Member Reviews
This was an interesting read, but more than I needed for my small garden's purpose. If I start growing on a larger scale, or in a drier area, I will definitely turn to this book.
In a world ravaged by climate change this book should be in every farmer's bookshelf to be studied and its recoomendations implemented. Highly recommended
This was probably a little over my head. I liked the fact the terminology was easy to understand but the actually thoughts behind such ideas is beyond my comprehension. I wouldn't be able to put any of this to use because I am not a farmer but I did enjoy reading it and it did seem useful for those seasoned in this area. I would recommend to those who have farms or are homesteading already. For me, it was just too much to process as a beginner gardener.
Author Dale Strickler has put together a great book chockful of information based upon solid facts. As the title tells us, this is information geared mostly toward those who have farms. As a non-farm owner who gardens, I found plenty of information in the first sections of the book that was helpful to me. For those folks who lean toward gaining prepper information, this book would definitely be an asset to have. It is offered as a paperback as well as an eTextbook.
Mr. Strickler begins with the basics, spending a lot of time emphasizing the importance of maintaining water in your soil and how to achieve this goal. From there he moves on into feeding your soil, what will make it better and what is not as beneficial. Chapters on livestock follow, which include tips on furnishing water for livestock during the plentiful as well as the drought years. The book finishes with a handy checklist to be employed before the next drought occurs.
This is not a tip book that someone with a bit of knowledge put together. Mr. Strickler backs up his statements with facts and graphs, all of which can be verified by performing your own research, using the reference section. He offers solid information based upon his personal studies as well as the experimentation he employed on his own farm. Best of all, the book presents this in readable language so us “laymen” can easily understand and assimilate the knowledge available. Many pictures and drawings provide additional help. Five stars.
My thanks to the author, Storey Publishing, and NetGalley for an advance reading copy of this book.
This book is an excellent book for someone who runs a full on farm.
I do not farm, I garden so perhaps I reviewing this too highly but it looks good to me (I've read plenty of gardening books so I hope to know a little by now).
The author clearly knows/loves farming and it is obvious based on his depth/breadth of knowledge.
Many of the solutions offered here I've never heard of (it does contain the classics like ponds, no till gardening and swales) so I imagine even seasoned farmers would get something new out of this.
All that being said this was often over my head and contained things not useful to a small gardener (there's a huge livestock section which isn't useful now and probably won't be too useful with a few ducks, geese and rabbits)
Finally, a book about gardening from an author who lives in our region of the country! I found this to be the most helpful book, primarily because of the fact that living in a similar region means most of the information is transferrable (as opposed to those about the Pacific Northwest or desert regions). The information is laid out neatly, with pictures and graphs, but at times is still over the layman's head.