Subjects:  1. Agricultural pests    2. Biological control    3. Gardening    4. Gardening / Horticulture    5. Gardening/Plants    6. Organic    7. Plants, Protection of    8. Reference    9. Techniques    10. Gardening / Reference   

Editorial Review

This is truly a one-stop comprehensive guide to organic gardening: it is a big book filled with techniques, definitions, solutions to gardening problems, and a huge listing of organic gardening resources.It's one of the most thorough guides I have seen for organic gardeners--it is well indexed and annotated, and covers all climate zones and growing conditions. If this book doesn't get your motor running about the garden, well, maybe you'll want to try a different hobby. I think it should be a part of any true gardener's library, covered with notes, muddy fingerprints, and with the well-worn pages. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Comprehensive
The Organic Gardener's Home Reference is a chart book, plant by plant, in alphabetical order, for vegetables, fruits and nuts, and herbs. The final two sections offer charts for controlling diseases and pests and suggestions for companion plants.
Organic Gardener's Home Helper
I have found this book to be loaded with helpful information.Some basic info, which we can forget, to detailed info to help with particular problems is wonderful.The best thing is, if the book gives you options to fix a problem, it tells you why it works and whether the method is a certain or uncertain fix.It covers everything from planting by variety to pests vs beneficial insests, fungus, soil, and a large index/appendices to lead you elsewhere if needed.It covers companions/ally planting quite well.The only thing I have noted which appears not to be covered is crop rotation.Great Reference book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Fruit    2. Gardening / Horticulture    3. Gardening/Plants    4. Handbooks, manuals, etc    5. Herb gardening    6. Organic    7. Organic gardening    8. Vegetable gardening    9. Vegetables   

Reviews (4)

more than a how to book
I got so much out of this book. It was very funny and spiritual. Plus I did learn a thing or two about gardening.
Charming and Informative
Tony Kienitz has written a book to make us believe in ourselves as gardeners, even if our gardens are less than perfect and don't begin to resemble a glossy magazine spread.His humor is warm and welcoming while his gardening tips are full of insight and common sense.Loved the book and hope that Mr. Kienitz continues to treat us to his thoughts as often as he can.

I DIG IT!
This is a great book to inspire you to get outside and work in the garden.It's funny, practical and reminds us how amazing nature truly is.A great gift for family and friends. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Gardening / Organic    2. Gardening / Vegetables    3. Gardening    4. Organic    5. Vegetables   

Editorial Review

Now in its fifth edition and printed in seven different languages, Jeavon's book is considered a classic in the field (literally) and has brought about a kind of green revolution in food production around the world. This book is based on Alan Chadwick's biointensive gardening techniques. It will show you how to raise enough fresh, healthy, organic vegetables for a family of four on a parcel of land as small as 800 square feet! Nothing could be more fundamental to the needs of an increasingly crowded world than food. Jeavons and the group he heads, Ecology Action, are making a quiet but earth-shaking revolution in how people raise nutritious food. Read more

Reviews (8)

No metric???
This book is suposed to revolutionize how home gardeners around the world can become self sustaining and yet it can't even be published using metric measures! How do they translate this to other languages and don't even bother using a measurement system that the majority of the world uses?? What a careless oversite on the part of the publisher AND author. Double-digging, maybe. Double pages, no.
This title grew from a 1971 experimental garden in Palo Alto, California instigated by Alan Chadwick and Stephen Kafka. That garden showed thatusing the biodynamic/French Intensive method produced four times morevegetables than conventional techniques. THE difinitive book about sustainable gardening
The book others imitate. The difinitive source of information about sustainable gardening (agriculture on any scale, actually), with understandable diagrams and explanations.The concepts are simple; thework much easier than the old-fashioned "row garden"; the resultsare more bountiful; your health benefits; the fertility of your soil grows;the environment improves.Read more

Subjects:  1. Gardening    2. Gardening / Horticulture    3. Gardening/Plants    4. Organic    5. Organic Gardening    6. Vegetable Crops    7. Vegetable gardening    8. Vegetables    9. Fruit & vegetables   

Subjects:  1. Agriculture - Sustainable Agriculture    2. Organic    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Technology    5. Technology & Industrial Arts    6. Agricultural science   

Reviews (2)

Great gardening reference
Of all my gardening library, this one is the most used. Very good basic gardening information source.

