Solviva: How to grow $500,000 on one acre, and Peace on Earth
Author: Anna Edey
List Price: $35.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0966234901
Publisher: Trailblazer Press (01 June, 1998)
Sales Rank: 141,469
Average Customer Rating: 4 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Green Speak is Good Henry Shocley
This book is a marvelous example of the way we should manage our lives. Too many people use and dispose of things without care of how it will affect future generations or themselves. This book explains practical solutions for everyday energy, food, and solid wastes. If you are Henry Shocley or anyone who does not care about their impact on the environment, you should not purchase this book. It is not a get rich quick scheme.
Rating: 2 out of 5
This book has some serious problems
Solviva-How to Grow $500,000 on One Acre & Peace On Earth. This
is a strange book! A How-To book it is not. It is a hodge podge of
thoughts, green speak, observations, the authors past 20 years of
life, some interesting applications of solar structures, much green
speak, her experience with a greenhouse and the business it generated,
more green speak, ...full-color pictures of plants, animals, insects,
artwork, green speak, and lastly green speak. Whether wrote this way
on purpose or not it is confusing. It is a very disjointed book; more
about a persons philosophy of life than about a greenhouse that was
heated and cooled by strictly solar methods. The books layout and
progression is far from logical and it is quite a chore wadding
through all of the philosophizing to arrive at some meat. Does this
book have value? Some. But cut out all of the psycho babble, green
speak and moralizing, rearrange the contents, do some more homework on
solar and other peoples projects and failures, get a few scientific
facts verified, more data and details on what Mss Edey did and did not
do, then perhaps it might be a worthwhile book. One glaring lack, at
least as far as I am concerned; it is not a How To book. Maybe that
is not a big issue when one is writing in a diary, but when the books
title page uses that term and the book does not deliver, then it is a
major issue. The income generating potential of a solar heated
greenhouse that uses strict organic methods has a lot of merit and
expanded outdoors during the summer months one could expect that the
income would increase. She makes a claim that $500,000 is possible
with the 10,000 sq. ft. greenhouse and about an acre of land. She
never made that much on her operation and extrapolates from her own
experiences that it is possible. I would take that with a cup of
salt. She very well may be right but she has no proof. She didn't do
it and did not mention anyone else that had. So again the title of
the book is misleading. Some interesting things gleaned from the book:
1. It is possible to heat a greenhouse completely with solar
means. 2. It is possible to cool a greenhouse completely with solar
means. 3. A living could be made from the above greenhouse. 4.
Animals incorporated into the greenhouse environment can enhance the
quality of the plants by emitting co2 and they can provide another
source of income.There may be some other things but as I said you
will have to dig for them....
Rating: 5 out of 5
Very practical, lots of great ideas, nice color pictures.
"Solviva: How to grow $500,000 on one acre and peace on earth... Learning the art of living, with solar-dynamic, bio-benign design." Ok, the title sounds like something a hippy would come up with. But get past the title... because the book is REALLY GREAT for the self-reliant who want to create their own independent house.This book is for the person who wants to build an independent house in the boonies at low cost, and wants practical low cost solutions.
It explains how to hook on a solar garden to the house (or separately). How to use animals to provide heat... and CO2 to grow your plants to new heights.
She's from Massachusetts, so her winter solar home works through the cold winters. She's tested this system over more than 10 years.
She explains how to grow salad materials for profit. She shows you the numbers. But I'm not sure how applicable this is to all markets. She's in the upscale area of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
She explains how to create grey water and black water waste systems that exceed common septic systems. An explanation on one of the many color pictures says: "The Solviva graywater garden: this area, with its thriving roses, dogwood, pines, spruce and grasses has recevied all graywater since my home was COMPLETED IN 1981. OVER THE PAST 17 YEARS these plants have successfully processed over 500 pounds of regular detergents, shampoos and cleaners, and 45 gallons of chlorine bleach."
On the toilets, she has invented a system that uses standard flush toilets that feed a composting system. It's all low tech and easy to build.
She uses grow tubes and growing beds in her greenhouses (attached or separate).
She keeps chickens, rabbits, sheep, and one donkey. All the systems feed each other. It's amazing how she relates the various things on her property.
The amount of goodies she gets out of her small farm(ette) are remarkable.
John D.
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