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Books

These are the books the Seacliff team, and the growers we learn from, keep coming back to. The list is drawn from the titles featured and recommended by KIS Organics, BuildASoil, Grow Abundant, Steve Solomon and his Soil and Health Library, grouped by what each book is best at.

Two thank yous. To Steve Solomon and the Soil and Health Library, which keeps so many of the classics on this page free to read. And to Tad Hussey and the team at KIS Organics, who recommended a lot of these books to us in the first place.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon links on this page are affiliate links, so Seacliff Organics may earn a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. Many of the older titles can also be read free through the Soil and Health Library, and we have linked those copies as well.

Living soil and no-till

  • The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming, Masanobu Fukuoka (1978). The founding text of do-nothing farming: no tilling, permanent mulch and trust in soil biology. Short, philosophical and still radical. Amazon.
  • The Living Soil, Lady Eve Balfour (1943). The book that gave living soil its name. Balfour sets out the evidence that soil vitality drives plant, animal and human health. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • Plowman's Folly, Edward H. Faulkner (1943). The 1943 bestseller that questioned the plough and argued for leaving residues at the surface. An early case for no-till growing. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • Building Soils for Better Crops: Ecological Management for Healthy Soils, Fred Magdoff and Harold van Es (2021). The most practical modern textbook on organic matter, soil structure, biology and nutrient management. Free to download. Amazon. Free from SARE.
  • Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life, David R. Montgomery (2017). Visits farms rebuilding soil with no-till, cover crops and diverse rotations, and shows how the three together restore fertility. Amazon.
  • Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, David R. Montgomery (2007). A geologist's history of how societies that wore out their topsoil declined, and why protecting soil is every grower's first job. Amazon.
  • The Natural Way of Farming: The Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy, Masanobu Fukuoka (1985). The practical companion to The One-Straw Revolution, with Fukuoka's no-till methods for grain, vegetables and orchards. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • Humusphere: Humus, a Substance or a Living System?, Herwig Pommeresche (2018). Argues that plants take up living matter and large molecules, not only dissolved salts, and that humus is a living system to be fed. Amazon.

Mineral balancing and soil testing

  • The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient-Dense Food, Steve Solomon with Erica Reinheimer (2012). The plain-language guide to reading a soil test and remineralising a garden for nutrient-dense crops. Every site we follow points to it. Amazon.
  • The Ideal Soil v2.0: A Handbook for the New Agriculture, Michael Astera (2014). A worked method for turning a soil test into a mineral prescription, built on Albrecht's ratios. The companion to any lab report. Amazon.
  • Soil Fertility and Animal Health, William A. Albrecht (1958). Albrecht's only full book, linking calcium and mineral balance to the health of everything fed from a soil. The root of soil balancing. Amazon. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • More Food from Soil Science: The Natural Chemistry of Lime in Agriculture, Victor A. Tiedjens (1965). Explains why calcium, not pH, is the real reason to lime, and what heavy potassium does to a soil. Out of print but worth tracking down. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • Teaming with Nutrients: The Organic Gardener's Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition, Jeff Lowenfels (2013). How plants take up and use each nutrient, written for organic growers. Makes sense of deficiency charts and amendment labels. Amazon.
  • Hands-On Agronomy, Neal Kinsey and Charles Walters (1993). Neal Kinsey's field-tested take on the Albrecht system. Dense, practical and the standard reference for cation balancing on real soils. Amazon.
  • The Art of Balancing Soil Nutrients: A Practical Guide to Interpreting Soil Tests, William McKibben (2012). A soil consultant's plain guide to reading soil and water test reports and turning the numbers into a sound fertility plan. Amazon.
  • A Grower's Guide for Balancing Soils: A Practical Guide to Interpreting Soil Tests, William McKibben (2021). McKibben's follow-up works nutrient by nutrient through standard and paste tests so growers can balance fertility with confidence. Amazon.
  • Soil Fertility: A Guide to Organic and Inorganic Soil Amendments, Robert Parnes (2013). A plain reference on what each manure, meal and rock dust supplies, with nutrient tables to work out application rates. Amazon (1990 edition, titled Fertile Soil). Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • Soil Reaction (pH) and Balanced Soil Nutrition, William A. Albrecht (1967). Albrecht's last and fullest summary of his work: feed the soil balanced calcium and magnesium rather than chase pH. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • A Training Manual for Soil Analysis Interpretation in Northern California, Gregg A. Young (1999). A worked course in reading soil tests the Albrecht way, balancing base cations for fruit and vine quality. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.

