94 of 94 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Reference, Mar 26 2002
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Landscaping With Fruits And Vegetables (Hardcover)
I ordered this book through Amazon.com because we are interested in using fruits and vegetables in landscaping. Actually, we just plain like to garden and eat. Landscaping is secondary.
Fruit tree catalogues are very basic, and frustrating. You see some closeup's of a fruit, and that's it. No sense of the tree or shrub shape, seasonal looks, the plant's needs, or anything else. So, it's hard to figure out what variety and what plant fits with your yard.
This book is prob. the best garden reference I have ever purchased, and has become our favorite when planning spring plant orders. Mr. Hagy writes as clear an explanation of landscape design concepts as I have read in any book. He has good illustrations of ways to incorporate fruit and vegetable plants into the landscape. But since the landscaping is secondary to me, what is most helpful for me are the great illustrations and details of the many edible plants that can be used in landscapes. I've learned a lot reading this book, and I'm a farm girl who's been around "edible landscapes" all my life.
This is truly a 5 star gardening book.
26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Decent, but not great, May 9 2009
By Easy Ed - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Landscaping With Fruits And Vegetables (Hardcover)
Pros: Some beautiful drawings (although photos would be more useful), excellent diagrams for basic pruning and the chapter on tree care is a very good summary and primer.
Cons: Pompous writing (especially the intro) and completely North East biased (doesn't even mention the most common West Coast varieties of Peach, Plum, etc.). Also, not a single word about citrus or other sub-tropicals (guava, avocado, etc.) which make outstanding edible landscape plants throughout a large portion of the country.
Overall, a good introduction to stone fruit and berries, but lacking in many areas with respect to it's price and grandiose ambition (as stated in the introduction).
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Book!, Aug 20 2008
By Bargain Bethli - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Landscaping With Fruits And Vegetables (Hardcover)
This book is wonderful. It is the only one I could find that specifically uses edible plantings in landscape plans. I had gotten this from the library first and quickly realized I wanted it for my collection. The illustrations are beautiful and the author gives just the right amount of information on each species.