Great book, good resource for every gardener
922279
A friend recommended a specific edition of this book as THE go to resource for gardening.  I promptly got it, and have been very pleased with how helpful it has been. A great resource to have on hand, discusses many topics and, of course, is alphabetized for easy access.
2334702
I am an avid gardener and a collector of all things horticulture.  I love this book.  As a person who makes lists for everything, this format really suits me.  When I don't know where to turn in my garden - this is the resource I go to.  It's easy to follow and gets me back on track.  The plant suggestions - oh my goodness - they are amazing!

If you have room for just one gardening book on your shelf - choose this one!
4233172
You don't have to be new to Florida, or even new to gardening, to find this book useful.  My copy is full of highlighted lines of information.  The lists and tables through out the book make a great resource to refer to often.  What is even better is that most of these lists and tables are divided into north, central, and south Florida.  Both general and specific information right at your fingertips in a very user friendly format without all of the "expert" jargon to confuse you.
204658
I have purchased many of these books for my friends. It is now out of print, which is unfortunate. Robert Smaus was the LA Times gardening editor for many years. He lived near me in West Los Angeles and spoke at my garden club.  This book is great.  It is set up by seasons, and is an easy to read helpful book for the home gardener. His writing includes interviews with landscapers, growers and garden enthusiasts. Often books are general and don't fit for Southern California's Mediterranean climate.  He covers many parts of Southern California, so you do not have to live in Los Angeles to appreciate this book.
My copy is very worn!
2793933
I love this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys gardening. It not only has excellent information about organic gardening, but it could easily be called "everything you need to know about gardening" --- from purchasing your seed, to types of soil to use,to harvesting your vegetables, to preparing your garden for the next year. I would highly recommend it.
624656
This is a great book for beginners and advanced gardeners alike.  Even though I bought a used book, the condition was very good.  I would recommend it to anybody.
4514086
Having been a gardener for over 30 years, I am still impressed with the tips which Tracy has shared in this book. I grow mainly perennials and almost all of them are covered in her book. This book goes in-depth into each species and also gives recommendations for which cultivars do best. I highly recommend this book.
3953737
When I first glanced over Dick's book I thought that it would be based a little too much on his sponser (garden way-great carts by the way, have used them for 20 years) and perhaps some fertilizer company. Although he supports the use of some chemical fertilizers and tills quite a bit more than I might support, he has really terrific organic methods, green manures and old-fashioned thinking that remind me of what gardening used to be - a means to feeding the family with all of the fun short cuts and ideas!
The book has fabulous photos, great wide row and multi-cropping ideas, super tips on all aspects of gardening , and offers  insight into maximizing your harvest. His tried and true methods and down-home common sense really make for motivating garden reading! I am going to try to grow sweet potatoes from started slips this year in my community ocean-side garden in Maine, as well as attempt his tomato caging technique with roofing paper. This is a great book to learn heaps about gardening in a simple, friendly way.
3083401
I buy and read tons and tons of books but almost never write reviews...too lazy. But I really love this book and I'm so impressed with how useful it is for my new found gardening passion. It's a great, compact, and beautiful reference book. Concise yet contains all the useful information any novice gardener need for each common plant in an edible garden. Particularly useful to me are the plant profiles for each plant that are packed with information in just a couple of pages. For example: suggestions of how much of each type to plant (having never gardened before, I have no idea how much, say, a cucumber plant, will produce each week), suggested schedules of successive planting, expected number of days it takes each kind of seed to germinate at each temperature bracket (an information I haven't seen in other books), etc., etc. Photos are gorgeous. Best gardening book of it's type that I've read. The authors did a great job!
4383591
This beautiful book is an excellent resource for any gardener!  I've been gardening for years and my three favorite vegetable gardening books are this book by Niki Jabbour, The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosh, and Square Foot Gardening by Mel Barthholomew !!
