how to Start a backyard FOOD garden
From helpful gardening tips to detailed plans for building healthy soil, this book has what you need. Learn how to plant garlic, rosemary, beans, strawberries, and many other delicious foods! Great for beginners and seasoned gardeners alike!
Growing Perennial Foods
Acadia Tucker’s long love affair with perennial foods has produced this easy-to-understand guide to growing, harvesting, and eating them.
A regenerative farmer and gardener deeply concerned about global warming, Tucker believes there may be no better time to plant perennials. Sturdy and deep-rooted, perennials can weather climate extremes more easily than annuals. They can thrive without chemical fertilizers and pesticides. And they don’t need as much water, either.
These long-lived plants also help build healthy soil, turning the very ground we stand on into a carbon sponge.
In this book, Tucker lays the groundwork for tending an organic, sustainable garden. She includes practical growing guides for 34 popular perennials, among them, basil, blueberries, grapes, strawberries, artichokes, asparagus, garlic, radicchio, spinach, and sweet potatoes, and wraps in a recipe for each of the plants profiled.
Growing Perennial Foods is for gardeners who want more resilient plants. It’s for people who want to do something about climate change and the environment. It’s for anyone who has ever wanted to grow food, and is ready to begin. (See book excerpt.)
Peek inside Growing Perennial Foods.
ISBN: 9780998862354 (paperback); Pages: 280; Size: 6 x 9
Voted one of the “BEST VEGETABLE GARDENING BOOKS FOR BEGINNERS” by Simply Smart Gardening
“Right from the beginning of the book, you really get the idea that not only does Acadia know what she's talking about, she is passionate about it. This book isn't technical, but also doesn't talk down to readers. Acadia is right there with you, explaining everything, encouraging you, and giving you all the info you need on growing various perennial foods. Acadia approaches gardening much the way we do at the National Gardening Association -- organically, and with an eye toward working with nature rather than against it.”
— Trish Whitinger, COO, National Gardening Association
“Acadia Tucker’s Growing Perennial Foods is a must-have resource for home gardeners looking to take their conservation efforts to the next level. With hard-earned knowledge and conversational clarity, Tucker demystifies the concepts of regenerative agriculture, translates them to the garden level, and guides the reader both philosophically and practically. Her focus on perennial plants provides an exciting and useful method of enacting the principles of regenerative agriculture, one that any sustainable gardener will appreciate.”
— Stephanie Anderson, author, One Size Fits None: A Farm Girl’s Search for the Promise of Regenerative Agriculture
“Great for new and experienced gardeners alike, Growing Perennial Foods is worth the purchase for the recipes alone. The book provides a short primer on general gardening topics, including composting and organic pest control, along with individual plant profiles for a wide variety of herbs, vegetables, and fruit. But, more than the academic knowledge, you will experience the love and passion Acadia Tucker has for the earth and making it a better place for all to enjoy.”
— Denise Pugh, Gardening Products Review (read full review)
“Acadia Tucker is on a mission to get more of us thinking about the power of regenerative agriculture. By the end of the book, you’ll feel inspired enough to start your own Climate Victory Garden.”
— Jess Walton, Food Campaigns Director GREEN AMERICA
A U T H O R & I L L U S T R A T O R
Acadia Tucker is a regenerative farmer, climate activist, and author. Her books are a call to action to citizen gardeners everywhere, and lay the groundwork for planting an organic, regenerative garden. For her, this is gardening as if our future depends on it.
Before becoming an author, Acadia started a four-season organic market garden in Washington State inspired by farming pioneers Eliot Coleman and Jean-Martin Fortier. While managing the farm, Acadia grew 200 different food crops before heading back to school at the University of British Columbia to complete a Masters in Land and Water Systems.
She lives in Maine and New Hampshire with her farm dog, Nimbus, and grows hops to support locally sourced craft beer in New England, when she isn't raising perennials in her own backyard. She is also the author of Growing Good Food: A citizen’s guide to climate victory gardening and Tiny Victory Gardens: Growing good food without a yard. Acadia is a Rodale Institute Ambassador for regenerative agriculture.
Krishna Chavda is an illustrator and surface designer based in Hoboken, NJ. Inspired by her childhood in Tanzania, nature, and her Indian heritage, Krishna's illustrations and patterns are vibrant and playful.
Learn more at Nanu Illustration.