Customer Reviews

The Curious Gardener's Almanac: Centuries of Practical Garden Wisdom

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is such a delightful book! If you collect garden books, as I do, then I know you'll want to add this one. Full of tidbits, lists, advice, recipes, quotes and all sorts of gardening information arranged by season...you're sure to find bits that will also make you laugh! I'm so glad Mr. Edworthy moved to the country and became so curious! You'll be glad you bought it!

I bought this as a gift for a friend, and have been reading it myself, and I love it. I might just keep it :-) or order another one. Any gardener would love this book on their shelf. And it's pretty too, and has a ribbon bookmark in it.

First, please let me get a peeve out of the way. "The Curious Gardener's Almanac" is not an almanac at all, and thus, for me a bit of a disappointment. It does not contain anything like planting times, phases of the planets, weather forecasts, or data about the tides, and so should have been titled something else. Niall Edworthy, the author, might have called it an "Omnibus of Gardening" or perhaps "Gardening Vignettes and Recipes" or something entirely more original, but not an almanac.

That said I found this little book charming, amusing, interesting, engaging and informative. For example I didn't know that carrots and zucchini are both suitable for container growing. Who'd have thought? Or, that raspberry leaf tea is effective to treat sore throat and diarrhea? Or, that Americans consume thirty pounds of potatoes annually and a quarter of that is French fries. (Since I don't eat French fries, someone is getting a good deal more.) I didn't know that Prince Charles is paid one daffodil a year as rent on unattended lands on the Scilly Isles. Here's one that's really scary: if there were no bees 100,000 plant species would vanish.

And so it goes with little wise sayings and recipes for pesto sauce or six ways to use parsley. This is the kind of book one can leave on the nightstand and open like the Bible in the middle of the night when an owl has awakened you and then go back to sleep in a while and not have bad dreams.

For that I thank the author.

This little book is not meant to be a DIY helper for serious gardeners. It's chock full of entertaining tidbits of information that range far and wide, i.e., from old sayings ("Eat leeks in March and garlic in May/ And all the year the doctors play.") to recipes (Spicy Zucchini Fritters) to poetry (My garden will never/ make me famous/ I'm a horticultural ignoramous. - Ogden Nash) to lists (Eleven plants slugs don't like.), etc. Keep it next to your bed and flip through a few pages before turning out the light, or, as one reviewer here said, on the magazine rack in your bathroom. Wherever, I'm sure you'll be treated to something you never knew before about plants, birds, bugs and, oh yes, gardening. 4 Stars

In 2003, Niall Edworthy and his family purchased a home in West Sussex, England. It had a yard, a shed and a vegetable patch. He describes his first attempt at growing vegetables as a disaster. He bought a couple of books, asked advice from neighbors and the second year was merely pathetic. He decided to get serious about this gardening business and took a course, bought more books, bothered everyone who was willing to talk gardening and ended up with a ¡°half-decent¡± garden the third year.

He has distilled all of the garden wisdom he collected from courses, books, other gardeners and his own experiences into a marvelous little book, ¡°The Curious Gardener¡¯s Almanac: Centuries of Practical Garden Wisdom¡±. It¡¯s neither a narrative nor a real almanac. Even the author has difficulty defining exactly what it is.

It¡¯s arranged by season, but you can dip into it at any point. Along with the usual plant lists, natural pest deterrents, and recipes, he includes historical information in the introduction of plants, the origin of many of their names and interesting facts such as ¨ø of the world¡¯s eggplants are grown in New Jersey. How about the invention of the wheelbarrow? Or how to test soil temperature? He suggests using your elbow but originally one dropped one¡¯s pants and sat. My favorite was his compost recipe which contains human urine. Seriously.

Each season is introduced by quotes and more quotes are scattered throughout the text. There are the usual suspects, Thomas Jefferson, Celia Thaxter, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Prince Charles and there are the unexpected, Cervantes, Galileo, Charlemagne, the Koran. Also offered are proverbs from Greece, ancient Egypt, China and Arabic speakers.

