As March rolls in like a lion, we’re entering what some gardeners and farmers call “the hungry gap.” This is the time when the ground is starting to thaw, but it’s still too cold and dark to plant new seedlings. Meanwhile your root cellar is running low, and you’ve long since devoured all those dilly beans and tomatoes you preserved at the height of summer. Maybe you have a few parsnips left (in which case you should try this recipe for tea cake), but that’s about it until your garden starts filling your larder once more.

Do you want next March to be different?  Using a simple method called a hot bed, which uses the heat from decaying compost to warm up a basic coldframe, you could be harvesting radishes and salad greens by now, and potatoes as early as April. That’s right. I said potatoes in April.

Hot beds are nothing new—they were even used by the Romans. Hot Beds, a new title from Green Books in the UK, shows you how to build these compost-heated coldframes, manage their warmth, and grow a variety of crops that will feed you through the early spring. By reviving and modernizing this ancient vegetable-growing method, author Jack First produces healthy plants that are ready at least two months earlier than conventionally grown vegetables, even in his native Yorkshire, England.

This practical, illustrated guide has everything you need to understand about how to utilize this highly productive, low-cost, year-round, eco-friendly gardening technique. Straightforward explanations, diagrams, and examples show how the natural process of decay can be harnessed to enable out-of-season growing without burning fossil fuels or elaborate equipment.

Below is a free sample of the book, including a diagram that shows you the basic structure of a hot bed. So get growing!

Hot Beds: How to Grow Early Crops Using an Age-Old Technique by Chelsea Green Publishing

You’ve heard it before. “Big Farma” says the only way to end world hunger is with more GMOs, more monoculture commodity crops, more pesticides, more chemical fertililzers. But there is another way.

Instead of using high-tech inputs, farmers are producing abundant, varied, and healthy crops by mimicking natural processes.

A pioneer of this practice is “Rebel Farmer” Sepp Holzer, and below he outlines his simple 10 step plan to combat world hunger — using permaculture, not petrochemicals. Holzer doesn’t speak a word of English, yet his ideas are so important we’ve translated his work for the US audience that needs it the most. Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture showed readers around his lush alpine farm — where he grows a variety of crops even at a high altitude and a cold climate, and his latest book Desert or Paradise focuses on his methods of engineering water in a landscape to overcome degraded soil.

If you’re intrigued by the ideas outlined in the excerpt below from Holzer’s latest book Desert or Paradise, this Spring you have a rare chance to learn from the master himself. Sepp Holzer lives in Austria, but will be teaching 5 day workshops in Bozeman, MT, Duluth, MN, Loma Mar, CA, and Detroit, MI to introduce his innovative methods of regenerating landscapes to US students. Holzer has used permaculture principles to restore landscapes throughout the Mediterranean region and elsewhere. This is a rare opportunity to learn his innovative methods.

These workshops will focus on agroforestry, aquaculture, crops, animal husbandry, landscaping, botany, food/nutrition, old and proven farming techniques, and concept development/planning, and more.

Find out more information about these workshops, and how to register, here. Information about the Detroit workshop can be found here.

Sepp Holzer’s 10 Step Plan to Combat World Hunger by Chelsea Green Publishing

Buildings use a whopping 42% of America’s total energy each year, and a mind-boggling 72% of all electricity generated. That’s more than any other single sector of the economy, and according to the research in RMI’s book Reinventing Fire cutting the wasted energy from buildings by maximizing efficiency could save, get this: $1.4 trillion!

You can experience the latest in the push for efficient and sustainable buildings yourself. From March 5-7, The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) brings its annual conference, BuildingEnergy, to the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston, MA. BuildingEnergy is three days of trade show exhibits, live demos, 60 sessions offering cutting-edge information on renewable energy and high-performance building, and 24 intensive workshops.

This is the spot where architects, energy experts, builders, DIYers, and owners come together to keep abreast of the latest options for sustainability, and hear from top speakers and instructors from around the country.

Chelsea Green authors on the scene include:

• Jacob Deva Racusin (co-author, with Ace McArleton, of The Natural Building Companion and a pioneer in building science for natural design and construction) will present on creating resilient capacity—not just in homes and buildings, but also in communities.
• John Abrams (author of Companies We Keep and co-founder and CEO of the employee-owned South Mountain Company) will speak about how to build the kind generative economies that can promote sustainability.
• And all those inspired by Amory Lovin’s and the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Reinventing Fire, a roadmap for getting the nation off oil by 2050, should check out the multiple presentations by Kendra Tupper, a senior RMI consultant focused on deep retrofits of existing buildings, whole building energy analysis, energy efficient HVAC design, and life cycle cost analysis.

To register or find out more, visit www.nesea.org/buildingenergy.

“Could it be that bees are telling us that the methods we are using to manipulate them, although well intentioned, are actually condemning the bees to death?” — Ross Conrad, from Natural Beekeeping (Revised and Expanded edition)

Bees are some of the hardest workers in all of agriculture — but they’re on the verge of collapse.

Since its publication in 2007, Natural Beekeeping has guided both beginning beekeepers and experienced ones interested in switching to organic methods through a challenging era, when mysterious diseases and disappearances have threatened bees worldwide. This week, we’re proud to unveil a revised, expanded, full-color edition of Natural Beekeeping — on sale for 35% off.

The current state of industrial honey production is bad news for bees, and Conrad explains why small-scale beekeepers are sorely needed at this critical time:

• Bees in commercial honey production are fed pollen substitutes and corn syrup — but what does this do to their immune systems and overall health? Just like us, bees are more resilient when they’re fed real food, in their case real pollen and nectar from diverse crops.
• Small-scale, local beekeeping efforts avoid the stresses of trucking bees across the country to perform “pollination services” for monoculture commodity crops.
• As the costs of fuel rise, farmers will opt for raising their own pollinators instead of renting them — and they need to learn natural beekeeping to help raise the strongest possible bees.

The most immediate difference readers will notice with the new edition is the gorgeous full-color design including tons of photos. The expanded edition also offers new sections on a wide range of subjects, including the basics of bee biology and anatomy; urban beekeeping, and more. Browse the Table Of Contents here.

Ross Conrad’s new DVD is another teaching tool for the aspiring bee whisperer. Get clear examples of Conrad’s practices and tips, along with footage from one of his popular workshops. The DVD is available alone, or as a bundle along with the book. Watch the trailer below.

And remember, the book is on sale for 35% off this week.