One Magic Square

January 18, 2010
Australian gardener Houbein has a personal and intimate understanding of food security, having survived famine during the Nazi occupation in Holland. In this charming but meandering book, she warns of the dangers of globalized, corporate agribusiness and “aims to put you in control of the production of at least part of the food you need.” She claims that one square yard of garden will provide a 10th of a person's food needs and encourages everyone to start a “magic square” or two. The book provides basic gardening information and a wide variety of square-yard vegetable garden plans, from salad plots to curry and anticancer plots, with sections on fruit trees and chickens thrown in, but this is as much a compilation of Houbein's gardening life as a straightforward step-by-step how-to manual. Like an eccentric but wise great aunt, at turns whimsically practical (“apart from spreading shredded bracken on beds to decay, use ferns as parasols for seedlings”) and confusingly questionable (“At this point in time, vast stretches of land are being poisoned by carbon dioxide smoke from brush and forest fires”), Houbein offers much valuable advice, but the presentation is so disorganized that novice gardeners looking for a clear and simple way to get started may be flummoxed.