The Garden Way of Life

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Back in the early 1940's — during a surge in do-it-yourself country living much like the groundswell we're now experiencing — some smarter-than-average people did just what their counterparts are doing today. That is, Ed and Carolyn Robinson, Lyman Wood and some of their friends dropped out of the New York City advertising rat race, bought some land in the country and settled down to what they eventually came to call the Garden Way of Life.

One of the first spinoffs produced by that mini-movement within a larger back-to-the-land movement was the Robinsons' now-famous HAVE-MORE Plan (reprinted in its entirety in MOTHER N0.2). Which led to The Country Bookstore which seems to have spawned Home, Farm and Garden Research Associates which must have sort of kind of given birth to Garden Way Manufacturing and Garden Way Publishing . . . two operations currently in business that MOTHER people deserve to know more about.

Now a shrewd businessman would say that we're really dumb for giving a free plug to Garden Way Publishing because, in many ways, GWP is in direct competition with MOTHER. Both operations sell a wide range of do-it-yourself, back-to-the-land, environmental, foraging and home-business books and a great number of the titles handled by GWP are the very same titles dealt by MOTHER.

But to heck with the shrewd businessmen. We're gonna tell you about GWP anyway. The firm (and its ancestors) have done so much over the years to keep the mini-farm concept alive and prospering that you've just gotta know about it.

Remember all those great little bulletins listed at the end of every HAVE-MORE Plan chapter? Well GWP is now updating and reprinting them and adding a whole bunch more. For 25¢ each (or 7 for $3.50 or 16 for $7.25 or all 24 for $10.00) you can get yourself bulletins that'll tell you how to restore poor land, raise little-known vegetables, sharpen an axe, grow homestead grapes, raise good asparagus the easy way, grow squabs, make hay and do all kinds of things.

Garden Way Publications is also reissuing the classic books made famous by the HAVE-MORE Plan and have already made Buying Country Property, Starting Right With Milk Goats, Starting Right With Poultry and Starting Right With Turkeys available once again at $3.00 a throw.