The New Organic Grower: A master’s manual of tools and techniques for the home and market gardener. By Eliot Coleman. 3rd Edition. Chelsea Green Publishing. 2018. 288 pp.
The New Organic Grower, the go-to book for so many organic market gardeners, has been
revised. The 30th Anniversary issue of the book contains much of the invaluable content from the last two editions – such as details on designing a crop rotation to meet your needs, integrating cover crops into a market garden and using soil blocks. Again, there is an excellent section on tools for the small-scale grower. This section has been updated and includes many new tools, some have actually been designed in collaboration with Coleman. The season extension section has also been expanded and revised. Also, the pest-eating ducks are gone from the livestock section and replaced with chickens, with schematics to build mobile “chickshaws.”
The new The New Organic Grower doesn’t have a huge amount of new information. If you have one of the older editions, you might be better off investing in one of Coleman’s other books. However, if you don’t have this book and are interested in market gardening or have a large backyard garden, this is the book for you. The New Organic Grower covers the basics for new gardeners while also delving into details to help experienced market growers fine-tune their growing methods, marketing techniques, season extension and overall efficiency. For those people just dreaming of farming, Eliot Coleman describes the principles of organic farming in a way that is approachable, interesting and rich in integrity.
— Janet Wallace