Description

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'Common Scents Organic Gardening' provides comprehensive time, cost and water saving techniques for creating and maintaining a sustainable kitchen garden. The book includes chapters on Tools & Equipment, Site Characteristics, Garden Layout, Keeping Chickens, Creating a 'Viable' Soil (including Composting and Mulch), Dog Patrol and Techniques for Planting, Harvesting and Propagation including selecting, dehydrating and storing seeds and transplanting seedlings and cuttings.As no chemical pesticides are used, a variety of insects, spiders and birds attracted to the kitchen garden have created a naturally balanced ecosystem with minimal damage to produce. As a result fresh, healthy and abundant produce is available year after year.

About the Author

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Pia Dowling (MBA) has lived in a variety of regions with markedly different climatic zones and soil conditions and managed to harvest viable and sustainable organic produce over the past twenty years. Several years ago, Pia converted an area of approximately 150 m2 (1,615 ft2) weed covered suburban backyard in Brisbane Australia into a sustainable, organic kitchen garden that has become a source of fresh eggs from her content chickens and fresh, healthy and abundant produce all year round, year after year. Over the past year or so while juggling professional work commitments, Pia decided to document the time, cost and water saving techniques used to create and maintain a sustainable kitchen garden including selecting, dehydrating and storing seeds and transplanting seedlings and cuttings for a selection of fruit, vegetables, herbs and companion flowers. Without the use of chemical pesticides, she was amazed to discover more than one hundred species of insects, spiders and birds attracted to the kitchen garden creating a naturally balanced ecosystem with minimal damage to produce. Feedback from some of the attendees at the interactive presentation of the book: 'Common Scents Organic Gardening - Techniques for Creating and Maintaining Sustainable Kitchen Garden' held at the Carindale Library Brisbane Australia on Friday 1st March 2013: -"Useful and practical information" -"So informative and educational" -'The best aspect of this event was the knowledge of the speaker" -"Engaging and informative speaker" -"The speakers knowledge of her subject" Book Review: 'Common Scents Organic Gardening - Techniques for Creating and Maintaining Sustainable Kitchen Garden' by Arno King (landscape architect, horticulturist and journalist) dated 12th February 2013. "......a new book full of beautiful images of the plants and insects of SE QLD. Author Pia Dowling is a keen organic gardener with a wealth of experience and passion for growing food in her 150 sqm garden and the QLD Museum has helped to identify the insects Pia has found there......is especially interesting for South East Queensland gardeners as very few (if any) other books have information on local garden insects". http: //gardendrum.com