One of the ABSOLUTE BEST Gardening/Landscaping How-To Books
This is, without a doubt, one the BEST gardening & landscaping how-to books on the market.Easy to find topics, including:The Basics, Flowers, Food Gardens, Lawn & Groundcovers, Trees and Shrubs, Houseplants andContainer Gardens and much more!Hundreds of easy to follow illustrations! This book is PACKED with useful tips, directions and wonderful projects! AHIGHLY recommended book! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Gardening    2. Gardening/Plants    3. Landscape gardening    4. Organic Gardening    5. Organiculture   

Reviews (1)

Most excellent!
This is one of my favorites.Since it was written during the mid-1860's, the writing style is perhaps a bit different from what we are used to nowadays, but not distractingly so.This farmer knows how to tell a story.He starts with his longing to leave the city, leads us through his search for an affordable property and then lets us follow him as he chooses his crops -- among them, 804 peach trees at 7 cents a piece, all dutifully "tarred" to prevent worms -- and markets the producefor the first few years on the farm.Along the way, he scatters fascinating tidbits about his life.One of my favorites is the story of his blackberry plants.While living in town, he had read of a new kind of blackberry that intrigued him, and though it was a very unheard of thing to do at the time, he orderd six of the plants by mail, at the princely sum of five dollars.When the plants arrived, he was shocked at their size and appearance."They looked like long white worms, with here and there a bud or an eye" and was too embarassed to admit to his wife that he paid so much for them.But he planted them and tended them, and the next year had a magnificent crop of berries, and so finally admitted to the cost.He and his wife agreed it was a bargain at that, and since they loved the berries so much, they dug up the plants and took them along to their new farm.There, the berries attracted the attention of neighbors and nurserymen, and by being one of the first suppliers in the area, he was able to sell $460 worth of blackberry plants that first year on the farm -- quite a return on his initial five dollar investment.
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Subjects:  1. Agriculture    2. Agriculture - General    3. Farms, Small    4. Fruit-culture    5. Gardening    6. Gardening/Plants    7. Organic    8. Technology & Industrial Arts    9. Gardening / Organic   

Editorial Review

Another impressive tome from Rodale Press, this practical text of nearly 1,000 pages covers organic gardening from the first soil preparation to the final harvesting and preserving. Read more

Reviews (4)

ORGANIC GARDENING FOR THE HOME GARDEN
There is no doubt that this book is the best that has ever been written on the subject of ORGANIC GARDENING. J.I. Rodale was years ahead of his time.

The gardener's Bible
The language is a bit stilted in places, and the photos are from the original publication date, but some things never change and gardening is one of them.
Everything you need to know about gardening all year is here
This review is for the copyright 1961 edition by J.I. Rodale, Eleventh Printing-November 1975.In this book, you will find chapters of planning the vegetable garden,starting with the soil, improving soil structure, fertilizing your soil, how to make compost, preparing the soil for planting, starting plants from seed, seeding, planting and transplanting outside, how to use mulches, summer garden care, watering and irrigating, when to harvest, fall and winter garden care, storing the surplus, controlling insects and disease, freezing and canning vegetables, marketing organic foods, growing vegetables in the greenhouse and year-round schedules of garden activity.There is also 16 chapters of fruit gardening.Index included. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Fruit    2. Fruit culture    3. Fruit-culture    4. Fruits And Orchards    5. Gardening    6. Gardening / Horticulture    7. Gardening/Plants    8. Organic    9. Organic Gardening    10. Techniques    11. Vegetable gardening   

Reviews (1)

Worth Trying .......
First things first, this book was great fun to read.The author writes with passion on her subject and clearly has a great love of this topic.It really does shine through.The description of different herbs is workman like and covers off on all the kitchen herbs in everyday use.
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Subjects:  1. Gardening    2. Gardening / Horticulture    3. Gardening/Plants    4. Herb gardening    5. Herbs    6. Organic Gardening   

