Sustainable Food Gardens: Myths and Solutions
In the course of his 40-plus years of first-hand experience in sustainable horticulture, Robert Kourik received many accolades.
By Robert Kourik
Metamorphic Press
Oct. 15 2021
Edible landscaping pioneer Robert Kourik deftly guides the reader through the mysteries of growing plants and designing landscapes in temperate climates and suburbs, and the use of all-natural, sustainable methods to grow and maintain a healthy variety of plants.
Would you like to garden without digging, composting, buying fertilizers, spraying with pesticides, or lamenting low yields?
If so, Sustainable Food Gardening is the book you’ve been waiting for, with over 450 pages, 13 chapters, and 487 color photos, illustrations, charts, and graphs. Author Robert Kourik began his career in natural landscape design and maintenance in 1974, with one of the first sustainably oriented organic gardening businesses in the country.
Design your own “edible landscapes.”
Use no-till techniques to preserve the integrity of your soil
Adapt your growing space to fit into a wide range of USDA garden zones
Review alternative ways to change “guilds’ (well-intended clusters of trees and shrubs jumbled together) to more effective and labor-saving plantings.
Grow new kinds of beautiful and productive Victory gardens
Plant Native American “Three-Sisters” gardens that actually work
Learn many myths about roots, and what to do to help them thrive
Attract many beneficial insects to your garden with strategic flower plantings
Here are some of the other topics covered in depth:
Rainwater catchment/cisterns.
Hügelkulturs (do you really need raised garden beds filled with rotten wood?).
Options for better, faster ways to maximize and improve soil.
“Dynamic accumulation”—a myth with some useful guidelines.
Avoiding hours of tree-pruning and encouraging fruiting with a few dozen clothespins.
Clever ways to install and simplify drip irrigation
Using plants to lure good insects that prey upon pests.
Promoting beneficial soil life.
Adding food crops to a native-looking landscape.
