Backyard Winter Gardening: Vegetables Fresh and Simple, in Any Climate Without Artificial Heat or Electricity the Way It's Been Done for 2,000 Ye

Backyard Winter Gardening is a relatively quick read that includes many useful tips to prolong garden growth into the dead of winter. Some of this involves cold frames and hot frames, but there are also tips how to keep root crops in the ground until they are needed. There is also some useful information on partially underground greenhouses. The pictures are high quality, and there are regular historical excerpts on how people gardened over a hundred years ago.I did have two issues with the book. The first one is that the author gave dates for planting that didn't seem to make sense, like planting seeds in early August rather than late July because he said it's cooler then. The author lives at a high elevation and in a dry environment, so his winters are longer, colder and windier than most other places. This makes some of the planting dates less useful than they could be. The second issue is the author's heavy use of hot frames, which warms beds with large quantities of decomposing manure. This would require as much as a cubic yard of manure for a single bed of cantaloupes. This is no problem for the author since he has two cows, a horse, chickens and rabbits. For people without livestock this isn't a viable option. While you could use grass clippings and vegetable scraps instead of manure, even then it's going to require too many cubic feet (or yards) to make it practical.Despite these issues, I found the book useful and interesting, and I intend to try a few of the ideas.

Another book that we use as a reference. Great ideas. My daughter asked for it as a gift.

Going into my 2nd winter garden season, and my 10th 3 season garden, I still consider myself a student, even though I'm the go-to in my friend group for self sufficiency and gardening. I bought this to see if it's something I can recommend to get people into winter growing instead of me having to spell everything out for the forever skeptics.I can hands down say this is my new favorite recommendation. If I could afford to, I'd keep multiple copies on hand to give out to my friends who I know are serious about growing and putting in the work. Word for word everything I tell people is in this book, and more. Thank you for such a resource!

Ok, I’m not all the way through yet, maybe halfway - but everything rings true to my soul here. Getting another copy - this time for a friend who lives in Colorado and needs green growing gardens to warm her heart in the cold of winter.

I found this book to be an easy read, practical, and educational.

Looking for easy, inexpensive ways to grow or harvest food in winter? This book is for you! The author focuses primarily on the oldest, most trusted methods: cold frames and hot beds. He offers easy to follow advice on making both. You'll also find specific advice on the best seeds for winter gardens, information on overwintering veggies in the ground or in a cool garage or cellar, and fascinating information about the author's geothermal greenhouse. Oddly missing are any thoughts on tunnels, and some favorite winter gardening veggies aren't mentioned. On the other hand, I've never seen such detailed information on geothermal greenhouses, or on growing melons in hot beds, or on growing mangels. Overall, this is THE book I recommend for those who've never winter gardened before.Kristina SeleshankoProverbs Thirty One Woman blogspot.com

I had no idea you could grow food in the winter. This is amazing and important information in our current day of supply change breakdowns. Grow food— its power! Start now.

This book gave helpful insight and instruction on how to have vegetables in one way or another throughout the winter. Hot and cold frames and a greenhouse that will work all year with no electricity or heat other than the sun and earth to power… Not solar power units. Organic advice on pest control as well and food storage over winter. All I know is that this was a great read with beautiful pictures. I also loved the insight he Gave on seed propagation, heirloom varieties and history!

Couldn't put the book down from the moment it arrived.. the only criticism I have that stopped it from getting 5 stars is that I'm going to be constantly referring to this book and the option of a hard back copy for durability would have been amazing Otherwise great !

Great service, book is good. Could be a better book about winter gardening. Was hoping to see detailed examples, more pictures and diagrams. like a personal diary. Book is 2/5 in my own view on winter gardening. Read more