The definitive sourcebook to growing, harvesting, preserving, and cooking. This superbly illustrated reference contains a wealth of information to help gardeners choose the plants best suited to their space, climate, and needs. Three experts guide the reader in choosing which vegetables, herbs, and fruit to grow, and then in successfully producing the crop. The vegetable and herb sections are arranged alphabetically by botanical Latin name, and the fruit section is arranged by fruit type. Accompanied by full color photographs and a brief introduction discussing the plant's origins and history, each entry presents a wealth of practical tips on cultivation, including: - Edibility, nutritional value, the most useful and recommended varieties - Plant hardiness, propagation, and growing guidelines - Cropping, harvesting, and storing - Weed, pest, and disease control - Ornamental and wildlife value - A maintenance calendar - Pruning and training - Companion planting - Container growing. The remainder of the book focuses on the practical aspects of gardening and has in-depth sections on creating a garden, pollination, soil fertility, greenhouse growing, and much more. The book wraps up with a glossary, further reading, seed sources, hardiness zones, and a detailed index.
Author: Matthew Biggs
Author: Jekka McVicar
Author: Bob Flowerdew
Publisher: Firefly Books
Customer Reviews
-
He loved his gift!
I gave this to my brother who is a chef as a gift and he absolutely loves it. It has a ton of interesting facts including recipes for the foods.
-
The best that your money can get
PRO
<br />
<br /> - Extensive coverage of fruit, vegetable and herbs.
<br />The book says it covers 100 fruits, 70 vegetables and 100 herbs.
<br />Each subject has Cultivation, Companion planting, and Culinary sections. If it's a herb, it also has Medicinal section.
<br />
<br />One day I bought a bag of Macadamias nuts from my local grocery store. The label said they were grown in Australia, Hawaii and Africa. I wanted to know more about them. I opened this book to page 555 and voila! I found all the interesting information about them. There were 3 beautiful photos of the nuts, the tree and the dish made from the nuts. It's informative and mouth watering.
<br />
<br /> - Very well illustrated.
<br />Each fruit, tree, or vegetable has at least 3 pictures. They're beautiful. The Culianry section always has a picture of the dish made with the fruit, herb or vegetable. It's so colorful and lively that it makes me hungry!
<br />
<br /> - It's hard covered. So, it will last a long time.
<br />
<br />CONS
<br />
<br /> - It uses the term "Long", "Short", "Medium" to describe the life span of the trees without giving a range in years. This is frustrating because I am not sure approximate how long they live. But I can easily find this information from somewhere else. No book is perfect.
<br />
<br />In short, it's definitely worth buying. I use it almost daily for cooking recipes and for general information. Together with Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/, it makes a complete reference. You can find any information on these subject with these 2 resources.
-
Vegetables, herbs, and fruit
I didn't really know what shape I expected, even though the description said good condition. 3 days later! Yes, literally 3 days later I got it in the mail and the condition was PERFECT! I was so happy!
-
The best gardening book I own
This book has the most readable practicle information on every vegetable, herb or fruit I would ever grow plus many others. It covers some history of origin, varieties, cultivation, propagation, container and garden growing, harvesting & storage as well as uses both medicinal and culinary and also some recipies. I have not come across a more extensive book. My son & daughter both in their early 20's and just starting vege gardening use this as their bible. Well worth owning.
-
Fun and informative!
This book is wonderful! Every section gives you a in-depth overview of the vegetable, herb or fruit; detailing different varieties and how they rank in terms of taste and/or hardiness, how to propagate, grow, maintain, harvest and store. Plus gives tips of typical pests/diseases and how to avoid them. Very helpful are the "companion planting" paragraphs, explaining which plants do best next to each other. And to top it all off, each section includes a "culinary" and "medicinal" section, informing you of the best ways to use your crops once harvested. The pictures are beautiful and the wording is easy to understand and to the point. This is a great book for any gardener's reference shelf. Fun to read cover-to-cover, but set up so that you can dip in and out as you choose.
|
