Rainy Side Gardeners' Featured Book
Teaming with Microbes
A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web
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By Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis
Smart gardeners know that soil is anything but an inert substance. Healthy soil is teeming with life — not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. When we use chemical fertilizers, we injure the microbial life that sustains healthy plants, and thus become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of artificial substances, many of them toxic to humans as well as other forms of life. But there is an alternative to this vicious circle: to garden in a way that strengthens, rather than destroys, the soil food web — the complex world of soil-dwelling organisms whose interactions create a nurturing environment for plants. By eschewing jargon and overly technical language, the authors make the benefits of cultivating the soil food web available to a wide audience, from devotees of organic gardening techniques to weekend gardeners who simply want to grow healthy, vigorous plants without resorting to chemicals.
"Sure, it's a gardening book, but it has all the drama and suspense of an extraterrestrial thriller. A cast of characters without eyeballs or backbones. Battle scenes with bizarre creatures devouring one another. Only this book is about as terrestrial as it gets." —Debra McKinney, Anchorage Daily News, September 14, 2006
GET GARDENING!
Three great local businesses, Timber Press, Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, and Al's Garden Center, have joined forces to bring you an exciting program of monthly talks by some of the country's top garden writers.
NEXT EVENT:Tuesday, August 21st , 7 p.m.
Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web with Jeff Lowenfels
Get inspired to get out in the garden this summer!
Organic gardening is sweeping America, returning gardens to the days before "better living through chemistry." Few understand the science behind this movement better than Jeff Lowenfels, and no one explains it better. Lowenfels has developed an extremely painless method to teach home gardeners about the soil food web and how to use it to benefit yards and gardens. You will be stunned by the amazing complexities of the food web in your soils, the problems that chemicals create for the gardener, and the simple, practical solutions that get the soil food members working for you in your yard.
As always, the presentation will be followed by discussion and snacks, and we hope you'll stay and talk to the author, as well as your fellow gardeners.
For future events go to: www.getgardening.com
Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing
3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.
Portland, OR 97005
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