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Summary: An expanded and updated "Gardening For Dummies"(r) !
Review: "Gardening For Dummies," the comprehensive and easy-to-follow gardening guide that has become one of IDG Books' perennial bestsellers, has been completely revamped and updated by author Michael MacCaskey, the editor-in-chief of the National Gardening Association's "National Gardening" magazine.The second edition of "Gardening For Dummies" offers more color photos, climate maps, and updated information on gardening Web sites and pest control. Whether you're an expert green thumb or an all-thumbs novice, you will learn how to design, plant, and care for your garden. "Gardening For Dummies, 2nd edition" is loaded with helpful tips on how to best care for plants, vegetables, and flowers, including expert advice about such topics as fertilizing, watering, pruning, and soil conditions. "Gardening For Dummies, 2nd edition" provides gardeners at all levels with the information they need to wield a shovel and spade and craft the ideal garden!
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Summary: Garden Book for Idiots
Review: Actually this is a pretty decent book and there are many good gardening tips in it. I guess the main reason I'm not very fond of it ( got it as a gift and promptly gave it away myself ) is that I find the whole idea of it rather tasteless.
Perhaps for folks whose idea of good reading is comic books, this would be the perfect garden book. It is indeed set up for those who are easily distracted, lots of bullet points and little boxes and so on.
I question whether or not this book was even needed. There are many fine how-to garden books already out there. The old Taylor's Encyclopedia of Gardening, for example, can usually be found used for about the same price or less. Taylors, although old, is a real gardening book.
Somehow I equate gardening with intelligence, with class, with good taste. I enjoy having shelves of books on all the different aspects of horticulture and hardly want one titled Gardening for Dummies. I have a book, Auto Repair for Dummies (also a present) and somehow I don't mind being an automotive dummy. But a garden variety dummy is a bit much.
Nonetheless, if you simply don't have the patience for most books, and you don't know beans about gardening, go for it. Despite the title, the author, Michael MacCaskey, knows plenty about gardening.
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Summary: Just right...
Review: Darn good Book for the intended audience: those new to gardening. I have a huge backyard and needed some simple, straightforward advice on gardening- this fine tome provided it. If you are a professional horticulturalist perhaps you don't need it, but for the other 99.9% of humanity, this book provides the essentials. If I were a physicist, I wouldn't bother reviewing books on elementary mathematics to illustrate my relative excellence. Sheesh!
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Summary: San Luis Obispo guy is a Snob and a Ja-k-ss.
Review: Darn good Book for the intended audience: those new to gardening. I have a huge backyard and needed some simple, straightforward advice on gardening- this fine tome provided it. If you are a professional horticulturalist perhaps you don't need it, but for the other 99.9% of humanity, this book provides the essentials. If I were a physicist, I wouldn't bother reviewing books on elementary mathematics to illustrate my relative excellence. Sheesh!
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Summary: Superb information for all gardeners.
Review: Excellent tips, information and planning all rolled into one gardening book. After browsing through, then reading, I pulled out a notepad and started planning my garden. You'll learn about your climate, what you can grow, and how to do it successfully. Learn the basics, the beauty and the benefits of growing your own food or just for the view. I was able to pick and choose the plants I wanted to grow that were correct for my climate and yard size. Now I just have to wait for the ground to thaw.
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Summary: Just right...
Review: I am a novice gardener who is trying to figure out how to maintain a well-landscaped property that I inherited. After the first couple of years of letting the place "rest on its laurels" (i.e., get by on its past grandeur and do nothing to maintain it except to water it every now and then, but otherwise neglecting it and letting it get weedy and rangy), I have finally tackled the project of educating myself about gardening and trying to restore some freshness and style to my garden. This book offers a very skillful overview of everything I need to know in order to take on this project. It gives an overview of pretty much every fundamental of gardening, giving enough explanation to help you understand the logic behind the "rules" of garden creation and maintenance, but without the kind of technical detail that would make it tedious or would glaze the eye of the beginner. I have found this an excellent "starter" book--gives the lay of the land, as it were, so that you can establish basic competence and understanding before you go onto more specialized knowledge. THANKS!
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Summary: For those to whom digging is dangerous ground
Review: I am born and bred of centuries of pure inner-city living, apartment-dwelling stock. The lights blow out, tub leaks, or toilet won't stop flushing? Call the Super. Trees and dirt? You see them in the park. Flowers? You buy them to give, smile when you recieve, and go to admire them in the Botanical Gardens. Vegetables? You buy them at the supermarket or produce store; they often are frozen or come in cans. My sister, whose entire repitoire of handyperson skills involved changing lightbulbs, recently moved to a house in what my family calls the "country." Translation: suburbs not reachable by the New York City Subway System. She's got a lawn and a backyard, and can achieve a goal we've always yearned for...a garden. But what do you do when for all of your childhood you got in trouble for digging in dirt because it ment an extra trip to the Laundromat? Because I learned everything I needed to know to get rock 'n rollin' on computers from the very excellent "Dummies" series, and there is no Julia Child or Martha Stewart of gardening that I know of, I bought her a copy of this very excellent book. She grew tulips, hyacinths, pansies, marigolds, and lots of other flowers I forget the names of. Tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, zucchini, onions, green beans, cucumbers, etc. flourished under her stewardship and graced her table. Mint, Dill, Basil, and other herbs grown in her garden enhanced her cooking. She's organizing her work for the '98 season now. The "Secret Garden" can be real! But don't be misled by the "Dummies" title. You don't have to be as totally green-thumb challenged as my family to benefit from this book. It's got a wealth of advice for anyone interested in growing a garden, from what experienced friends tell me.
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Summary: I was one of those Dummies
Review: I don't know how it happened but I thought I had not inherited the green thumb that my parents and Grandparents all had. That is until I found this wonderful guide to beginners gardening and it answered all the questions or told me simply how to find out the answers. I believe my local nursery was also happy that I took time out from trying to do it on my own and read the book.My mother said that she even learned a few new things while glancing through. It is also a good brush up guide before the spring thaw.
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Summary: "Walk in the shoes of the reader."
Review: That's what a former editor taught me and that's what this book is all about. How do I plan my yard? What plants should I grow? What tools do I need? I take each topic and walk you through the basics, step-by-step. ". . .For Dummies" books are not for dumb readers. They are for smart people that are uninformed on a particular topic. The information isn't superficial, just designed for quick and easy access. As a writer, I found the informal conversational style that IDG encourages makes it easier to "talk real" to readers. The books strengths start with the years of gardening experience invested in it. There's my nearly three decades of gardening, but that's just the start. My co-author, Bill Marken, grew up in the nursery business and has remained an avid gardener for at least that long. And our three technical editors are among the most acclaimed in American horticulture. The book is "ecosmart." The term is pretty self-descriptive, but is intended to mean something like organic gardening: the next generation. Without being preachy or dogmatic, the gardening practices and products recommended are safe and sensible for you, your kids, your pets, wild life in your garden, and the environment beyond your garden. There is a lot of information in this book. At more than 400 pages and 100,000 words, there ought to be. Test the book for yourself by using the table of contents or index to find the answer to a question. I'm willing to bet you'll find your answer, and maybe have some fun doing so.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is a very handy, easy to read resource for those of us who don't have a green thumb
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