Container Gardening for Health: The 12 Most Important Fruits and Vegetables for your Organic Garden
Product Description
Container Gardening for Health is your complete guide to growing the twelve fruits and vegetables with the most pesticide residues according to USDA testing. From Apples and Celery to Strawberries and Spinach, pick a few of your favorites from the list. Make a big difference in your family’s pesticide exposure with a small organic garden.
“After talking with other parents, I realized we all wanted an inexpensive way to feed our children more foods with less pesticide residue. None of us had time and few of us had the space to grow large gardens. I began researching the problem and soon realized a family’s intake of pesticides could be substantially reduced by selecting their favorite foods from the EWG’s Dirty Dozen list and growing these in containers or small space gardens.” – Barbara Barker, from the first chapter
The Environmental Working Group(EWG) analyzed USDA pesticide residue data and compiled this list of the “top twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables”:
Peaches, Apples, Sweet Bell Peppers, Celery, Nectarines, Strawberries,Cherries, Lettuce, Grapes (imported), Pears, Spinach, and Potatoes.
About The Author
A certified master gardener, Barbara Barker traces her love for gardening back to fifth grade when she started a business rejuvenating her mother’s ailing plants and selling them back to her for a small profit Barker expanded her knowledge of plants by working in garden centers in high school and college. After obtaining a BA in English from the University of Florida, she started an internet company selling gourmet varieties of vegetable and herb plants.
Contents
List of Figures – 8
Introduction – 9
1. Chemical Residue on Your Food – 11
2. Peaches and Nectarines – 15
3. The Forbidden Apple – 23
4. Sweet Bell Peppers – 31
5. Celery – 35
6. Strawberries, Mother Nature’s Candy – 39
7. Cherries – 47
8. Lettuce – 51
9. Grapes – 55
10. Pears – 61
11. Spinach – 65
12. Potatoes – 71
13. Primary Pesticides Found On the Dirty Dozen – 77
14. Pests and Diseases – 83
Raised Growing Beds – 99
Selected Resources/Bibliography – 100
Glossary – 103
Index – 107
Container Gardening for Health: The 12 Most Important Fruits and Vegetables for your Organic Garden
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These days, many of us are concerned about pesticide residue on fresh fruits and vegetables, especially the fresh produce that’s imported from other countries. We are also wondering if there isn’t something we can do to take responsibility for our own food supply in a time when food security may be in question. In Container Gardening for Health, Master Gardener Barbara Barker gives us guidelines for growing the “dirty dozen”: those plants that are most contaminated with chemical pesticide residue, according to data compiled by the USDA. Unfortunately, the “dirty dozen” includes peaches, apples bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, lettuce, grapes, pears, spinach, and potatoes–tasty, nutritious foods that appear several times a week on the plates of almost every American.
What can you do to ensure your family’s food safety? You can start, as Barker suggests, by studying the list and choosing the three items that you consume most often. Learn how to grow these plants in whatever space you have, following the helpful guidelines in this book. It could even be a family project involving kids and seniors–container gardening is an enjoyable activity that can fit the abilities of almost everyone.
I’ve been a gardener for many years, but I found plenty to learn from Barker’s book. Plant by plant, she reviews each of the “dirty dozen,” offering general information, reviewing the chemical residue issues, describing varieties (often dwarf) suitable for container gardening, picturing appropriate containers, and giving tips for soil, fertilization, pest management, harvesting, and storage. She has included a comprehensive table of pesticide data (it may just curl your hair to see the kind of chemicals that are turning up in your food), and a helpful chapter on pest identification, prevention, and treatment. This latter is an excellent resource for every gardener. She also offers suggestions for raised-bed construction–a good technique that can turn even the tiniest yard into a productive garden. And there’s a first-class resource list, a glossary, and an index: must-haves for gardeners who want to do more research on their own.
There are a number of books on bookstore shelves these days that offer to help us become container gardeners. Barker’s book, however, is unique, for she combines the information you need to know about gardening in containers with what you need to know to protect your food supply. Most of us don’t have a great deal of extra time on our hands these days, so concentrating our efforts on replacing at least some of the “dirty dozen” with our own pesticide-free fruits and vegetables makes very good sense.
In fact, this whole book makes very good sense. You’ll find yourself going back to it over and over again.
by Susan Wittig Albert
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
Rating: 5 / 5
Let me start by saying I have a huge home library, and gardening, homesteading, and other self sufficient topic books make up a huge part of my collection. So when I got this new book Container Gardening For Health-The 12 most important Fruits and Vegetables for your Organic Garden by Barbara Barker I was intrigued but also wondered if this would be a repeat of much of what all the other gardening books had.
So I was surprised and pleased to discover she covers the ‘Dirty dozen’ so well. Was also pleased that she gives nice clear photos and illustrations like on page 14 where she shows 8 examples of growing containers, rather than the typical pots other books show. Also like how in each section where she discusses the fruit or vegetable she notes the botanical name, pesticide residue ranking, nutritional info,standard and dwarf varieties, yield, fertilizer, pests and diseases, and pruning for the trees. For crops like peppers she notes seed starting, transplanting, soil needs, and harvesting info.
Her chapter 14 beginning on page 83 is about pests and diseases and its a good chapter. And while I knew most of the organic solutions she has, she taught me some new ones as well. On page 100 she has sources for seeds, plants and gardening supplies. Have to admit I was happy to see Bountiful Gardens north of me listed, as well as the Seed Saver Exchange which I belong to.
Again I am an avid organic gardener. Yet even I learned some wonderful new things, and am looking forward to getting a copy of the book as a gift for friends whom I am teaching vegetable gardening to. As well as a copy for my local library. Cannot say enough great things about this book. It is one I will use as a reference tool often.
Rating: 5 / 5