The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient-Dense Food
Ebook
Ebooks are designed for reading and have few connections to your library.
Overview
"It is bold, it is courageous, and it challenges many of our preconceptions about food, about soils, about farming, and about health." —Michael Ableman, farmer, author of Farm the City
To grow produce of the highest nutritional quality, the essential minerals lacking in our soil from intensive agriculture must be replaced. The Intelligent Gardener is the practical, step-by-step guide for any serious gardener who wants to:
· Demystify this process
· Debunk much of the false and misleading information perpetuated by both the conventional and organic agricultural movements
· Re-mineralize our soil.
Accompanied with customizable web-based spreadsheets, this toolkit calls for far more attention to detail than the simple addition of composted manure or NPK fertilizers. It conclusively establishes the link between healthy soil, healthy food, and healthy people.
Vegetables, fruits, and grains are a major source of vital nutrients, but centuries of intensive agriculture have depleted our soils to historic lows. As a result, the broccoli you consume today may have less than half the vitamins and minerals that the equivalent serving would have contained a hundred years ago. This is a matter of serious concern, since poor nutrition has been linked to myriad health problems including cancer, heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. For optimum health we must increase the nutrient density of our foods to the levels enjoyed by previous generations.
The Intelligent Gardener goes beyond organic—it offers the essential tools for those who care about the quality of the produce they grow.
“It’s hard to imagine this book not having a significant and lasting impact on the way organic farmers and gardeners grow their crops." —Mark McDonald, West Coast Seeds
”A new book from Steve Solomon is reason for excitement in itself. With The Intelligent Gardener , he has re-thought one of the most basic aspects of gardening - basic soil chemistry—and generously supplied us with sensible, practical methods to increase the nutrient density of the food we grow. This book forces serious growers to reconsider some fundamental gardening principles, and to question much of the accepted wisdom on the subject. It’s hard to imagine this book not having a significant and lasting impact on the way organic farmers and gardeners grow their crops." —Mark McDonald, West Coast Seeds
"The true test of any gardening book is whether it inspires the grower to new action. The Intelligent Gardener indeed inspires me to action, to test my soils more thoroughly, to re-examine my assumptions on compost management and to seek to improve the nutritional value of our produce with a better understanding of our farm’s soil. Steve Solomon draws on his years of experience and research to challenge our assumptions of what is good organic soil management and to share his insights for growing the highest quality, nutrient dense food. We are what we eat, and our food is only as healthful as the soil we grow it in. The Intelligent Gardener is a valuable tool for anyone seeking to get the highest food value from their garden." —Darrell Frey, author of Bioshelter Market Garden
"The Intelligent Gardener is more than just “intelligent", it is bold, it is courageous, and it challenges many of our preconceptions about food, about soils, about farming, and about health. The storytelling is excellent, the science based on experience rather than some out of context lab experiment, the advice and application easy to follow. Everyone should read this, not just gardeners, as it reminds us of where we came from, where we need to go, and provides some clear direction for getting there." —Michael Ableman is a farmer, author of From The Good Earth, On Good Land, and Fields of Plenty .
"Gardeners in temperate climates should be very grateful to Steve Solomon for addressing the issues of soil testing for fertility in such an engaging and clear way. I look forward to spending time working with the technical methodology." —Binda Colebrook, Horticulturist and author of Winter Gardening in the Maritime Northwest
- Title: The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient-Dense Food
- Authors: Steve Solomon, Erica Reinheimer
- Publisher: New Society Publishers
- Print Publication Date: 2012
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 339
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781550925135, 9780865717183, 0865717184, 155092513X
- Resource ID: LLS:9781550925135
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-11-25T08:18:20Z
Steve Solomon is the founder of the Territorial Seed Company. He has been growing most of his family's food for over thirty-five years, and is the author of several landmark gardening books including Gardening When it Counts and Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. He currently homesteads in Tasmania.