"Gardening When It Counts" - What do you think of this book?

I just got done reading this book and am wondering if folks here have tried some of the author's suggestions. For example, he talks about using wide spacing because he says that this ensures that the plants have more area to get water from when you are not using irrigation. Has anyone tried this wider spacing? I was thinking of having a separate plot to try some of his techniques.

What he said about OP varieties especially intrigued me. He says that a lot of OP varieties of veggies have been ruined because the wholesalers have focused on hybrids and have not maintained the lines of OP cultivars, which have degenerated and now include all sorts of plants that don't produce well or even at all. He used to run Territorial Seed, so I suppose he has experience with this matter. He especially picked on De Cicco broc, for instance. I actually tried this last season and I must say it was a total bust; a lot of plants made no buds whatsoever, but I was not sure if it was me or what. I myself have been focusing on using OP varieties for years, but the stuff I have grown the most of is inbreeding anyhow (like tomatoes, pepper, eggplants, etc.), so hybrids are not a big deal.

Just curious what others experience has been using any of his ideas in growing.

I'll have to see if I can get a copy thru the library. It sounds interesting. However, I grew De Cicco, and I prefer it. I had great results. Off 4 plants, several gals of broccoli flowerets, plus the main heads.
I'm trying heirlooms in tomatoes and peppers this year.
While I can see the premise of leaving more spacing between plants, what's he suggesting about control weeds? Mulch?

No, he suggests hoeing to control weeds. I have actually used the mulchless method for the last two years, and I thinkg it is easier. I have a stirrup hoe and that takes the weeds out easily, plus I don't have to buy a bunch of stuff to mulch with, as my garden is way too big for my own compost to be enough. I also used soaker hoses and watered in the early morning maybe once or twice a week and so did not have any problems with lack of irrigation, nor did I see any appreciable increase in my water bill. Not using any mulch meant that I had no slugs and a lot fewer of other bugs, from what I could see. I was surprised. I would now use a (non-living) mulch if I were planting perennials but not for annuals like veggies. I'm still planning on trying a living mulch with some veggies this year, though--mostly white clover.

Where did you get your De Cicco seeds from, doccat?

This message was edited Mar 4, 2008 8:22 AM

Ferry Morse

I'm with doccat on the De Cicco, I had great results with it and have for years. I like it well enough to allow a few plants to continuing growing for seed stock this year. It's been around for years so is a definite keeper in my book.

I haven't read the book you've mentioned, paracelsus, but might check it out sometime. Regarding wide spacing I tend to do that for some things here, mainly to allow good air circulation for particular plants. Being in the humid South it is often-times a necessity.

More often than not I'll do both close spacing and wide spacing simultaneously by seeding/planting things very close and harvest here and there when things become of edible size. By removing/harvesting as the season progresses it opens up areas between the remaining plants allowing them room to grow, both top growth as well as root growth.

As for OP and hybrids, although I've grown "heirlooms" for nearly 25 years, in the past 7 or 8 years I've begun to enjoy certain hybrids as well. Quite a few of them I have involved in stabilization projects hoping to create OP's out of them. (As a former "anti-hybrid" grower I've finally realized some of those really have some merit to them!) :>)

Shoe

I feel the same way about hybrids--some of them are worth growing. Both the author of the "Gardening When It Counts" and the woman who wrote Breeding Your Own Vegetables have commented that they think a number of hybrids are actually not hybrids but have become open pollinated. They notice that the first generation grown from seed collected from the hybrid plants is just like the hybrid plants, which isn't possible if they come from an authentic hybrid.

Greetings --

I read this book a few weeks ago (from the library) and found parts of it quite interesting.

I was struck, as you were, by the author's point that many OP varieties bring sold by commercial firms my no longer be stable / particularly good due to unintended crosses. While he doesn't think much of most heirloom / OP variety exchange groups, I can't help but think that they might be better source for true OP or heirloom types.

I also found his critique of retail seed houses and his suggestions for the best seed sources for different regions very interesting. I agree completely that I prefer to use companies that sell the same seeds to home gardeners as they do to market gardeners / farmers.

As for the intensive bed vs wide bed debate, I personally use of both. Is he correct that wide-beds are ultimately more productive? I don't know -- but at least he makes intelligent, well reasoned arguments.

I'm not truly 'Gardening When It Counts' (my family will not go hungry if the garden fails to produce), but if I were, I think I'd be tempted to follow his advice.

Liane