Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Honoring the Land
Gardening in Nature's Image—But Which Nature and Which
Image? | Has Nature Thought of Everything? | On Being
a Member of a Keystone Species. | Organic and Beyond.
2. Honoring the Essential Nature of the Plants
Sun, Earth, Air, Water, Warmth. | What Can We Grow? |
Expected First and Last Frost Dates. | Sun and Shade
Tolerance. | Some Like It Hot; Some Like It Cold. | When
to Plant Everything. | Planting Guide.
3. Honoring Your Own Essential Nature
Discovering Your Inner Gardener. | Planning Versus
Spontaneity. | Structure, Labor, and Freedom.
4. Flexibility
Choosing Gardening Styles and Methods. | Getting the
Most from the Small Garden. | Volunteers. | How to Eat a
a Weed—Dandelions, Lambsquarters, Purslane. | The
Prepper's Garden.
5. Balance
Grand Versus Prosaic. | How Much Garden? | Limiting
Factors.| Too Much Tilling. | Too Much Watering. | Too
Much Fertilizer. | Too Many Pests. | Knowing When to
Stop.
6. Non-Doing
Daring to Not Do. | On Not Tilling, Digging, Mowing, or
Tending Absolutely Everything. | Twenty-Four Good
Places Not to Plant a Tree. | Seven Reasons Not to Chop
Down a Tree. | Thirty-Seven Reasons for Not Planting
Various Vegetables. | On Not Planting Purple Flowers in
Front of an Orange Brick House. | Flower-Patterned
Shirts Attract Bees. | A Weed by Any Other Name Is
Usually Still a Weed.
7. Beginning—Tomatoes
Begin with Something You Really Love. | Tomato Kinds
and Colors. | Flavor Favorites. | Thirty Interesting
Open-Pollinated TomatoVarieties. | Starting Tomatoes
from Seed–Growing Transplants. | Potting Soil for
Germinating Seeds and Starting Transplants. | Preparing
the Ground. | Hardening Off and Planting Transplants.
| Do Carrots Really Love Tomatoes?—Garden Woman
Adventures. | Polycultures. | Supporting and Nurturing.
| Watering and Mulching. | Why It Will Soon Be
Impossible to Grow Our Current Generation of Heirloom
Tomatoes and What to Do About It–Late Blight |
Dealing with Late Blight. | Late Blight Resistant Hybrid
Tomato Varieties. | Late Blight Resistant Heirloom and
Open-Pollinated Varieties. | Why the Best-Flavored
Tomato May Not Be the One That Is Picked Vine-Ripe.
| Using Green Tomatoes.
8. Nurturing—Weeding
Avoid, Delay, Remove. | Garden Woman Meets Pigweed
with Attitude. | The American Square Hoe. | Buying,
Using, and Sharpening the Peasant Hoe. | Buying, Using,
and Sharpening the Coleman Hoe. | Stirrup Hoes. |
Wheel Hoes. | Electric Wheel Hoe and Electric Tiller.
9. Non-Knowing—Squash
Adventures in Ignorance. | The Perfect
Polyculture—Squash and Overwintering Kale. |
‘Candystick Dessert Delicata’ Squash. |‘Lofthouse
Landrace Moschata’ Squash. | Apologizing to a Squash.
| Butternut Squash Cookery. | Planting by the Moon.
| Talking to Your Plants. | True Understanding.
10. Effortless Effort—The Eat-All Greens Garden
The No-Labor Garden—Just Sow and Harvest. | The
Nutritionally Most Important Home Garden Crop. |
Leaves Versus Heads or Stems. | The Essential Role of
Cooking. | Using Greens in Soups and Stews. | The
Mess o' Greens. | Harvesting and Handling Eat-All
Greens. | Freezing Eat-All Greens. | Dried Greens and
Herbal Teas. | Lactofermenting Greens. | Growing
Eat-All Greens. | Eleven Great Eat-All Greens Varieties.
11. Peas and Beans
Nitrogen Fixing and Legumes. | Dry Seeds Versus Edible
Pods Versus Green Seeds. | Pea Vine Types and
Support. | Shelling Peas. | Edible-Podded Peas. |
Growing Peas. | Presoaking Legume Seed Without
Suffocating It. | Keep Peas and Beans Picked. |
Harvesting and Using Edible-Podded Peas. | Kinds
of Bean Varieties—Green, Dry, Shelly. | Pole Versus
Bush Green Beans. | Seed Color and Green Bean Flavor.
| Supporting Pole Beans. | Growing Beans. | Growing
Pole Beans on Corn. | Harvesting and Using Green Beans.
12. Joy
Jumping for Joy. | On Carrying Vegetables. | Weeding
Meditation. | Noticing. | Simple Pleasures. | Sunset.
13. Completion—Seeds
Cycles and Circles. | The Do-It-Yourself Seed Bank. |
You Will Not Fall Off the Edge of the Earth If You
Don't Save All Your Own Seed. | Preparing Seed for
Long-Term Storage. | Containers for Storing Seed. |
Eight Seed-Saving Myths. | Creating Your Own Modern
Landraces. | Rejuvenating Heirloom Varieties. | Breeding
Crops for Organic Systems. | Dehybridizing
Hybrids—Disease-Resistant Tomatoes. | Tomato
Genes and Genetics. | Breeding the Heirloom Tomatoes
of Tomorrow.
Appendix. Seed Companies and Sources
Index