"In this book you will see our garden"
I came across "Better Vegetable Gardens the Chinese Way: Peter Chan's Raised-Bed System (1985)" for $3 in a book store in New Hope.
Chan's book is filled with detailed instructions on how to create a productive, organic vegetable garden based on what Chan and his family have created in their own backyard in Portland. An agricultural scientist and teacher, Chan is applying techniques and approaches that have been used for centuries in China - centered around raised beds, composting techniques and use of only a few simple hand tools.
It contains great photography with many full page photos of simple and beautiful elements of gardening - a knot being tied, a tangle of nasturtiums, the mundane yet totally satisfying order of a home garden.
But the best thing about it is the way Chan's voice comes through loud and clear extolling the endless ways in which growing food is good. I felt like I was getting a personal tour from a gardening lover unable to contain his enthusiasm. The tiny little bits of garden genius stick with me; a slug trap made out of a can; cleaning tools in a bucket of sand; seedling punnets made out of strips of newspaper and a piece of plastic pipe over a stake at the corner of the garden bed - so the hose can be moved easily around the garden.
Simple and elegant.
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