The last chapter is on children and gardening. It offers lots of fun facts and activities such as building a ladybug house and growing your initials.

This would be a great holiday gift for gardeners, beginners through the most experienced and anyone interested in the history of gardening, plants and tools.

The Curious Gardener's Almanac, centuries of practical garden wisdom, by Niall Edworthy, published by The Penguin Group in New York is not a book about ponds. In fact, it is not a book about gardens either. This book has no pigeon hole in which to be pushed. Curious gardeners will love this compendium of over 10,000 tips, tidbits, facts, quotes, recipes, customs, quotes and general ephemera contained in this delightful little volume.

Did you know that you can fry zucchini with cumin and paprika and have spicy zucchini. That's nice to know after you have exhausted every possible way to use zucchini in the summer and the neighbors will not open the door if you have a bag of it in your hand.

Did you know that the paper stuff that wasps make their nests out of is from wood they chew? So humans are not the only creature who makes paper from wood. I wonder if the first paper makers learned it from watching wasps.

Onions can treat gunshot wounds and was used widely during the Civil War. (Or the war of Northern Aggression as it is known in the Southern parts of the US.)

Garrison Keiller said, "Sex is good, but not as good as fresh sweet corn." Well, we don't have to agree with everything in this book, now do we?

Saffron is the most expensive spice needing 4000 crocuses to make 1 ounce.

Daffodil bulbs can last up to 80 years.

Ronald Reagan declared the rose the National Floral Emblem of the United States in 1986. And it took him a good many words to do so.

Britain is the only country that grows apples expressly for cooking.

If you boil rhubarb leaves, you can spray the resulting liquid to control aphids. It's the poisonous oxalic acid in the leaves that kills the aphids.

The pond is probably the most beneficial thing you can have in your garden for it gives a habitat to frogs and toads which are disappearing due to the pollution on our earth.

"A house though otherwise beautiful, yet if it has no garden belonging to it, is more like a Prison than a House." William Coles, 1656

Cora Lea Bell says, "An addiction to gardening is not all bad when you consider all the other choices in life." And she certainly was right.

This book is chock full of these little bits of things to think about or just smile about and nod your head knowingly.

Do not plan to sit and read this book in a sitting or two. Leave it in a convenient spot so you can pick it up when you have a few minutes to open it and smile for a time.

As a pond builder and garden designer for the last 20 years of my working life, I have read and owned many books: technical books, pretty coffee table books, design books, hundreds of garden books about the hundreds of aspects of gardening, even more about ponds, their building and design. The Curious Gardener's Almanac is a joy to have in the house, a great book to give as a gift whether to a gardener or non-gardener. It may start a lifetime addiction to gardening in you or a friend. Be careful. This is a powerful book.

I was skeptical about this book when it arrived. When I discovered that it originated in the U.K. I pushed it aside and began re-reading other gardening books that I had purchased thru Amazon.com.
Then one rainy day when I was tired of re-reading and I was unable to work in the garden due to heavy downpours of rain I started to read "Curious Gardener's Almanac" and from page 5 or 6 I was hooked. I seldom put the book down until I had finished it. I finished it the same night; I did not go to sleep until I had read the entire book.
I did not think that a gardener in England could relate to a zone 8 gardener in the U.S. I was WRONG!
The information in this book is valuable to any gardener, anywhere.

This is not a how to grow an incredible garden book. It is a book filled with small verses of recipes, quotes,weeding tips and an occasional growing tip.
It is just a fun little book. It is not the Be all, End all, Gotta have it book for hungry to learn gardeners. It is geared more for a small cute coffee table book or maybe something to set in the magazine rack next to the toilet.
When I purchased it I was hoping for more growing tips.I was under the impression it was a Gotta Have It BOOK. So I wont be growing an incredible garden again this year Ill just Learn the rights to a nice garden like everyone else.

I bought this book as a gift, and luckily I opened it before I sent it, because it seems that the book was printed upside down. Weird.