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Product Description
From Booklist
Denckla's guide to growing organic food covers 765 varieties of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and nuts. There are instructions on temperature, soil and water needs, planting depth and space between plants, propagation, harvesting, first and last seed-starting dates, storage requirements, and support structures when needed. With each entry is a list of selected available varieties. Denckla also tells gardeners how to control 201 pests and diseases organically. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
a practical guide to growing fruits and vegetables the organic way. Seattle Post- Intelligencer Denckla s guide to growing organic food covers 765 varieties of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and nuts. There are instructions on temperature, soil and water needs, planting depth and space between plants, propagation, harvesting, first and last seed-starting dates, storage requirements, and support structures when needed. With each entry is a list of selected available varieties. Denckla also tells gardeners how to control 201 pests and diseases organically. Booklist "A great gift for any vegetable gardener who prefers Earth-friendly methods." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food: Honest and Unbiased,
By
This review is from: The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food: 765 varities of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and nuts (Paperback)
If you are a novice or an expert in gardening, this book is the book for you.Where this work truly shines is in the organization. Many a gardener may sympathize with me when I recount of the intense frustration in finding a simple, organized book on growing food that actually contains USEFUL information. Too often a book supposedly containing everything you need to know leaves out vital knowledge on certain plants. In this volume, vegetables are all grouped under 'Vegetables', fruits, nuts, and herbs the same. Each species has it's own little section including all you need to know about growing that plant: start dates (counting back the number of days from your local last frost date), diseases, pests, ally plants, companion plants, incompatible plants, plant varieties, seed sources, temperatures, frost vulnerability, how to transplant, when to direct seed, how many per person, you name it- it's there. An absolutely amazing resource, and one that I use constantly. So why the four stars? Well, this book does have a couple drawbacks. In the section on organic techniques at the back of the book, there are no pictures of the beneficial insects or pests, simply word descriptions. (Though these are quite descriptive and extensive.) This is unacceptable, as pictures are vital to correctly identifying a pest, beneficial, or disease. I did use it to identify cucumber beetles, but it would be much more difficult for other species. The organic, homemade spray recipes were helpful to me, but I do wish more were included. Another reason for the lower rating was that certain varieties of plants were neglected, such as Swiss Chard, while other lesser known varieties (albeit few) were included in their stead. I am planning on growing Swiss Chard and would have loved this info. Some herbs were absent as well. In my opinion, these are minor flaws, and I would rather have a separate book to combat garden enemies that has been specially devoted to the subject anyways. I would like to let you know that this book is more for the Northern Hemisphere concerning food varieties- tropicals are quite neglected in this work, but as I'm not interested in them, this is not a bother. (At least to me.) All in all, for the ordinary homestead and backyard garden, this book is truly a gem, and the best organized work I have seen with information that is easily understood. Highly recommended.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book, but leaves out a few things,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food: 765 varities of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and nuts (Paperback)
Tons of fabulous information in this book, but it unfortunately leaves out quite a few things that I am interested in growing... bananas, oranges, tangerines, avocadoes, mangoes, lemons, limes, and starfruit to name a few. It is, however, the best resource for herbs that I've seen so far.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews) 33 of 33 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Easy to use - Rodale, move over,
By Cecil Bothwell "Author of "Whale Falls: A... - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food: 765 varities of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and nuts (Paperback)
I have owned my copy of Rodale's classic, Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, for well over 30 years. It has been my garden bible.But times change. Denckla has created a much handier growers' resource. In this book, she catalogues 765 varieties of vegetables, herbs, fruits and nuts and offers controls for 201 pests and diseases, but better than the numbers is the way she presents the information. For each species there is a clear, concise directory for every aspect of planting, culture and storage. It is really easy to use. The single best feature may be the planting charts for annuals that make it simple to calculate when to start the first and last seeds of the season, based on last and first frost dates. Rodale's classic will never be far away, but from now on I will pick up Denckla's first. As an organic grower for nearly four decades and a garden columnist, I'm a pretty good judge of this genre (my own collection of garden writings came out in 2008, Garden My Heart: Organic strategies for backyard sustainability). The only place I take serious exception to Denckla's advice concerns moles, which she treats as a garden pest. Moles are garden allies, consuming vast quantities of beetle larvae and other members of the enemy camp. 23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good book - very thorough and well organized,
By Gotarun26.2 - Published on Amazon.com
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This review is from: The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food: 765 varities of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and nuts (Paperback)
I would have given this book 5 starts except that the section on pest control, which is very important to an organic gardener names the pests and suggests control solutions but shows you no pictures of the pests so if you don't know what the various insects (or for that matter diseases) look like, that's not helpful.Otherwise the book is well organized and contains a lot of useful information, especially in regard to what plants are allys and incompatible 7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fairly solid,
By Bry Bry - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food: 765 varities of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and nuts (Paperback)
Actually, this book is very solid. My only issue with it at the moment is with the blueberry section. She informs the reader to inoculate the roots "with beneficial mycorrhizal fungi". Almost all of the mycorrhiza available to the consumer is endo or ecto mycorrhiza, which forms a symbiotic relationship with most plants' root systems. Though, blueberries, and all members of the Ericaceae family do not respond to those mycorrhiza and require a specific Ericoid mycorrhiza for proper root inoculation. I almost made a $50 internet purchase of the endomycorrhiza before reading (in small type) that it would not work on blueberries. And, the Ericoid mycorrhiza is a bit hard to locate right now since it has just recently become available to consumers.Aside from slightly incomplete information on the blueberries, the book is very well laid out. She lists compatible and incompatible plants for each fruit or vegetable. There is also a decent section on natural pest control in which a field guide to insects may be beneficial if you are not familiar with the creatures. For the price, it is definitely worth getting. |
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