Microbes, compost and worms

  • Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis (2010). The clearest introduction to the soil food web and why feeding microbes beats feeding plants. Start here if you are new to living soil. Amazon.
  • Teaming with Fungi: The Organic Grower's Guide to Mycorrhizae, Jeff Lowenfels (2017). A practical guide to mycorrhizal fungi: which plants host them, how inoculants work and how to keep the fungi alive in pots and beds. Amazon.
  • Teaming with Bacteria: The Organic Gardener's Guide to Endophytic Bacteria and the Rhizophagy Cycle, Jeff Lowenfels (2022). Covers endophytic bacteria and the rhizophagy cycle, the newer science of plants farming microbes inside their own roots. Amazon.
  • Organic Gardener's Composting, Steve Solomon (1993). Solomon on making compost that really feeds soil, and why carbon to nitrogen ratios and mineral content matter more than the heap design. Amazon. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health, David R. Montgomery and Anne BiklĂ© (2016). Links the microbes around plant roots to those in the human gut, showing why feeding soil life with organic matter pays off. Amazon.
  • Soil Biology Primer, Elaine R. Ingham, Andrew R. Moldenke and Clive A. Edwards (2000). A short illustrated introduction to the soil food web: bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, arthropods and earthworms. Soil and Water Conservation Society.
  • Vermiculture Technology: Earthworms, Organic Wastes, and Environmental Management, Clive A. Edwards, Norman Q. Arancon and Rhonda Sherman (editors) (2011). The reference text on worm composting, covering earthworm biology, vermicompost quality and its measured effects on plant growth. Amazon.

Growing vegetables and market gardening

  • Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times, Steve Solomon (2006). Low-input food growing with hand tools, wide spacing and Solomon's complete organic fertiliser recipe. Practical and unsentimental. Amazon.
  • The Lean Farm, Ben Hartman (2015). Applies lean manufacturing to small growing operations: cut waste, tidy the workflow and keep only what earns its place in the facility. Amazon.
  • Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Organic Gardening, Steve Solomon and Marina McShane (2015). Solomon's best known handbook for cool maritime climates: complete organic fertiliser, sowing dates and crop by crop detail. Amazon.
  • Water-Wise Gardening: How To Grow Food With or Without Irrigation, Steve Solomon (2022). How to space, feed and manage vegetables so they crop through a dry summer on little or no irrigation. Amazon. The 1993 edition, Gardening Without Irrigation, is free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables, Ben Hartman (2017). Applies lean thinking bed by bed, with compost, seeding, transplanting, weeding and harvest methods that cut waste on a small market garden. Amazon.
  • Managing Cover Crops Profitably, Andy Clark (editor) (2007). Species by species guide to choosing, sowing and terminating cover crops, with charts for nitrogen, biomass and timing. Amazon. Free from SARE.
  • The Farm as Ecosystem: Tapping Nature's Reservoir, Jerry Brunetti (2014). Ties soil minerals, biology, compost teas, foliar feeding and trace elements into one working picture of a healthy farm. Amazon.
  • Practical Permaculture: for Home Landscapes, Your Community, and the Whole Earth, Jessi Bloom and Dave Boehnlein (2015). A clear design manual for laying out a garden or small farm so that water, soil, plants and animals support one another. Amazon.

Plants, seaweed and comfrey

  • Root Development of Vegetable Crops, John E. Weaver and William E. Bruner (1927). Excavated, hand drawn root systems of every common vegetable. It will change how you space, water and feed your beds. Amazon. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses, Daniel Chamovitz (2017). A biologist explains how plants sense light, touch, chemicals and gravity, separating real plant science from popular myth. Amazon.
  • Seaweed and Plant Growth, T. L. Senn (1987). Decades of Clemson University research on kelp meal and extracts, explaining how seaweed supports soil life and stimulates plant growth. Amazon.
  • Seaweed in Agriculture and Horticulture, W. A. Stephenson (1968). The founder of Maxicrop sets out the early research and field results on seaweed meal and liquid extracts for soil and crops. Amazon.
  • Comfrey: Past, Present and Future, Lawrence D. Hills (1976). The classic study of comfrey as a deep rooted nutrient accumulator, with practical detail on growing it for mulch, compost and liquid feed. Amazon.

Indoor and controlled environment

  • Handbook of Cannabis Production in Controlled Environments, Youbin Zheng (editor) (2022). The academic reference for growing medical cannabis indoors and under glass: lighting, root zone, irrigation, climate and plant health. Amazon.

