Organic Gardening: The Natural No-Dig Way (ISBN 1903998913)

Organic Gardening Without Digging:
Charles Dowding's Organic Gardening the Natural No-Dig Way is an introduction to organic gardening in general, and the 'no-dig' method in specific. The 'no-dig' method doesn't mean that absolutely no digging will take place: after all, you need to plant things in the soil and sometimes you also need to dig them up again. However, you really won't need to till or turn. Dowding believes in using raised beds composed almost entirely of rich compost, which worms naturally incorporate into the soil beneath. Since the no-dig method is meant to be part of a larger program of organic gardening (after all, if you use industrial pesticides and the like then you'll just kill off all those worms, microorganisms, beneficial insects, and so on), much of the book details various fruits and vegetables you might plant and how best to organically raise them. It doesn't go into things such as organic pesticides and fertilizers, but instead delves entirely into physical methods of pest control. A typical entry covers varieties, growing seasons, weeding, thinning, dressing with compost, harvest, diseases, pests, and even a simple recipe for enjoying your vegetable or fruit to the fullest. There's also a very thorough index---complete with a separate recipe index!---to help you along. Dowding's book will definitely be of the most use in Britain and similar areas. Some of his suggestions are climate-specific, as are many of his discussions regarding varieties, and of course his planting and harvest times will be different than those elsewhere (although at least you'll get most of that information from your own seed packets or plant catalogs). Measurements and amounts are only given in units of cm and so on with no equivalents provided. Terminology differences aren't explained, and there were some cases where I wasn't sure if a bit of confusion over something the author was communicating was due to something that wasn't clear in his wording or a bit of terminology that was being used in a different manner than that to which I'm accustomed. All in all I'd have to say that within Britain and similar areas (in terms of climate, use of measurements and terminology, availability of varieties, etc.) this book rates a 4.5 or a 5. In the US it's still highly useful for those wanting to explore the no-dig method and organic gardening at home, but it's moderately less useful---call my rating for us a 4.