Describes the composition of good garden soil, stresses the need for humus, and offers advice on solving soil problems for vegetables, flowers, lawns, trees, and container gardens

Start With the Soil: The Organic Gardener's Guide to Improving Soil for Higher Yields, More Beautiful Flowers, and a Healthy, Easy-Care Garden

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Gershuny, Grace

Gardening & Landscape Design

Rodale Pr

The Soul of Soil explains how soil organisms supply plants with the necessary nutrients at the right time, in the right form, and in the right amount. The goal of ecological soil management is to enhance conditions for the billions of microbes found in every gram of healthy soil, without reliance on purchased inputs.

The Soul of Soil: A Guide to Ecological Soil Management

Smillie, Joseph

Agaccess

Book by Gershuny, Grace, Smillie, Joseph

Soul of Soil: A Guide to Ecological Soil Management

G A I A Services

Grace Gershuny was a principal author of the USDA's first proposed National Organic rule, and left the National Organic Program staff shortly before the final rule was published. The story of this process, which consumed much of her life for five years, is interwoven here with the story of her movement along her own personal timeline before, during, and after this arduous federal process. It's the story of how the organic revolution became rooted well before the federal government cared to notice, and the personal, political, and practical struggles that ensued in the heroic effort to move it beyond farmers' markets and into supermarkets.

Organic Revolutionary

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Joe's Brook Press

The Organic Revolutionary: A Memoir from the Movement for Real Food, Planetary Healing, and Human Liberation

An influential founding member of the American organic agriculture movement and a long-time organic farmer, Grace Gershuny gives us one of the most comprehensive and deeply personal accounts of adventures in that movement ever written. A principal author of the USDA's first proposed National Organic rule, Gershuny left the National Organic Program staff just before the final rule was published. The complicated story of that movement for nationwide organic regulations, which consumed Gershuny’s life for five years, is interwoven here with her own personal timeline before, during, and after the arduous federal process.\nThis memoir explores how the organic revolution became rooted well before the US federal government cared to notice. Gershuny asks important ongoing questions about the organic movement that still aren’t receiving enough attention, such as whether organic standards should be consumer or farmer-driven and if organic agriculture architecture will be able to maintain its principles as it becomes mainstream. Entertaining yet urgent, Organic Revolutionary thoughtfully details the personal, political, and practical struggles that ensued in the heroic effort to push the organic movement beyond farmers' markets and into supermarkets.

Black Rose Books

<div>An influential founding member of the American organic agriculture movement and a long-time organic farmer, Grace Gershuny gives us one of the most comprehensive and deeply personal accounts of adventures in that movement ever written. A principal author of the USDA's first proposed National Organic rule, Gershuny left the National Organic Program staff just before the final rule was published. The complicated story of that movement for nationwide organic regulations, which consumed Gershuny's life for five years, is interwoven here with her own personal timeline before, during, and after the arduous federal process. &nbsp; This memoir explores how the organic revolution became rooted well before the US federal government cared to notice. Gershuny asks important ongoing questions about the organic movement that still aren't receiving enough attention, such as whether organic standards should be consumer or farmer-driven and if organic agriculture architecture will be able to maintain its principles as it becomes mainstream. Entertaining yet urgent, Organic Revolutionary thoughtfully details the personal, political, and practical struggles that ensued in the heroic effort to push the organic movement beyond farmers' markets and into supermarkets. &nbsp;</div>

Part of the NOFA Guides series. Information on composting techniques, including: <ul>
<li>Principles and biology of composting</li> <li>Temperature, aeration and moisture control</li> <li>Composting methods</li> <li>Materials (additives and inoculants, biodynamic preparations)</li> <li>About costs (site preparation, equipment, labor and time)</li> <li>What do you do with it?</li> <li>Compost tea and other brewed microbial cultures</li> <li>Compost and the law</li> </ul>
With extended appendices including a recipe calculator, potting mix recipes, and a sample compost production budget sheet.

Compost, Vermicompost, and Compost Tea: Feeding the Soil on the Organic Farm (Organic Principles and Practices Handbook)

History

Americas

Chelsea Green

Soil is the basis not only for all gardening, but for all terrestrial life. No aspect of agriculture is more fundamental and important, yet we have been losing vast quantities of our finite soil resources to erosion, pollution, and development. Now back in print, this eminently sensible and wonderfully well-focused book provides essential information about one of the most significant challenges for those attempting to grow delicious organic vegetables: the creation and maintenance of healthy soil. Chapter 2, "Understanding the Soil System," is alone worth the price of admission. Gershuny and Smillie give lay readers and experts a clear explanation of subjects--soil life and nutrient cycles--that have confounded most authors. Nowhere will the reader find simpler and more coherent descriptions of key concepts including cation exchange capacity and chelation. There are other books about soil available, including Grace Gershuny's comprehensive Start with the Soil, and there are books that feature chapters on soil building. What distinguishes The Soil of Soilis the authors' concise presentation; they give readers important information, including technical essentials, without getting bogged down in scientific or quasiscientific mumbo-jumbo. In addition, useful tables list specific compost materials, green manures, and other resources that allow growers to translate into action the more general information provided by the book. The soil-building techniques featured include: <ul>
<li>Organic matter management</li> <li>Building and maintaining humus</li> <li>On-site composting</li> <li>Green manures and rotations</li> <li>Cultivation and weed control</li> <li>Nutrient balances and soil testing</li> <li>Using mineral fertilizers</li> <li>Planning for organic certification</li> </ul>
Updates to the 1999 edition include analysis of Proposed Rules for the National Organic Standards, and expanded recommendations for private testing services and soil-testing equipment for home gardeners and organic farmers. All of us involved in the cultivation of plants--from the backyard gardener to the largest farmer--need to help regenerate a "living soil," for only in the diversity of the soil and its creatures can we ensure the long-term health of ourselves and our environment. The Soul of Soil offers everyone a basic understanding of what soil is and what we can do to improve our own patch of it. Seen in this light, this practical handbook will be an inspiration as well.

The Soul of Soil: A Soil-Building Guide for Master Gardeners and Farmers, 4th Edition

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gershuny, Grace. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gershuny, Grace

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gershuny, Grace. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Start With the Soil: The Organic Gardener's Guide to Improving Soil for Higher Yields, More Beautiful Flowers, and a Healthy, Easy-Care Garden

Start With the Soil: The Organic Gardener's Guide to Improving Soil for Higher Yields, More Beautiful Flowers, and a Healthy, Easy-Care Garden

The Soul of Soil: A Guide to Ecological Soil Management

Soul of Soil: A Guide to Ecological Soil Management

Organic Revolutionary

The Organic Revolutionary: A Memoir from the Movement for Real Food, Planetary Healing, and Human Liberation

The Organic Revolutionary: A Memoir from the Movement for Real Food, Planetary Healing, and Human Liberation

Compost, Vermicompost, and Compost Tea: Feeding the Soil on the Organic Farm (Organic Principles and Practices Handbook)

The Soul of Soil: A Soil-Building Guide for Master Gardeners and Farmers, 4th Edition