Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Some books are like gold-bearing ore--you have to sift tons of words to find a few nuggets. This book has nuggets on nearly every page. And unlike some authors, Raymond is open-minded to the various gardening methods and has tried them. Even better, he has worked in different soils in different parts of the country. And he is innovative.
I am not a fan of tillers and I am biased against chemicals, so Raymond had to overcome my initial skepticism. He did. While he extols the use of his tiller [he has a long relationship with Troy-Bilt, owned by Garden Way, publishers of this book], he also shows how to garden without one. And in most cases he offers organic alternatives to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Furthermore, he started out on a farm, paid for his first home with a garden and roadside stand, has appeared in food production documentaries and has given gardening classes throughout the country, face-to-face and on radio and television.
I do not agree with all he writes, nor is he inclusive of all gardening methods, for instance Fukuoka's no-till, Steiner's biodynamics or Mollison's permaculture. But in gardening, the proof is in the eating and it is clear that Dick Raymond eats very well. Beginning, mid-field and advanced gardeners alike will learn valuable techniques for soil enrichment, bed-building, seed-growing, transplanting, spacing, weed-killing and insect-handling. He is excellent on green manure crops, seeding and harvesting. I was especially taken with his Eternal Yield experimental plots, where he imports only seeds and lime but has improved yields and soil over a ten-year period. "My goal was to plant different sequences of green manure crops to see if they alone could provide all the nutrients food crops need. My guidelines were simple: don't add any fertilizer, compost, or manures to the soil. As for organic matter, till under only the crops that grow on the plot. Do not bring in any outside material--no leaves, no mulch, nothing."
This is the best-illustrated gardening book I have found. Hundreds of color photos and drawings on high-quality paper illustrate every lesson. All popular plants are given their own coverage including gourds, peanuts and sunflowers. In the section on pests I learned a technique I am eager to try on the mole army here--sticking pieces of blackberry canes into the runways. There is an insect pest section as well as one on diseases. An eight-page planting guide supplements and synopsizes earlier coverage, there are maps on first- and last-expected frost dates. The index is small but adequate.
Should your budget allow only one gardening book, this is as good as you can do.
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The best of Dick Raymond's vegetable gardening wisdom is illustrated with full-color photos and at-a-glance charts that make his methods accessible to any gardener.
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