About this item
This essential guide to growing a bountiful food garden includes detailed seed-starting, growing, and harvesting information for 62 vegetables, fruits, and herbs, a complete companion-planting guide, and organic pest-control handbook. The latest addition to Storey's bestselling Backyard Homestead series, The Backyard Homestead Guide to Growing Organic Food is a one-stop reference for all the key information food gardeners need to grow a healthy, bountiful garden. Author Tanya Denckla Cobb presents key information based on extensive research and years of experience, including when to start seeds for each type of crop (and at what temperature) , how far apart to space seedlings, how to tell when a crop is ready to harvest, and notes on preservation. The book features a comprehensive companion planting guide and an in-depth review of the most effective organic pest control practices, including recipes for how to make your own pest deterrent sprays.
About the Author
Tanya Denckla Cobb is a writer, professional environmental mediator, and teacher of food system planning at the University of Virginia. She has worked at the grassroots, co-founding a community forestry nonprofit and mediating for community mediation centers. At the state level, she facilitated the birth of the Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute and the Virginia Food System Council, and served as Executive Director of the Virginia Urban Forest Council.While working for the federal government in the early 1980's, Tanya specialized in international labor rights and served on U.S. delegations to the U.N. International Labor Organization in Geneva. Since 1997, she has worked at the UVa Institute for Environmental Negotiation where her work involves facilitating and mediating a broad range of community and environmental issues. She is passionate about bringing people together to discover common ground and create solutions for mutual gain.In 1999, she co-founded and continues to serve as teaching faculty for the Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute. She also teaches a seminar for the National Preservation Institute on negotiation and conflict for cultural and natural resource managers. And, in 2004, she pioneered with UVa professor Timothy Beatley a series of graduate-level courses on food system planning.At home, she enjoys the restorative energy of gardening and cooking from her garden. She lives in Virginia, and is the author of "Reclaiming Our Food: How the Grassroots Food Movement is Changing What We Eat" (2011) and "The Gardener's A to Z Guide to Growing Organic Food" (2004), which is a completely updated and redesigned version of her two earlier organic gardening books (also sold on Amazon).Photo credit: Dan Addison, University of Virginia
