The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times

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(as of Sep 18, 2026 18:49:06 UTC – Details)


An organic gardening expert “empowers readers with skills and understanding” so they can ensure their vegetable gardens thrive in good times—and in bad (Sandor Ellix Katz).
Perfect for vegetable gardeners at all levels of experience The Resilient Gardener is a conceptual and hands-on organic gardening book. Scientist/gardener Carol Deppe combines her passion for organic gardening with newly emerging scientific information from a variety of fields, revealing how you and your vegetable garden can thrive even in hard times. Deppe extends and illustrates key principles with detailed information about growing and using 5 key crops: potatoes, corn, beans, squash, and eggs.
In this book you’ll learn how to:
• Garden in an era of unpredictable weather and climate change
• Grow, store, and use more of your own staple crops
• Garden efficiently and comfortably (even if you have a bad back)
• Grow, store, and cook different varieties of potatoes and save your own potato seed
• Grow the right varieties of corn to make your own gourmet-quality fast-cooking polenta, cornbread, parched corn, corn cakes, pancakes andeven savory corn gravy
• Make whole-grain, corn-based breads and cakes using the author’s original gluten-free recipes involving no other grains, artificial binders, or dairy products
• Grow and use popbeans and other grain legumes
• Grow, store, and use summer, winter, and drying squash
• Keep a home laying flock of ducks or chickens; integrate them with your gardening, and grow most of their feed
Resilience here encompasses a broad range of problems, from personal hard times—such as injuries, family crises, financial problems, health problems, and special dietary needs—to widespread disasters and climate change. It is a supremely optimistic as well as realistic book about how resilient gardeners and their vegetable gardens can flourish even in challenging times and help their communities to survive and thrive through everything that comes their way.
“Brilliantly timely . . . shows us how to create gardens that can survive our increasingly erratic weather, while supplying key nutrition lacking in most vegetable gardens.” —Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden

From the Publisher

With Color Photos

A conceptual and hands-on gardening book for all levels of experience!

from the author . . . .

“These days, we tend to design our gardens and our gardening for good times, times when everything is going well. That isn’t what we need. Reality is, there is almost always something going wrong. Hard times are normal. . . . My garden needed to be designed around the reality that life has its ups and downs. It has good times and bad. How to garden in the best of times was not the issue. I didn’t need a “good-time garden.” I needed to understand more about how to garden in hard times. I needed a more resilient garden. And I needed a garden that better enhanced my own resilience, in all kinds of times, good and bad.”

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chelsea Green
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 22, 2010
Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 160358031X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1603580311
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.75 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 0.95 x 9.49 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #101,801 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #88 in Vegetable Gardening #95 in Organic & Sustainable Gardening & Horticulture #165 in Organic Cooking
Customer Reviews: 4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (334) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
Customers find this gardening book informative, praising its wealth of tips and links to well-stocked references, while also appreciating its fun and accessible writing style. Moreover, the book serves as a great resource for homesteaders, with one customer noting its rich integration of years of garden experience. Additionally, customers value its detailed content, thought-provoking ideas, and good humor. However, opinions about the author’s honesty are mixed.