Editorial Review

There have been many articles over the years about the benefits of composting for gardeners, but living in the city without a yard, this reviewer never really thought it was something that would apply to me with my handful of flower boxes and potted plants outside. Joke's on me! This book tells you everything you need to know about composting and household refuse, and most importantly, how to get STARTED, and will be enough to convince you to finally get organized and go for it. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

excellent for beginners
Earlier this summer I developed an interest in gardening, and especially the at-home composting. I found that this book was recommended to me more than any other.
This book is like having a neighbor show us how to compost.
How do we demystify the simple act of home composting? This easy to read book is the next best thing to having a helpful neighbor show us how to compost. During my past 10 years as a compost evangelist, I have conductedhome composting workshops for thousands of people. Backyard Composting isoften distributed by sponsoring agencies for public education and includedwith the purchase of a compost bin. I like the way this book combines basichow-to's and a holistic perspective of how compost fits in to the notion ofsustainability, recycling, and permaculture. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Agriculture - General    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. General    6. Home Gardening    7. Life Sciences - Ecology - Recycling    8. Organic   

Reviews (4)

TRULY INSPIRATIONAL
This is a truly wonderful book and a very good read for anyone interested in the well being of the earth.Subjects such as permaculture, improving soil, water harvesting, seed saving and the importance of seed diversity are all discussed here with input from some of the masters on these subjects. Lighting one candle...
Day after day many of us read about the destruction of our planet: farm land covered over with environmentally unfriendly golf courses and asphalt or destroyed by huge pesticide driven agribusinesses; water supplies contaminated with arsenic and ecoli; air polluted with everything from asbestos to zinc; wetlands destroyed by pesticides and developers; dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico; old growth forests pillaged by greedy corporations; and thousands of species of plants and animals on the brink of extinction including the Orca Whale symbol of the West Coast Indians. Sustainable Gardening - We've all got to do it!
Howard Shapiro has done the organic gardener and the "thinking about it someday" armchair novice a great favor. He has read most of the good books for you; extensively interviewed and visited with the giants of the subject; and, he has added his own considerable wisdom and experiencewith Seeds of Change, to provide us with a great, concise volume onsustainable gardening and systems. "Gardening for the Future of theEarth" is also very serious about its title; Shapiro sprinkles thetext with anecdotes and data about the huge genetic, environmental, health,and cultural impacts of modern chemical factory farming - his personal timeline is 20 years until the world, all of it, is in serious trouble.Read more

Subjects:  1. Gardening    2. Gardening / Horticulture    3. Gardening/Plants    4. Life Sciences - Ecology    5. Organic    6. Organic gardening    7. Techniques    8. Gardening / General   

Subjects:  1. Compost    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. General    6. Organic    7. Organic fertilizers    8. Techniques    9. Organic gardening   

Reviews (1)

Complete Organic Gardening
I have read many books on organic gardening by many authors, and this book is by far the best. Howard Garrett, also known as the Dirt Doctor, hosts over five hours per week of an organic gardening show on talk radio in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex area. He has done more to stimulate the popularity of organic gardening in this area than all other sources combined. While many of Howard's books are targeted to his home state of Texas, this book is not. This book should be applicable to gardeners nationwide because none of the advice is tailored to any specific geographical area.Read more

Subjects:  1. Biological control    2. Garden pests    3. Gardening    4. Gardening / Horticulture    5. Gardening/Plants    6. Landscape    7. Organic    8. Organic gardening    9. Plants, Protection of    10. Reference   

Reviews (1)

This book is excellent for the small homesteader.
I find this book to be an invaluable source of reference. Each area (animal, insect or vegtable) is covered in a short, easy, humerous style. It even covers the basics of beekeeping! The gardening section and thepoultry sections are especially good. I would recommend this book for useas a quick reference or as a source for those starting out a small farm todecide which type garden or creatures are the best for their farm. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Agriculture    2. Agriculture - General    3. Gardening    4. Gardening / Horticulture    5. Gardening/Plants    6. General    7. Handbooks, manuals, etc    8. Organic Gardening    9. Organic farming    10. Gardening / General   

Reviews (2)

Skills For a Low Tech Future
A wonderful book, despite its having been originally written more than 100 years ago. Fresh and sobering look at what it takes to make a civilized society run on a daily basis without modern technology, from food production to how to make cotton mattresses by hand, to manufacturing coal based blocks for home heating and cooking - in a backyard; and how to build a k'ang, a raised heated platform used for sitting and sleeping.
Great book.
This is a great book for anyone interested in organic farming, history, and different cultural perspectives. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Agriculture    2. Agriculture - General    3. China    4. Gardening    5. Gardening / Horticulture    6. Gardening/Plants    7. Japan    8. Korea    9. Organic    10. Gardening / Organic    11. NATURAL HISTORY, COUNTRY LIFE & PETS   

Reviews (2)

The Best of Its Kind
I've read several general gardening books, and this one is by far the best. I love it for all the same reasons as the other reviewer (Valerie Adolph)gave. Every gardener should read and own this book.

