Top Five Websites
Gaia College
www.gaiacollege.ca"Accessible education in Organic Land Care." In my opinion, you will learn more in even their shortest courses than you would studying horticulture in college or university. Actually, it's not just my opinion, because post-secondary grads have taken the courses and said that. I now teach some of their courses, but several years before I started teaching, I took a course and it was a life-changing experience.
Soil and Health
www.soilandhealth.org
Hundreds of classic books online for free (they ask for an optional one-time donation of about $15, which is well worth it).
Hundreds of classic books online for free (they ask for an optional one-time donation of about $15, which is well worth it).
Acres USA
www.acresusa.com/toolbox/articles.htm
This link leads you to a bunch of great articles, but it's also the place to pick up most of the best books, cds, and their magazine on sustainable horticulture.
This link leads you to a bunch of great articles, but it's also the place to pick up most of the best books, cds, and their magazine on sustainable horticulture.
Soil Testing
Okay, I now have a few links for soil testing instead of just one. I have generally used International Ag Labs, but I came across some others that are also good, and I never really liked the customer service I got from Ag Labs. They still do a good test, though. Below are a few of the labs doing the kind of tests that I believe are most useful, based on the ideas of Albrecht and Reams. They're generally in the US, but it's worth shipping there. It generally costs around $50, plus about $20 to ship.International Ag Labs - Mainly following Reams, but they also do CEC (run by Dan Skow, co-author of Mainline Farming for Century 21)
Crop Services International - Albrecht and Reams and other energetic philosophies (run by Phil Wheeler, co-author of The Non-Toxic Farming Handbook)
Kinsey's Agricultural Services - Mainly following Albrecht (run by Neil Kinsey, co-author of Hands-On Agronomy)
Soil Food Web Canada - In Alberta, they've recently started doing soil chemistry testing that looks decent, but there's not much info about it on there website and I haven't spoken with them
SARE Forum
http://lists.sare.org/archives/sanet-mg.html
Many interesting discussions on "Sustainable Agriculture".
Many interesting discussions on "Sustainable Agriculture".
Top Ten Books
There are hundreds of great books on horticulture. Acres USA carries many of them. If I had to narrow it down to my favourites, these would all be up there:- Working With Nature - Heide Hermary
- Secrets of the Soil - Peter Tompkins and Chris Bird
- The Secret Life of Plants - Peter Tompkins and Chris Bird
- Science in Agriculture - Arden Andersen
- Non-Toxic Farming Handbook - Philip Wheeler and Ron Ward
- Soil Biology Primer - Soil and Water Conservation Society
- The One Straw Revolution - Masanobu Fukuoka
- Weeds, Control Without Poisons - Charles Walters
- Sea Energy Agriculture - Maynard Murray
- Gaia's Garden - Toby Hemenway