The classics

  • An Agricultural Testament, Sir Albert Howard (1940). Howard's case for humus, composting and the mycorrhizal association, drawn from decades in India. The foundation of organic growing. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • The Soil and Health: A Study of Organic Agriculture, Sir Albert Howard (1947). Howard's most readable book, tying crop, livestock and human health back to fertile soil. In the UK: Farming and Gardening for Health or Disease. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • Farmers of Forty Centuries: Organic Farming in China, Korea, and Japan, F. H. King (1911). King's 1909 journey records how farmers in East Asia kept soil fertile for 4,000 years by returning every scrap of organic matter. Amazon. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms, Charles Darwin (1881). Darwin's last book: decades of patient observation showing how earthworms build topsoil. Still the best case for looking after your worms. Amazon. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • Bread from Stones, Julius Hensel (1894). The 1890s argument for feeding soil with finely ground rock. The origin of the rock dust and remineralisation ideas growers use today. Amazon. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • Pay Dirt: Farming and Gardening with Composts, J. I. Rodale (1945). Rodale's first book brought Howard's composting ideas to home gardeners and launched the organic movement in North America. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • Humus and the Farmer, Friend Sykes (1946). A working farmer's account of rebuilding worn-out chalk land with compost and deep-rooting leys, with detail on making compost at scale. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • Topsoil and Civilization, Tom Dale and Vernon Gill Carter (1955). A history of how civilisations from Mesopotamia to Rome wore out their topsoil, and what that means for growers today. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • The Waste Products of Agriculture: Their Utilization as Humus, Sir Albert Howard and Yeshwant D. Wad (1931). Howard's scientific account of the Indore process, the method behind almost every hot compost heap built since. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • Common-Sense Compost Making by the Quick Return Method, Maye E. Bruce (1946). A short, friendly guide to making garden compost quickly with the Quick Return herbal activator method. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • Harnessing the Earthworm, Thomas J. Barrett (1947). A classic practical manual on breeding earthworms and putting them to work building soil and feeding plants. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • Humus: Origin, Chemical Composition, and Importance in Nature, Selman A. Waksman (1936). The definitive early reference on what humus is, how it forms and why it matters, by a Nobel Prize winning soil microbiologist. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • The Soil and the Microbe, Selman A. Waksman and Robert L. Starkey (1931). A readable introduction to the microbial life of soil and its part in decay, nutrient cycling and plant growth. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • Soil Microorganisms and Higher Plants, N. A. Krasilnikov (1958). The Soviet classic on how soil microbes feed, protect and shape plants, written decades before the soil food web was named. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • Chemicals, Humus and the Soil, Donald P. Hopkins (1948). A fair minded chemist weighs fertilisers against humus and shows why a productive soil needs both minerals and organic matter. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • Factors of Soil Formation: A System of Quantitative Pedology, Hans Jenny (1941). The founding text on why soils differ: climate, organisms, topography, parent rock and time. Advanced but rewarding. Amazon. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • Green Manuring: Principles and Practice, Adrian J. Pieters (1927). The classic full length study of green manures: what they add, how they break down and how to fit them into a rotation. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • The Clifton Park System of Farming and Laying Down Land to Grass, Robert H. Elliot (1898). The original case for deep rooting herbal leys: rebuild humus under mixed pasture, then crop on the fertility it leaves. Amazon. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • Fertility Farming, Newman Turner (1951). An early farm scale account of minimal ploughing, cover crops and manure in place of chemical fertilisers and sprays. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • Weeds: Guardians of the Soil, Joseph A. Cocannouer (1950). Shows weeds as deep rooted soil builders and as indicators that tell you what is going on beneath the surface. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • Soil Fertility, Renewal and Preservation: Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer (1947). The practical biodynamic classic on treating the farm as a living whole, with trial results on compost and crop health. Amazon. Free on request from the Soil and Health Library.
  • The Keyline Plan, P. A. Yeomans (1954). The Australian original on shaping land so soil holds every drop of rain, deepening topsoil without inverting it. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture, J. Russell Smith (1929). A founding text of agroforestry: use tree crops to hold hillsides and feed people and stock without the plough. Amazon. Free at the Soil and Health Library.
  • French Market-Gardening, John Weathers (1909). How the Paris market gardeners grew year round on small plots with hotbeds and compost. The root of bio-intensive growing. Amazon. Free at the Soil and Health Library.