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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Pushing the Possible
  • Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2007 12:48:06 -0700


Pushing the Possible
Posted by Kathy Purdy under Book reviews , Vegetables
http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2006/12/13/pushing-the-possible/

When growing food, the greatest obstacle a cold climate presents to the
gardener is the short growing season. In a classic example of great minds
thinking alike, here are two books that address that obstacle with similar
approaches. All of the authors live in New England and were influenced by
Scott and Helen Nearing and French intensive gardening methods. Both books
have a two-pronged approach: use devices to moderate the climate and extend
the season, and focus on growing vegetables that can live with cooler
temperatures and low light requirements. Published in 1994, Solar
Gardening: Growing Vegetables Year-Round the American Intensive Way by
Leandre and Gretchen Vogel Poisson is the more technical of the two books,
not too surprising given that Leandre is an industrial designer by
training. (He designed the Grey Poupon mustard jar.)

The book is divided into four parts. The first part describes their
motivation for extending the growing season, traces the development of
their solar appliances, and outlines the basics of their approach. The
second part gets into the nitty-gritty of how their system works and is a
primer on organic gardening as well. Part Three shows you how to build the
solar cone, the solar pod, the pod extender and the drop frame. The solar
cone is like a three-foot wide cloche, and the solar pod with its extender
is a glorified cold frame. They make use of a fiberglass glazing material
called Sunlite and dimensional lumber. Tips on growing over ninety garden
vegetables comprise the fourth part of the book.

Eliot Coleman’s Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home
Garden All Year Long was first published in 1992 under a slightly different
name, and later revised and expanded in 1999. (I am reviewing the earlier
edition.) Coleman’s approach is closer to that of the gourmand than the
zealot. He seems more concerned with eating the best-tasting food possible
with the least trouble and expense than with the best way to save the
planet. Consequently his “appliances” seem more approachable and
doable, though I have no idea if in the end they are any easier or cheaper
to construct than what the Poissons propose. Coleman’s two structures are
tunnels and coldframes. The tunnels are essentially hoophouses, except that
Coleman has devised a movable one, where it is erected on tracks and slid
over more than one location in the garden. In the winter it is over the
cold weather crops to keep them from freezing, and in the summer it is over
the crops needing the most heat (think melons).

Coleman’s book is organized along similar lines to the Poissons’ book,
but his marketing instincts are better. In his first chapter, which
outlines the basic principles, the subheadings are: “Getting Started,”
“Celebrating Variety and Seasonality,” “The Inviting Garden,”
“The Spacious Garden,” “The Guilt-Free Garden,” and “The Organic
Garden.” As the reader, I haven’t done anything more than scan the
Table of Contents and I’m already half-persuaded. The next three chapters
are his organic gardening primer, with an eye, of course, to how the season
will be extended. Following that are two chapters on the season extenders
themselves–constructing and then using them. A chapter on storing
vegetables is next. Coleman relies on root cellaring almost exclusively;
the Poissons do a lot of canning as well. After a brief chapter on pests
(which mostly discusses why he doesn’t have many), the final chapter is
an encyclopedia of vegetables similar to what is found in the Poissons’
book.

Neither book advocates a heated greenhouse. Both rely on bringing the
hardiest vegetables to just shy of maturity before the darkest, coldest
part of the year and then keeping them in harvestable condition through the
use of some kind of protection. They both also aim to start sowing earlier
in the season by using that same protection. Both expand the definition of
hardy vegetable beyond our traditional understanding, utilizing the cuisine
of many cultures, and both endorse the concept of eating what’s in
season. Both insist that over the course of a year, their method is less
work than traditional garden management. Neither book is for the casual
grow-a-few-tomatoes kind of gardener, however. The method advocated by both
books requires comprehensive planning and a long-term commitment to
harvesting as well as an imaginative approach to cooking. And if you’re
not very handy, you’ll have to adapt this method to whatever commercially
made structures you can get your hands on, no matter which book you use.
That said, if you are committed to “eating local” as much as possible,
this method is perfectly suited to that goal.

So which one should you get? Ideally, you’d get both. That way you could
compare and contrast their planting schedules and borrow the best ideas
from both books to synthesize a method that works best for you. However,
Coleman’s book is less intimidating and–let’s face it–less
expensive. And you gotta love a guy who thinks of vegetable gardening as a
great adventure:

These are not all the known winter crops, but they are the ones with
which I have experience. They provide a fabulous winter feast as is, but
they will have more company in the future. Keep pushing the possible. There
are many other crops for you to discover.






  • [Livingontheland] Pushing the Possible, TradingPostPaul, 01/06/2007

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