Cover crops play a vital role in sustainable cropping systems, and this SARE manual belongs in every farmer’s library. It provides a wealth of information on cover crops, their benefits, and their use and management in row crops, vegetables, and other horticultural crops. Chapters include cover cropping for soil fertility and tilth, pest and weed management; crop rotation; conservation tillage (both organic and conventional systems); a set of charts giving excellent guidance on selection, planting, and management; and in-depth information on about 20 individual crops.
How to Grow More Vegetables (and fruits, nuts, berries, grains, and other crops) than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine, 7th edition, by John Jeavons with a foreword by Alice Waters. 2006. Ten speed press, Berkeley, CA. 268 pp. Available through Ecology Action, http://www.growbiointensive.org.
This is the latest edition of the complete manual on the Biointensive Minifarming method of sustainable and organic horticulture, originally brought to this country under the moniker “biodynamic French-intensive,” and further developed by John Jeavons to maximize on-farm sourcing of organic matter and fertility. Packed with good basic horticultural information as well as Jeavons’ systems for developing a deep, living soil profile that supports high yield intensive production. NOTE: some of the more disease prone crops (e.g., tomato) may not perform optimally in our humid climate at the close plant spacings recommended in this manual.
Four Season Harvest – By Eliot Coleman
The BackYard Berry Book – Stella Otto
