BUILDING SOIL: A Down-to-Earth Approach: Natural Solutions for Better Gardens & Yards, quality informational book

BUILDING SOIL: A Down-to-Earth Approach: Natural Solutions for Better Gardens & Yards
ELIZABETH MURPHY
Cool Springs Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$26.99 paperback, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Learn what it takes to improve your soil with simple and down-to-earth methods that won’t hurt the environment. It's the ecological solution to a garden of any size! This is your down-to-earth, complete manual for achieving great gardening results with your own rich, organic soil.

How do you recognize healthy soil? How much can your existing soil be improved? What are the best amendments to use for your soil? Let Building Soil answer your questions and be your guide on gardening from the ground up. Fertilizing, tilling, weed management, and irrigation all affect the quality of your soil. Using author Elizabeth Murphy’s detailed instructions, anyone can become a successful soil-based gardener, whether you want to start a garden from scratch or improve an existing garden.

If you want methods that won’t break your back, are good for the environment, and create high-yielding and beautiful gardens of all shapes and sizes, this is the book for you! Create classic landscape gardens, grow a high-yielding orchard, nurture naturally beautiful lawns, raise your household veggies, or run a profitable farm.

A soil-based approach allows you to see not just the plants, but the living system that grows them. Soil-building practices promote more ecologically friendly gardening by:

Reducing fertilizer and pesticide use

Sequestering greenhouse gases

Increasing overall garden productivity

With a detailed discussion and comparison tables on a range of organic fertilizer choices, Building Soil is a simple book full of practical, up-to-date information about building healthy soils. Simple methods perfect for the home gardener’s use put healthy, organic soil within everyone’s reach. You don’t need a degree in soil management to understand this book; you only need a yard or garden and the desire to improve it at the most basic level.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Very practical, brimful of information the novice can use; some information is couched simply so as not to scare the newbies, but could easily prove very helpful to the serious gardener with a soil issue they can't address.

No need to beat around the bush (!) then, is there. Look at the graphic presentation to see if you can work with it. We'll start simple:

Now the more information-laden bits:

It's straightforward, but not made cartoonishly oversimplified. Don't plan on an ebook. The tree book can be carried around in a garden setting, worry-free...who care if you drop a working book? A tablet, now...so tree book all the way.

As gardening books go, this is a very reasonably priced one. A strong value proposition indeed.