The Tao of Vegetable Gardening · Cultivating Tomatoes, Greens, Peas, Beans, Squash, Joy, and Serenity by Deppe, Carol -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Honoring the Land

Gardening in Nature’s Image—But Which Nature and Which Image? Has Nature Thought of Everything? On Being a Member of a Keystone Species Organic and Beyond

Honoring the Essential Nature of the Plants

Sun, Earth, Air, Water, Warmth What Can We Grow? Expected First and Last Frost Dates Sun and Shade Tolerance Some Like It Hot; Some Like It Cold When to Plant Everything

Honoring Your Own Essential Nature

Discovering Your Inner Gardener Planning Versus Spontaneity Structure, Labor, and Freedom

Flexibility

Choosing Gardening Styles and Methods Getting the Most from the Small Garden Volunteers How to Eat a Weed—Dandelions, Lambsquarters, Purslane The Prepper’s Garden

Balance

Grand Versus Prosaic How Much Garden? Limiting Factors Too Much Tilling Too Much Watering Too Much Fertilizer Too Many Pests Knowing When to Stop

Non-Doing

Daring to Not Do On Not Tilling, Digging, Mowing, or Tending Absolutely Everything Twenty-Four Good Places Not to Plant a Tree Seven Reasons Not to Chop Down a Tree Thirty-Seven Reasons for Not Planting Various Vegetables A Weed by Any Other Name Is Usually Still a Weed

Beginning—Tomatoes

Begin with Something You Really Love Tomato Kinds and Colors Flavor Favorites Thirty Interesting Open-Pollinated Tomato Varieties Starting Tomatoes from Seed—Growing Transplants Preparing the Ground Hardening Off and Planting Transplants Do Carrots Really Love Tomatoes?—Garden Woman Adventures Supporting and Nurturing Watering and Mulching Why It Will Soon Be Impossible to Grow Our Current Generation of Heirloom Tomatoes and What to Do About It—Late Blight 101 Dealing with Late Blight Late Blight Resistant Hybrid Tomato Varieties Late Blight Resistant Heirloom and Open-Pollinated Varieties Why the Best-Flavored Tomato May Not Be the One That Is Picked Vine-Ripe Using Green Tomatoes

Nurturing—Weeding

Avoid, Delay, Remove Garden Woman Meets Pigweed with Attitude The American Square Hoe Buying, Using, and Sharpening the Peasant Hoe Buying, Using, and Sharpening the Coleman Hoe Stirrup Hoes Wheel Hoes Electric Wheel Hoe and Electric Tiller

Non-Knowing—Squash

Adventures in Ignorance The Perfect Polyculture—Squash and Overwintering Kale ‘Candystick Dessert Delicata’ Squash ‘Lofthouse Landrace Moschata’ Squash Butternut Squash Cookery Planting by the Moon True Understanding

Effortless Effort—The Eat-All Greens Garden

The No-Labor Garden—Just Sow and Harvest The Nutritionally Most Important Home Garden Crop Leaves Versus Heads or Stems The Essential Role of Cooking Using Greens in Soups and Stews The Mess o’ Greens Harvesting and Handling Eat-All Greens Freezing Eat-All Greens Dried Greens and Herbal Teas Growing Eat-All Greens Eleven Great Eat-All Greens Varieties

Peas and Beans

Nitrogen Fixing and Legumes Dry Seeds Versus Edible Pods Versus Green Seeds Pea Vine Types and Support Shelling Peas Edible-Podded Peas Growing Peas Keep Peas and Beans Picked Harvesting and Using Edible-Podded Peas Kinds of Bean Varieties—Green, Dry, Shelly Pole Versus Bush Green Beans Seed Color and Green Bean Flavor Supporting Pole Beans Growing Beans Growing Pole Beans on Corn Harvesting and Using Green Beans

Joy

Jumping for Joy On Carrying Vegetables Weeding Meditation Noticing Simple Pleasures Sunset

Completion—Seeds

Cycles and Circles The Do-It-Yourself Seed Bank Preparing Seed for Long-Term Storage Containers for Storing Seed Eight Seed-Saving Myths Creating Your Own Modern Landraces Rejuvenating Heirloom Varieties Breeding Crops for Organic Systems Dehybridizing Hybrids—Disease-Resistant Tomatoes Tomato Genes and Genetics Breeding the Heirloom Tomatoes of Tomorrow

Seed Companies and Sources Index Color Gallery About the Author