(NOTE: I will be out of town the month of November. Thanks.)
Reviews about the book are on the following two pages.
Reviews for Roots Demystified:
Highly recommended! This book is an outstanding compilation and distillation of the most current information about plant roots. Written with wit and insight, it contains just the sort of economically and ecologically practical information one can only learn from an experienced gardener. The text is enriched by the use of appealing and enlightening graphics highlighted by reproductions of extraordinarily detailed illustrations of extraordinary illustrations of meticulously excavated entire root systems. This book is sure to change the reader’s perspective on the vital roles roots play in both soil as well as plant health, and how that knowledge can enhance our own gardens and landscapes. —Peter H. Raven, President, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO
We are grateful to have John Weaver’s important root work made available to people everywhere through Robert Kourik’s new book. Everyone needs a better sense of his or her roots, and Roots Demystified will help a lot. —John Jeavons, Author, How to Grow More Vegetables, Ecology Action, Willits, CA
Robert Kourik has done it again. He’s produced a garden book with a critical and unique focus: roots. After all, it is the mostly invisible roots that largely determine a plant’s success or failure. All the key plant groups are covered—lawns, trees & shrubs, vegetables, fruits, and so on—but from the perspective of what researchers have learned about their roots. This book will make anyone a better gardener. —Michael MacCaskey, Garden Editor/Writer, Burlington, Vermont
What a book! Robert Kourik’s underground pursuit has unearthed a great treasure, a guide both wondrous and eminently practical. —Roger B. Swain, Science Editor, Horticulture magazine; Host, PBS’s The Victory Garden
Robert connects the dots between what we already know and new information. Roots Demystified is filled with practical advice that every gardener should know—whether beginning or advanced gardeners. —Rosalind Creasy, Author, The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping
A gold mine of fascinating facts about the secret life of plants under the ground. Kourik has spent a lifetime studying plants, both as a professional gardener and as journalist hunting down the truth hidden in horticultural research. In this book, he has pulled all that together into a coherent story about the way plants and soils really interact. While the focus of Roots Demystified is most squarely on trees and shrubs, the book is one of the best I have read on how to get plants of any kind to grow, and grow well. —Jack Ruttle, Garden Design magazine
A rare combination of firsthand observation, research, humor, and the author’s practicality make for a refreshingly original look at roots. —Joy Larkcom, Author, Grow Your Own Vegetables, Lislevane, Co. Cork, Ireland
Roots Demystified pulls together practical science from a wide range of sources, including a unique assembly of detailed scale drawings of a variety of veggie and tree root systems. Even a seasoned and well-read plant person will find interesting and practical information in this well-written manual. For example, in my 27-plus years as a tree nurseryman, I had not learned that trees redistribute water in the soil profile via “hydraulic lift” [Chapter 11]! Soil fertility and irrigation are covered as well, made imminently useful presented in the context of where and how roots grow. —Robert Woolley, President, Dave Wilson Nursery, Hickman (near Modesto), CA
I thought Robert Kourik had written the most useful book on ecological gardening when he wrote, …Your Edible Landscape—Naturally. Apparently, he had only scratched the surface. Now he’s written a new book, Roots Demystified, Change Your Gardening Habits to Help Roots Thrive. Robert has a rare gift for rendering complex scientific studies into a compost of humorous, fascinating environmental wisdom and easy-to-apply, in-the-dirt, hands-on knowledge. After you read Roots Demystified, every tree you plant will dig in and thrive for you. What Alex Haley taught us about how to value and nurture our metaphorical family tree, Robert has done for our actual family tree—the one in our backyard. —Sam Benowitz, Owner, Raintree Nursery, Morton, WA
A really great book! Robert has taken a complex subject and refined it into a highly informative, must-read book for every ecologically-minded gardener. —Chip Tynan, Manager, Horticulture Answer Service, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO
Gardeners interested in sustainability will find Roots Demystified an invaluable resource. If roots are the key to sustainable gardening, Robert Kourik’s Roots Demystified offers the key to growing terrific roots. The astonishingly detailed pictures are an education in themselves, earning this excellent new w handbook a place on every gardener’s reference shelf. —Ann Lovejoy, Author/Lecturer, Bainbridge Island, WA
I saw my first root drawing in 1974, when I took a soils class while a student at the University of California at Berkeley. But, it didn’t really hit home with me until looking at a root drawing in 1982 while reading John Jeavons’ book, How To Grow More Vegetables. Robert has done an excellent job compiling all the research that has been done in the past twenty years to flesh out our knowledge of what plant roots do and how they grow. He has made very complicated information easily accessible and given practical information for gardeners to use in growing better plants. —Kate Burroughs, Founding Co-owner, Harmony Farm Supply, Sebastopol, CA
Kourik’s book about the significance of roots comes from many years of physical labor in the fields, not in a classroom. Join that demanding and exhausting physical labor to his ability to combine observation and analysis and words, and you have a book more valuable to gardeners and diners and readers than any such book on the market, past or current. And the illustrations? As my teenage great grandson says: “I mean, like, they’re mind-blowing, man!” —Chester Aaron, Garlic Farmer/Author, Occidental, CA
Roots is an amazing look into the underground world of plants. After showing us a world that we knew little about Robert gives us practical ways to apply this knowledge to our daily horticultural activities. —Tom Bressan. Owner, The Urban Farmer Store, San Francisco, CA
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Robert Kourik, Metamorphic Press
PO Box 412, Occidental, CA 95465
www.Robert-Kourik.com
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie@sbpermaculture.com
www.sbpermaculture.org
"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order to grow." - Anonymous