Ralph Snodsmith's Fundamentals of Gardening: Questions and Answers from the Garden Hotline
Writing for experienced gardeners, Snodsmith, a former director of the Queens Botanical Garden Society and host of a radio talk show, "The Gardening Hotline," covers plant physiology, soil composition, planting, pruning, watering, mulching, and pest control. He is at his best when explaining in plain English the process behind the phenomenon--for instance, June drop--and its solution, and his sections on propagation, mulching, and watering are thorough and down to earth. At his worst, Snodsmith overwhelms the reader with laundry lists of compounds and of parts, as in the chapter on plant physiology. Individual chapters are followed by questions and answers from Snodsmith's radio show, which occasionally repeat information given in the main text and occasionally apply only in warmer zones. Several stories, like the one about the surgeon who wrapped his broken tree limbs in ace bandages, liven up passages lacking instructions. Recommended as a pithy but optional title.- Sharon Levin, Univ. of Vermont Lib., BurlingtonCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.