Perennial Vegetable Gardening with Eric Toensmeier (DVD)

Toensmeier, Eric

ISBN 10: 1603583696 ISBN 13: 9781603583695

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012

Imagine growing vegetables that require just about the same amount of care as perennial flowers and shrubs, need no annual tilling or planting, yet thrive and produce abundant and nutritious crops throughout the season.

In this DVD―a culmination of workshops recorded in Mexico, Florida, and Massachusetts―plant specialist Eric Toensmeier introduces gardeners to more than 100 species of little-known, underappreciated plants. Ranging beyond the usual suspects (asparagus, rhubarb, and artichoke) to include such delights as ground cherry, ramps, air potatoes, the fragrant spring tree, and the much-sought-after, antioxidant-rich wolfberry (also known as the goji berry), Toensmeier explains how to raise, tend, harvest, and cook with plants that yield great crops and culinary satisfaction. Toensmeier also takes viewers on a plant-by-plant tour of his garden in Massachusetts.

In Toensmeier's book, Perennial Vegetables (Chelsea Green, 2007), the adventurous gardener will find information, tips, and sound advice on less-common edibles that will make any garden a perpetual, low-maintenance source of food. In his book, readers will find perennial vegetables are perfect as part of an edible-landscape plan or permaculture garden. Profiling more than a hundred species, with dozens of color photographs and illustrations, and filled with valuable growing tips, recipes, and resources, Perennial Vegetables is a groundbreaking and ground-healing book that will open the eyes of gardeners everywhere to the exciting world of edible perennials.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

Booklist-

"Plant expert Toensmeier is the enthusiastic instructor of this series of vegetable-gardening workshops. Toensmeier begins in his home state of Massachusetts, where he demonstrates how some vegetables can survive the winter. He tours his garden, pointing out plants (names captioned onscreen), describing planting and harvesting techniques, and sharing cooking tips. In Mexico, Toensmeier showcases plants native to the upper tropics, and in Florida, he fields questions from workshop participants about plants native to the lower tropics. In the final segment, the gardening expert returns to Massachusetts to talk about how to control plant runners; organically fight pests; and experiment with bamboo, air potatoes, and ground cherries. Toensmeier emphasizes the nutritional value, versatility, and hardiness of the plants. Jam-packed with recommendations and tips, this nicely shot program encourages gardeners and cooks to be adventurous with vegetable choices."

Midwest Book Review-

Perennial Vegetable Gardening with Eric Toensmeier is an instructional DVD that works well either stand-alone or as a companion to Toensmeier's book, Perennial Vegetables. A lengthy program teaches gardeners about more than 100 species of lesser-known edible perennial plants, including ground cherry, ramps, air potatoes, and much more. Tending, harvesting, and cooking with perennial vegetables are all covered, and viewers are also invited to tour Toensmeier's beautiful Massachusetts garden! A searchable database of perennial vegetables rounds out this wonderful how-to DVD. Perennial Vegetable Gardening with Eric Toensmeier will bring joy to active gardening enthusiasts and "armchair gardeners" alike, and is highly recommended for both private and public library gardening DVD collections. 143 min.

About the Director:

Eric Toensmeier calls himself a socially engaged plant geek. He has spent much of his adult life exploring edible and otherwise useful plants and how they can be used in designed ecosystems. He is the author of the books "Perennial Vegetables" (Chelsea Green, 2007), which won an American Horticultural Society Book of the Year Award, and "Paradise Lot: Two Plant Geeks, One-Tenth of an Acre, and the Making of an Edible Garden Oasis in the City" (Chelsea Green 2013). He is also the coauthor with Dave Jacke of the two-volume permaculture design manual "Edible Forest Gardens." Eric has worked as a small-farm trainer at the New England Small Farm Institute (Belchertown, MA) and currently manages the Tierra de Oportunidades new farmer program of Nuestras Raices in Holyoke, MA. There he is designing and installing a permaculture landscape in concert with immigrant farmers who are starting farm-based enterprises in an urban context. Eric is a graduate and former faculty member of the Institute for Social Ecology in Plainfield, VT.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.