This is THE book on organic gardening for high yields in a small space. I have a much older edition inherited from my parents. I have been purusing this book since I was a kid back in the commune (I was looking for anything, anything, with pictures!). So I've grown up with it. These days, eco-organic-gardeners have much expanded on the techniques of this book, and even taken issue with some. But it's still the beginning of a movement, and an absolute must-own for every veggie gardener.

I have very hard soil that has had terrible results for years. I tried adding more organic material to the mix, but it wasn't enough. Then began the composting project... After reading the book, I think that the double-dig is exactly the component to add to my composting plans. I am very eager to get digging.

After next season I will know if I should add another star to my rating. For now it has given me a lot to think about and made me excited again to garden.

Intensive methods are overrated. Crowded vegetables are less healthy and tasty and require a lot more irrigation and fertilizer. Overall, it's an inefficient use of resources and labour. To learn better methods, read the book Gardening When It Counts, by Steve Solomon.

A LOT of information, and a lot of technical information. If you want to be self-sustainable and have amazing soil amended by your own home-grown fodder, this is the book for you. For those of us who are more casual gardeners and just want a few more tomatoes from our little raised beds, this is a bit intense. Very useful reference, but not aimed at most of us.

I truly enjoyed this book. It is basic. But basic in the good way. It has all the things you need to check for in one easy to read book. While it does not go in depth on much it helps you get started in the right direction. I imagine this book will be hanging out on my shelves for quite some time!

Many interesting ideas, especially that of growing 60% of crop area with high carbon crops which are then composted for self-sufficient maintenance of soil health. However, when "11hours of sunlight is ideal" I have to conclude that this method as an entire package is of limited usefulness for a home gardner on a small urban lot in Minnesota.

This is one book I have on my list to read cover to cover when I get the time. As it is I have skimmed through it and loved what I saw, it is a reference book that you can actually read! It has interesting facts combined with step by step how to information.

There is A LOT of technical information about crop growing. It's a bit more than I need, but if the apocalypse ever happens and we have to return to a total agrarian society, it will be VERY useful. :) The research that has gone into the book is very amazing and I'm glad I have it as a reference.

This gardening book is filled with charts and facts. I didn't find it that practical for me though because I have a small space and don't plan on growing grains or corn, which their planting method prescribes. However, there is lots of reference information here, so I'll likely turn to it again.

Over a decade into gobbling up gardening and farming books, and this one was full of new-to-me info and applicable charts/guides. I plan to add this to my bookshelf (in real life) after the library showed me how good it was.

It is impossible to review a book such as this one in a comprehensive manner without putting the information it contains into practice, so I reserve the right to revise my opinions in the future. That having been said, this nearly 50-year work in progress contains a wealth of information which will be increasingly useful as we enter into a post-peak oil world and people everywhere are under pressure to provide for their own needs using increasingly diminished resources. John Jeavons illustrates, as the rather long-winded full title makes clear, that almost anyone almost anywhere with access to a small patch of land can engage in fully organic subsistence farming without relying on artificial fertilizers, pesticides, or inordinate quantities of water or other resources. If enough people put these techniques into practice the results could shake the agriculture industry to its core.

The following quote, found in one of the appendices, neatly summarizes the author's viewpoint: "Chemical agriculture requires ever-increasing amounts of fertilizer at an increasing cost as petroleum supplies dwindle. The use of chemical fertilizers depletes beneficial microbial life, breaks down soil structure, and adds to soil salinity. Impoverished soil makes crops more vulnerable to disease and insect attack and requires increasing amount of pesticides to sustain production. 'A modern agriculture, racing one step ahead of the apocalypse, is not ecologically sane, no matter how productive, efficient, or economically sound it may seem.' Biointensive agriculture can sustain yields because it puts back into the soil those elements needed to sustain fertility. A small-scale personal agriculture recycles the nutrients and humus so important to the microbial life-forms that fix atmospheric nitrogen and produce disease-preventing antibiotics."

This books touch not only on the philosophy and general principles, but gives practical advice for what to plant, when to plant, and how to plant; how to control pests and disease; and even provides plans for how to construct the tools which will help facilitate the work described. A gem of a reference!

This has great charts on temperature ranges for plants, companion plants and antagonist plants, and spacing information.