast.

I found the writing direct and approachable, though I skimmed some of the basic gardening how-to sections as those weren't relevant for me. I especially liked the 3 chapters at the end on specific crops and how to use them with the solar appliances, and the instructions on building your own appliances instead of buying them is budget-friendly.

One note: the copyright is from the 1990s, so there are several references to using newspapers that are dated. But those don't interfere with the main teachings in the book.

[Laurla2]

some was a bit ridiculous for small scale gardening, but still a lot of helpful information. based on the marais method, french intensive gardening.
-they build big 'pods' and pod extenders to insulate sections of the garden year round. 4'x8' and 8'x8'. that'd be overkill in my size garden. they also make solar cones, which seem more a reasonable size. i found the website http://www.solar-components.com/SUN.HTM . i can buy enough material for ONE single solar cone for $70. or enough for four, for $200. thats a bit rich for my blood. i'd also have to buy nuts and bolts to fasten it together, and come up with a way to anchor it into the soil so it didnt blow away. maybe when i get more of my garden converted to raised beds, i might revisit the pod idea. but the 'sunlite' material needed for one 4'x8' costs $190, plus all the wood supports and fasteners and $26 of their special insulation too. so maybe not on that.
-they also suggested not making any rows or aisles in the garden, just throw out 8" wide boards and walk on them. except i cant balance or squat or sit on a little 8" wide board.
-the marais method suggests pruning watermelon vines to only two shoots before transplanting. then -when the plant is well established, prune back those two stems so that each one has four leaves. as they grow, prune off any lateral shoots. this radical pruning not only discourages melon vines from wandering all over the garden, but encourages the plants to ripen a few perfect fruits close to the main stem. pruning the tips of the vines removes the last little fruits that will never have time to ripen. do this when only a month or so remains in the growing season.
-peanuts, when the plants have grown 12 inches high, hill up soil over their roots. mulch the plants once they have finished blooming. after frost has killed the plants, harvest the nuts, removing them from the roots and drying them in their shells in a dry place out of the elements.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

first few chapters were interesting. the rest was review