The Ultimate Guide to Soil: The Real Dirt on Cultivating Crops, Compost, and a Healthier Home

I like this book. It is simply written, so that anyone can understand. I want more science, but for that Anna recommends some other resources. I also like that it's about our neck of the woods, so her recommendations are pertinent to our climate zone. She covers a variety of topics pertaining to soil, and I plan to implement some of them in our garden this year, especially the humus-building cover crops. I give her 5 stars for doing a great job on her homestead (yeah, I know she moved), and for writing these books. I own and have read several of them, and recommend them all. These ain't no easy tasks - homesteading and writing, so kudos to Anna.

A great book for new or intermediate organic gardeners, super informative personal & scientific information on building a successful homestead garden. Very well written & a joy to read.

I found a lot of useful information here on biochar, remineralization and other topics. The author also pointed out some facts about compost that I'd learned but rarely see in other gardening books, namely that the value of compost is dependent on what went into it and that you'll never generate as much compost as you need. You'll find plenty here on different kinds of organic mulches and the pitfalls to expect with them (weed seeds in straw, wood chips draining the soil of nitrogen and so on). There is also a section on building raised beds with a base layer of rotting wood, a practice I'd only recently heard of and see real potential in. Some of the advice is definitely going to be confined to rural areas due to smell issues. By this I mean the author's use of human manure and urine. The section on using black fly larva to compost food waste is another part that might cause trouble. I don't question their effectiveness so much as I feel it would offend the neighbors and risk bringing you a visit from your local police. Still, any gardening book will have suggestions you can't use for one reason or another, so this isn't a deal breaker for me. I enjoyed the book and plan on keeping it.

I found this book to be a pretty straight-forward sharing of knowledge about soil and how to build and manage it. It's easy to read and understand if you may not be such a technically minded person, but the science is solid for those of us who do like to know the scientific background for the information presented. It's open and honest, and I appreciate the sharing of both successes and failures for a down to earth approach to sharing important information all gardeners need to know. Read and learn!

Outstanding! Anna really takes the time to bestow a lot of experience in a fairly short book. If you don't understand how the soil works then you will be fighting yourself in my experience. The best book I've read on gardening yet (out of maybe 15). Worth paying full price!

My best friend is a soil scientist with NMDA and she highly recommends this book. However we live in the Southwest desert and it’s mostly about soils in the East. I can still glean information about our western soil’s so I know it is a useful accurately-written book.

Even though I read most of this in installments, I am glad to have it all in one hard copy, not only for future reference, but to loan out to family and friends who ask about getting started with gardening. The author draws on her background as an ecologist, as well as a decade's worth of gardening experience on her own homestead, to put together this clear and practical guide to building good soil. Her garden speaks for itself (just check out the pictures on her blog if you're still on the fence!) Highly recommended.

I liked this a lot. Practical experience of one gardener. May not apply to your area of the country, but was very interesting. A very well illustrated book.

One of the best books I have ever read on soil building basics and no-till gardening . I have read this as an ebook because the hardcopy is not yet available. I plan to buy several books to give as gifts, especially at Xmas

very good content and well written

Great guide for the green fingered.

grerat book