Easy, natural gardening
I always look forward to a new gardening book from Ann Lovejoy and this one did not disappoint. Beautifully illustrated with Janet Loughrey's color photographs, this book is full of practical ideas for creating a Northwest garden that is both beautiful and easy to care for.Read more

Subjects:  1. Gardening    2. Gardening / Horticulture    3. Gardening/Plants    4. Horticulture (General)    5. Landscape Horticulture    6. Natural landscaping    7. Northwest, Pacific    8. Organic    9. Organic gardening    10. Regional - General    11. Regional - Pacific Northwest (OR, WA)   

Reviews (1)

From a bird lover
This book has some great tips and information for bird feeding.Unfortunately the same information is repeated over and over.A smaller book could have easily included all information. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Bird Behavior    2. Bird attracting    3. Bird feeders    4. Birds    5. Birds & Birdwatching - General    6. Feeding and feeds    7. Nature    8. Nature/Ecology    9. Organic    10. Nature / Birds & Birdwatching   

Editorial Review

The ubiquitous For Dummies series, while not known for pretty illustrations or lush photography, does manage to pack the maximum amount of information into an easy-to-read format--something that gardeners with an eye on the financial bottom line love. For vegetable gardeners, the Read more

Reviews (3)

A must have for every gardener!
This is a great book for any vegetable gardener. It is easy to follow and you don't have to read it from start to finish. It is laid out so you can go to the sections that interest you the most. I am a first year gardener, and I got many, many compliments on my first ever vegetable garden, thanks mostly to the help of this book. A must have!

Any Gardener's Must-Have Book
I have other gardening books, but none of them are as easy-to-follow or as comprehensive as this one.The text is so much fun, it's easy to read cover-to-cover.Yet, if you need specific information on a certain type ofvegetable or technique, the index is very easy to use.The appendix givesthe dates and growing seasons for every major (or minor) city in the U.S.,as well as additional resources and catalogs to consult.A wonderfulresource for a novice or an experienced gardener.

Very informative
Like the rest of the books in the Dummies series, this book takes a light-hearted approach to a heavy topic such as gardening. By focusing on vegetables the content remains helpful and informative. The book wasdivided into sensible sections--the basics, what to plant, how to plant,and so forth. I appreciated the instruction on gardening beginnings such asconstructing a bean pole and what tools a novice needs. The last half ofthe book talks about specific vegetables, and has handy information on whatgrows best where. I believe this makes a good first-time gardener book or acompanion to a book with more pictures. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Garden Design    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. General    6. Home Gardening    7. Organic    8. Vegetable gardening    9. Vegetables    10. Computer Hardware & Operating Systems    11. Organic gardening   

Reviews (1)

Exactly What I Needed!
This gardening book is exactly what the beginning gardener needs to plan their garden.It is beautifully illustrated, with photos of each type of perennial, and detailed descriptions of each.The information provided isextremely helpful, since it includes ideal climate, growing guidelines,height and spread.Read more

Subjects:  1. Flowers - Perennials    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. Organic    6. Organic Gardening    7. Perennials    8. Gardening / Organic   

Reviews (3)

Terrific reference
A great reference that I turn to time and time again.And frequently peruse leisurely at bedtime.Especially nice for wintertime dreaming of next season's garden!
Excellent guide for choosing perennials
If you are confused and overwhelmed by the large number of perennials available to you, then you might want to take this book along with you on your next trip to the nursery.
Features plants with handy at-a-glance plant profiles
There are perennials for virtually any purpose in the garden, and Larry Hodgson's Perennials For Every Purpose features plants with handy at-a-glance plant profiles to help choose the right ones for garden conditions and taste. Color photos accompany details especially valuable in including common problems and solutions to gardening. The sidebar plant profiles offer very quick details on their use and growing tips. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Flowers - Perennials    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. Landscape    6. Perennials    7. Flowers    8. Gardening / Organic