Welcome to the 3rd meeting of the Garden Bloggers’ Book Club. Today we are sharing our thoughts on Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis. And as is becoming our custom, we also came up with a way for those who didn’t read the book to participate by writing a post about anything related to the soil or compost.

So today’s club meeting is all about soil and compost and the creatures that live within it. I think for dessert we should have one of those dirt cakes, don’t you?

But since this is the Internet, I can’t personally serve you food and drinks, so grab your favorite drink and snack and give yourself some time to go through this post. As usual with the Garden Bloggers’ Book Club meeting posts, there are all kinds of links to explore.

Let’s dig in!

First you can go to Jeff Lowenfel’s web site to get some more information about who he is. I could not find information on Wayne Lewis on the Internet, but on the back flap of the cover, he is described as a lifelong Alaskan gardener who has worked with Jeff on various projects over the past 20 years, including the national Plant a Row for the Hungry program, which Jeff started in Alaska. Check the media guide for the book for more information on Jeff.

And I found Jeff’s lecture notes for gardening with the soil food web, which might be a helpful refresher if you read the book or a glimpse of what the book is all about if you didn’t read it. Once you get to his lecture notes, there are many more links to various web sites with information about the soil food web and composting. But don’t get too lost in those links, because you want to have time to read all the posts from the book club members.

And here are those links!

Kathy has two posts. Her original review and a follow up to clarify some of her thoughts.

Tyler joined us for the first time with this post from his Chicago garden.

Colleen will be teaming with microbes as well with her review.

Old Roses also read the book and provided a review.

Bill did not have a chance to read the book, but wrote about another book related to compost and soil.

Jenn also did not have a chance to get the book, but wrote about two soil-related books she has in her library.

Annie didn’t think she would have time to read and write about the book, but did include a lot of compost info in another post on her blog.

Phillip, a real soil scientist, is also a first time participant in the book club, and wrote about the book, which he had just received.

I also wrote about the book and previously wrote a story about finding something in my compost which is an old post that might be interesting to those who have just recently been reading my blog.

El stayed up late last night to post her review; she just got the book last Thursday!

Tracy provided a nice rundown of what she learned from the book, a good synopsis for those who haven’t yet read the book.

And I was sort of expecting a review from Genie, but haven’t seen it yet, so I’ll include her pre-post about reading the book. *Update* Genie’s post is now live on her blog

The other interesting thing about choosing this book is that this is the first time we’ve heard from the author of the book we selected, either via comment or email to some. (I know it helps to choose a book by someone who is still living!) I assume he’ll find and read this post, too. At least I hope he does because we’ve given him great insight into what “regular gardeners” like and don’t like about this book.

Thank you to all who participated, some for the third time, others for the first time! I hope you enjoyed all the reviews and comments from the book club members. Remember that any and all are welcome to participate, so if you were intending to post something on your blog, but just didn’t get around to it, please post anytime, let me know about your post via a comment or the email address on the sidebar, and I’ll add you to this post.

Note Feb. 12th… Gloria has now posted her review of the book.