3782286
This fine book conjures up thoughts of those "wish list" seed catalogs that many of us received in the heyday of gardening. The book is designed around making it easy to select, prepare, grow and care for any of the 800 plants discussed. As any avid gardener knows, planning for spring begins the day of the first frost. And to this end, the Pictorial Guide To Perennials is an excellent way to get through the doldrums of a Midwest winter. Accurate color printing of the photos and concise yet informative plant descriptions combines for an easy-to-use format not found in other gardening books. The writing style quickly leads the reader to where they want to go - be it shade gardens or soil preparation. Quick references in the section dividers enables most anyone to find the right plant for their planting climate zone, no matter what the level of sun their yard receives. Well researched and referenced back to both University experts and renowned perennial plant propagators. Read it for the information, or of the fantasy that one day you will have such wonderful plantings as pictured in the book, if only you follow all of the instructions! Good value for the quality received
3547279
This is an excellent resource for the gardener.  Some information is not so helpful for a grower in northern North Dakota, but one can adjust for conditions.  Excellent suggestions for extending the garden season and good information on selected vegetables.  I need to study the section on making compost.  Looks to be solid information.  This will be a go to reference.
472793
This is a truly wonderful book that will help you rethink your approach to gardening. The emphasis is on careful planning of your garden design and smart selection of plants, all to save you time and work in the future. The most useful part of the book is undoubtedly the "Picking Unpicky Plants" section, which includes lists of vegetables, herbs, annuals, perennials and biennials, bulbs, trees, shrubs, and ornamental grasses. The last portion of the book is "Easy Projects for the Weekend Gardener," an excellent source for quick ideas for your garden, such as "A Quick Walk," a garden path that can be created in a few hours and won't be overrun by weeds.
Despite its limited availability, this book is a must-have for anyone who enjoys having a garden but doesn't want to spend their every spare moment working on it.
3291365
This is the year I've decided I'm going to seriously grow a vegetable garden. However I know it's alot of work and I didn't want to waste my efforts so I decided to get educated first. Got this as a library book and I was so impressed with it that I purchased a copy for myself. She talks about planning your garden (and warns first timers not to get too rambunctious). But the part I liked best was the detail of various vegetables - optimum growing conditions, when to plant and what to do right to get them coming out of the ground as good as you are hoping. And it includes a multitude of vegetable options - not just your standard beans, tomatoes and cucumbers. I found this to be a great reference book I will continue to use as long as I garden, that's why I bought my own copy. I would recommend this to someone who is just starting out or is looking to expand their gardens with some new and different plantings.
555578
Ann Lovejoy advises in her book to add a thick layer of compost to the soil every year, because Northwest soil isn't very fertile. That's because the winter rains compact the soil and wash away a lot of nutrients. She also includes other useful tips, like transforming a meadow into a lawn simply by mowing, using a flame weeder to clean up gravel areas and the cracks between the driveway and the retaining wall, and many other pieces of advice for Northwestern gardeners who want low-maintenance gardens that make sense in our climate and don't depend on toxic chemicals. She has a common-sense approach to plant selection (by far a gardener's biggest challenge, in my opinion). Choose plants that suit the site and will mature to the size you want. Don't commit to a plant that will need continual pruning, because you'll be a slave to this chore. The book is full of other pieces of advice along the same lines, and it avoids being redundant or weak.

This book was on  my wish list for a long time, and I would thumb through it at bookstores and community events where gardening organizations had ragged copies on display as examples of good local resources. My husband surprised me by ordering a copy, and I can't put it down.
2269670
This is a wonderful book, full of useful information. I especially like to reference the plants-per-person charts, along with the companion planting ideas, when composing my vegetable garden. Also, there is good information about deer and rabbit preferences; these charts help me to know which plants to put out extras of, for the rabbits especially. Overall, a great read and a really useful guide for the home gardener!
4938856
I have hundreds of gardening books, old and new.  This is one of the best ones I have.  It is full of helpful information.  I would recommend the book to anyone who wishes to have a ".....well-tended perennial garden."