The Big Book of Gardening Skills
One should be wary of books that claim to hold all the information the reader needs to know, no matter what the subject. This Big Book , though certainly useful, also helps to reinforce that hunch. Geared to the beginner, it wastes few pages in getting down to business--the first chapter describes planting methods for vegetables, from wide rows to trellises. Subsequent chapters are just as down-to-earth, and are focused on food production. Readers interested in flowers, fruits or landscaping will have to wait until they're well past the midpoint to get what they want. Brief initial rundowns of the contents of each chapter are useful, as are sidebars farther on: a guide to side-dressing vegetables, a list of long-blooming perennials and an extensive chart on container vegetables. The guide to insects, on the other hand, would have been more useful if photographs, rather than drawings, had been included, even though the information given is extensive. The same could be said for the discussion of garden diseases. In the end, this book tries to cover too much ground, giving some subjects short shrift. While a good introduction, it is not quite comprehensive enough.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.