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Deep-rooted wisdom : skills and stories from generations of gardeners / Augustus Jenkins Farmer.

by Farmer, Augustus Jenkins.

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Portland, Oregon : Timber Press, Inc., 2014.

Traditional farming.

9781604694529 (pbk.)

1604694521 (pbk.)

248 pages : color illustrations ; 23 cm.

Stacking up: growing plants for food, construction, flowers, teaching, and connections -- Building fertile soils: encouraging a healthy web of life -- Stop the tilling cycle: harnessing the natural powers of worms and mushrooms -- Watering by hand: using the essential skill of observation to keep plants hydrated -- Rooting in the ground: working with pass-along plants -- Saving seeds: treasuring heirlooms for genetics and nutrients -- Handmade structures: using garden materials for trellises and sculptures -- Tools: reviving essential and neglected hand tools -- Scavenging: unearthing great plants from many places -- Pest philosophy: taking a holistic approach to insects and weeds -- Finding the spirit: telling stories through your garden.

Augustus Jenkins Farmer (aka Jenks) started gardening in the third grade in a corner of the family farm filled with rocks, scrap metal, crinum, and spider lilies. He was free to dig, transplant, and design in any way he wanted by making do with what he had. Thirty years later, he continues to garden this way in his own gardens in Columbia and Beech Island, South Carolina. His style of gardening is in stark contrast to the gardening industry's steady stream of new products, new advertising, and new rules that create unneeded complexities, intimidating future gardeners and obscuring the joy of gardening. Deep-Rooted Wisdom is Farmer's antidote to this corporate-driven model of gardening. In it he shares the traditional skills and techniques he has learned over the years from generations of gardeners, like gardening with pass-along plants, harnessing the natural power of worms and mushrooms, saving heirloom seeds, and making handmade garden structures out of available materials. Along the way, he introduces us to a cast of unforgettable characters, like Yvrose Valdez, a woman from Haiti who uses legumes in lieu of fertilizer, and Bennett Baxley, who has a 20-acre yard filled almost entirely with scavenged plants. Deep-Rooted Wisdom is garden mentorship at its best and most honest, showing us all a way back to a more joyful, simple style of gardening.

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