This is a handbook for growing a Victory Garden when the enemy is global warming. Acadia Tucker, who farms in New Hampshire, grounds her call-to-action in the principles of regenerative agriculture. It's an approach that has the potential to revolutionize the way food is farmed by promoting water conservation, drastically cutting the need for chemical pesticides and fertilizer, and putting carbon back in the soil.
Tucker takes these sustainable agricultural practices and translates them into methods gardeners can use. She wants to inspire people to take up regenerative gardening, not just as a hobby, but as a powerful way to care for the planet.
Tucker tells aspiring gardeners how to build the soil by disturbing it as little as possible, covering it with organic material, and using only natural fertilizers. And she tells you why it matters. Feeding the soil reduces carbon in the atmosphere. If enough of us did it we could reverse global warming.
Her strategy for turning more of us into gardening activists relies on using a pared-down approach to growing food. In a series of steps simple enough for anyone new to trowels and pitchforks to understand, Tucker explains how to mulch, compost, weed, water, and harvest. She offers specific advice for growing 20 crops, 10 of which are resilient perennials, like broccoli, artichokes, and sweet potatoes. For the tomatoes, beans, and other annuals included here, she offers advice on how to grow them regenerative methods.
This handbook is illustrated with beautiful pen & ink drawings and includes a list of resources. It's call-to-gardening activism between two covers. Practical guidance on how to change the world, and grow some really good food while you're at it.
Growing Good Food: A Citizen's Guide to Backyard Carbon Farming is part of our Growing Food series. It's a companion guide to Growing Perennial Foods: A Field Guide to Raising Resilient Herbs, Fruits, and Vegetables, also written by Acadia Tucker and set to publish in Fall 2018.