Hélène

4 stars and a half, actually, April 18 2013

Most of our gardening books come from the US, meaning a range generally between zone 5 USDA (sometimes 4 if lucky) and up. It was high time for a book that shows the canadian folks living in zone 2 to 4 that we can indeed have beautiful gardens too!

The book's approach is to list and explain the different types of environment a gardener may have to deal with : meadow, woodland, pond, rockery, etc. followed by a lists of plants in alphabetical order, by their latin names. Each plant starts with what kind of environment the plant will thrive in (sometimes multiple) and althought this is normally a good way to classify information in a book, I would personnally have preferred to… Read more

Not what the title entice but good, April 10 2013

This book reads like a trivia book on plants : Lots of plant entries with very interesting details on them but only an overview on each. Most of the time, details I would have found very important like zones (I live up north in Canada, zone is important) were left out. As it were, I had to do research on the side on plants that looked interesting to try.

Many subjects are overviewed in this book from general tips and techniques to natural dyes, cosmetics and fun gardening projects. There is a section on roses (and how they love garlic), one on vines, one on trees and shrubs, etc. The important qualificative here is 'overviewed'.

As for the 'companion planting' part the… Read more

An excellent book to own, Mar 21 2013

I love Rosalind Creasy way of writing. It is inviting, simple and pleasant (not always the case when talking about plants and gardening!). It really opened my mind and inspired me to possibilities of what I could do to my yard! The edible landscaping takes the first dozen pages or so promising big and I was worried about the followthrough : Would it deliver? Well it does and her examples aren't vague or abstract, these are things pretty much any gardener can incorporate, like lettuce interplanted between tulips or asparagus paired with nasturtium. It's about beauty and how edibles are beautiful too ; she even lists the different cultivars and their visual looks. The last chapter of the book… Read more