HOOK

HOOK 31 Guide to Raised Bed Gardening By Sco5 A. Wilson Humans have been gar- dening since before hu- manity was a proper civiliza4on, and for thou- sands upon thousands of years there was very li5le difference in how this most basic of tasks was done. We dug into the ground, planted seeds, provided sun and water, and reaped the benefits. There were, of course, limita4ons to this prac4ce. For one thing, you needed to have soil in which to plant. For another, many plants grow so low to the ground, that cul4va4ng one's harvest was back-breaking work. But there is another way, and his book Gardener Sco5's Guide to Raised Bed Gardening, author (and gardener) Sco5 A. Wilson takes the reader through the ins and outs, pluses and minuses, of raised bed gardening. According to Wilson, the concept of raised bed gardening came into being in the 1960s. As the name implies, it involves crea4ng a garden space that is self- contained and elevated off the ground. The container can be made of nearly anything: wood, brick, metal, concrete, or even just a large mound of soil. Raised bed gardening gives the gar- dener the ability to be5er plan and maintain one's garden, keeping everything contained and specific to the special needs of the plant growing within. With the advent of raised bed gar- dening, people can design gardens to fit any space, size, or loca- 4on, without worrying about the quality of their natural soil. A%er extolling the benefits of raised beds, as well as admi6ng some of their possible downsides, (for example, raised bed gar- dening tends to have a much larger carbon footprint than nor- mal gardening) Wilson takes us step-by-step through the en4re his book, Forder chronicles the en4re movement, from the mag- azine's incep4on in the early 1990s through cra% beer's mete- oric rise leading up to the major reshuffling of the industry at the turn of the millennium and into the rebirth in the early 2000s. The book is sprinkled with color photographs as well as Forder's original artwork, and includes mini-biographies of some of the movement's biggest players. The love Forder has for beer is evident on every page, beginning with his original poem which be- gins the book 4tled Dedicated to Saccharomyces and Cerevisiae which succinctly sums up the en- 4re journey of beer from ancient 4mes to the modern day. Diving into the book, you are taken along an epic journey of the li5le guy going up against the all-pow- erful world of Big Beer and cor- porate greed. The early cra% beer aficionados were a band of rebels figh4ng an evil empire, trying to bring the freedom of cra% beer to the people of Amer- ica. Like all rebellions, there were victories and defeats, and Forder even compares the journey to the original Star Wars trilogy, with an unlikely band of home- brewers ini4ally rising up with A New Hope to take out the Death Star (Big Beer's stranglehold on the industry) only to be beaten back as The Empire Strikes Back and manages to break the back of the emerging threat to their monopoly and then finally cra% beer rising again in their own version of The Return of the Jedi. Today, cra% beer is everywhere, and it can be easy to take this fact for granted. Early Days of American Cra% Beer is a re- minder that progress must be earned. The idea that a bunch of starry-eyed beer lovers were able to take on Big Beer and eventu- ally elbow their way to a place at the table is both inspiring and humbling. Tony Forder was there for it all, and through his immer- sive book this truly American story lives on. For a taste of delicious home- made mead visit the Fence Road Farm Brewery in Warwick, NY. fenceroad.com process. Chapters focus on plan- ning the garden, building the actual structure, cul4va4ng the correct soil for your needs, growing the plants, dealing with problems that may sprout, and preparing for the following growing season. Along the way there are charts and fig- ures, hundreds of color photo- graphs detailing every step of the process, expert advice and recom- menda4ons, and numerous per- sonal anecdotes to add flavor and context to the story Wilson is deliv- ering. Gardener Sco5's Guide to Raised Bed Gardening is both the perfect introduc4on to raised bed garden- ing and a useful bas4on of knowl- edge for any green-thumbed individual involved ge6ng their hands dirty, no ma5er where they are in the process.

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