INEFFICIENT

Beans, bush snap

Peppers, bell

Broccoli, summer

Radishes

Cauliflower

Scallions, bulb onions

Celery

Sweet corn

Lettuce

Turnips

Have fun planning your own water-wise garden!

More Reading

About the Interlibrary Loan Service

Agricultural books, especially older ones, are not usually available at local libraries.  But most municipal libraries and all universities offer access to an on-line database listing the holdings of other cooperating libraries throughout the United States.  Almost any book published in this century will be promptly mailed to the requesting library.  Anyone who is serious about learning by reading should discover how easy and inexpensive (or free) it is to use the Interlibrary Loan Service.

Carter, Vernon Gill, and Tom, Dale. Topsoil and Civilization.

Norman, Okla.:  University of Oklahoma Press, 1974.

The history of civilization’s destruction of one ecosystem after another by plowing and deforestation, and its grave implications for our country’s long-term survival.

Cleveland, David A., and Daniela Soleri. Food from Dryland Gardens: 
An Ecological, Nutritional and Social Approach to Small-Scale
Household Food Production. Tucson:  Center for People, Food and
Environment, 1991.

World-conscious survey of low-tech food production in semiarid regions.

Faulkner, Edward H._ Plowman’s Folly._ Norman, Okla.:  University of
Oklahoma Press, 1943.

This book created quite a controversy in the 1940s.  Faulkner stresses the vital importance of capillarity.  He explains how conventional plowing stops this moisture flow.

Foth, Henry D. Fundamentals of Soil Science. Eighth Edition.  New
York:  John Wylie & Sons, 1990.

A thorough yet readable basic soil science text at a level comfortable for university non-science majors.

Hamaker, John.  D. The Survival of Civilization. Annotated by Donald A. Weaver.  Michigan/California:  Hamaker-Weaver Publishers, 1982.

Hamaker contradicts our current preoccupation with global warming and makes a believable case that a new epoch of planetary glaciation is coming, caused by an increase in greenhouse gas.  The book is also a guide to soil enrichment with rock powders.

Nabhan, Gary. The Desert Smells like Rain:  A Naturalist in Papago Indian Country. San Francisco:  North Point Press, 1962.

Describes regionally useful Native American dry-gardening techniques

Russell, Sir E. John. Soil Conditions and Plant Growth. Eighth Edition.  New York:  Longmans, Green & Co., 1950.

Probably the finest, most human soil science text ever written.  Russell avoids unnecessary mathematics and obscure terminology.  I do not recommend the recent in-print edition, revised and enlarged by a committee.