Presents advice on how to improve growing soil, discussing some of the current misconceptions about soil and providing the best methods for adding enhancements that will produce nutrient-dense foods.

Revitalize your garden—and go beyond compost—by making your own biologically diverse inoculants and mineral-rich amendments using leaf mold, weeds, eggshells, bones, and other materials available for little or no cost! In The Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments, experimental gardener and author Nigel Palmer provides practical, detailed instructions that are accessible to every grower who wants to achieve a truly sustainable garden ecosystem—all while enjoying better results at a fraction of the cost of commercial fertilizer products. These recipes go beyond fertilizer replacement, resulting in greater soil biological activity and mineral availability. They also increase pest and disease resistance, yields, and nutrient density. Recipes include: Extracting nutrients from plant residues using simple rainwater techniques Extracting minerals from bones and shells using vinegar Fermenting plant juices and fish Culturing indigenous microorganisms (IMO) Inspired by the work of many innovative traditional agricultural pioneers, especially Cho Ju-Young (founder of the Korean Natural Farming method), The Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments also includes a primer on plant-soil interaction, instructions for conducting a soil test, and guidance on compost, cover cropping, mulching, measuring the quality of fruits and vegetables using a refractometer, and other aspects of sustainable gardening—making it a must-have resource for any serious grower.

In Mycorrhizal Planet, Michael Phillips offers new insights into the invisible world beneath our feet, explaining the crucial, symbiotic role that fungi play in everything from healthy plants to healthy soils to a healthy planet.--COVER.

The passion and urgency that inspired WWI and WWII Victory Gardens is needed today to meet another threat to our food supply and our environment—the steep decline of pollinators. The Pollinator Victory Garden offers practical solutions for winning the war against the demise of these essential animals. Pollinators are critical to our food supply and responsible for the pollination of the vast majority of all flowering plants on our planet. Pollinators include not just bees, but many different types of animals, including insects and mammals. Beetles, bats, birds, butterflies, moths, flies, and wasps can be pollinators. But, many pollinators are in trouble, and the reality is that most of our landscapes have little to offer them. Our residential and commercial landscapes are filled with vast green pollinator deserts, better known as lawns. These monotonous green expanses are ecological wastelands for bees and other pollinators. With The Pollinator Victory Garden, you can give pollinators a fighting chance. Learn how to transition your landscape into a pollinator haven by creating a habitat that includes pollinator nutrition, larval host plants for butterflies and moths, and areas for egg laying, nesting, sheltering, overwintering, resting, and warming. Find a wealth of information to support pollinators while improving the environment around you: • The importance of pollinators and the specific threats to their survival• How to provide food for pollinators using native perennials, trees, and shrubs that bloom in succession• Detailed profiles of the major pollinator types and how to attract and support each one• Tips for creating and growing a Pollinator Victory Garden, including site assessment, planning, and planting goals• Project ideas like pollinator islands, enriched landscape edges, revamped foundation plantings, meadowscapes, and other pollinator-friendly lawn alternatives The time is right for a new gardening movement. Every yard, community garden, rooftop, porch, patio, commercial, and municipal landscape can help to win the war against pollinator decline with The Pollinator Victory Garden.

A 2014 Garden Writers Association Media Award Winner Just as he demystified the soil food web in his ground-breaking book Teaming with Microbes, in this new work Jeff Lowenfels explains the basics of plant nutrition from an organic gardener’s perspective. Most gardeners realize that plants need to be fed but know little or nothing about the nature of the nutrients and the mechanisms involved. In his trademark down-to-earth, style, Lowenfels explains the role of both macronutrients and micronutrients and shows gardeners how to provide these essentials through organic, easy-to-follow techniques. Along the way, Lowenfels gives the reader easy-to-grasp lessons in the biology, chemistry, and botany needed to understand how nutrients get into the plant and what they do once they’re inside.

ULTRA Powerful Pest and Disease Control Solution Make all-Natural Pesticide. Farm at $100 per acre a year. Everything you need to know to: Go completely organic Boost quality and yield Save huge, huge, HUGE costs Make all-natural fertilizer, pesticide, and microorganism inputs yourself. JADAM’s ultimate objective is to bring farming back to farmers. Through JADAM’s method, farming can become ultra-low-cost, completely organic, and farmers can once again become the masters of farming. Farmers will possess the knowledge, method, and technology of farming. When organic farming becomes easy, effective, and inexpensive, it can finally become a practical alternative. Farmers, consumers, and Mother Nature will all rejoice in this splendid new world we wish to open. You will learn many useful new methods including increasing microbial diversity and population, boosting soil minerals, tackling soil compaction, reducing salt levels, raising soil fertility, and more. This book also shows you how to make natural pesticides that can replace chemical ones. He started organic farming and raised animals himself from 1991 in Asan, Chungnam province. He went on to establish "Jadam Organic Farming" and started to promote this farming system through books and website (www.jadam.kr). He established "Jadam Natural Pesticide Institute" in 2002 from where he continued his research while integrating knowledge from many experienced farmers which led to the completion of the system of ultra-low-cost Jadam organic farming. He invented and developed many technologies for a natural pesticide which he voluntarily did not patent but rather shared through books and website. His "Natural Pesticide Workshops" teaches the essence of ultra-low-cost JADAM organic farming. Lectures, too, are disclosed on JADAM website(en.jadam.kr).