The New Organic Grower – Book Review
The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman was one of the first gardening books I ever purchased, and the 30th Anniversary Edition is a worthy successor to the original. Whether you’re a gardener or a market farmer, The New Organic Grower is an excellent addition for your garden library.
The New Organic Grower is as much about “why” as “how”. Why we need to chose living soil over chemical fertilizers, even if the chemicals seem cheaper up front. Why growing systems should include both plants and animals. There’s history, tools, troubleshooting and inspiration.
Eliot Coleman’s “plant positive” approach is much needed in a world that focuses on treating plant diseases. While a garden may never be 100% “pest free”, truly healthy plants take little damage from pests. On the flip side, stressed plants attract more bugs and disease. While we work towards our personal Edens, Eliot offers practical advice to help us get there, step by step.
The full color photos throughout bring the text to life. It was wonderful to see a new section on growing flowers for market. In addition to being a lucrative crop, they increase biodiversity and add beauty. The market garden stand at Four Season Farm was particularly eye-catching.
I’m still in love with the movable greenhouses greenhouses and four season harvest, which drew me to the original text. I also appreciate the small scale tools that are functional for market and larger home gardeners alike. If you want to work on rebuilding connections between us and our food, The New Organic Grower is a welcome read.
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More Tips for Home and Market Gardeners
In addition to The New Organic Grower, we have over 60 other book reviews on the site, including a wide array of books on gardening and permaculture. They include:
- The Lean Farm – Making More Income with Less Work
- The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables – Efficient Organic Production
- Working with Nature – Shifting Paradigms and The Essence of Organic Gardening
- The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower’s Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming
- Mycorrhizal Planet – Nurturing Fungi to to Build Soil Fertility and Support Plant Health
For a full list of available reviews, visit the Homestead Library page.
We also have over 100+ Gardening articles here on the website, featuring information from seed starting to harvest.
Questions? Comments? Any gardening questions? Leave a comment below to share your thoughts. We’re here to help.
Happy I found your website. Purchased a small homestead and looking forward to my very first garden next year. This looks like am good book to invest in.
Merry Christmas ????
Merry Christmas, Theresia, and congratulations on your new homestead.
I purchased the original book about 24 years ago and still turn to it for gardening advise. I had the opportunity to hear Eliot Coleman speak at a Mother Earth News fair and he was a very entertaining speaker. He shared his new inventions to improve gardening.
I will surely be ordering the new book!
Love the blog and I admire what you and your family have created.
The full color photos add a lot to the text over the previous editions, at least for me. It’s tough to capture all the details of planting and equipment in an illustration.
Thank you for your kind words.