Peter Cundall
Much loved Australian gardening author and vegetable enthusiast.
Joyce Wilkie and Michael Plane are Australian pioneers of organic growing using modern techniques. They do it because they have long recognised the need to grow things, especially food crops, without the use of poisons and harsh, disruptive chemical fertilisers. This makes them idealists, but not the unreal, starry-eyed idealists once so common during the early days of the organic growing movement.
Joyce and Michael have learned things the hard way, by practical, down-to-earth experience, experimentation and years of hard work. They have learned how to manage, enrich and work difficult soils in a climate that fluctuates between a bitterly cold winter and a hot, extremely dry summer.
In this remarkable and valuable CD-ROM they go into great detail, by means of extensive photographs and graphics, to describe their methods of feeding the soil, the tools they use and how they have overcome major obstacles to achieve outstanding success in their large commercial, organic market garden. This is a perfect guide to action to anyone just starting to create their own organic garden, to any of the rapidly increasing community gardeners or to anyone wanting to set up community supported agriculture in most parts of Australia.
They describe methods of safe weed suppression, pest and disease control without poisons, water-wise irrigation and how to effectively use methods of protecting their crops from adverse and damaging weather conditions.
However the most impressive aspect of Joyce and Michael's idealism is in their generosity. They are now passing on knowledge they have gained over many years. They have proved how successful commercial organic growing can be and wish to share their experiences so others can do the same. This is why they have included harvesting, preparation and marketing techniques to help others follow in their footsteps.
The CD includes a comprehensive list of the vegetables grown at Allsun Farm in the NSW Southern Tablelands. There are numerous highly-informative photographs of both vegetable varieties and techniques used to enrich the soil and protect crops.
Joyce and Michael are to be congratulated for their dedication and generosity in producing this exciting CD-ROM. It is crammed with the practical knowledge desperately needed by the human race in order to increase soil fertility naturally and grow good, healthy, highly-nutritious food. It accurately reflects the essence of organic growing - healthy soil, healthy plants and healthy people.
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