Customer Reviews

Jerry Baker's Green Grass Magic: Tips, Tricks, and Tonics for Growing the Toe-Ticklinest Turf in Town! (Jerry Baker's Good Gardening series) (Jerry Baker Good Gardening series)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Filled with practical, easy to follow advice for growing a lush, green lawn... Tells you what grasses to grow where with extensive information on each grass type. Includes lots of recipes, many consisting of common household ingredients, for maintenance or repair. Details problems and how to solve each. A very thorough and complete book on lawn care.

Jerry Baker's Green Grass Magic is a wonderful book for people who want to know more about growing grass (the turf kind) but, don't want to be to technical. He does get into the technical aspects of Grass but those sections are delivered simply and in small chuncks with a dose of humor. What I like about Mr. Baker is that reading his books is a bit like talking with your grandfather, he interjects tidbits about how life was and wisdom from his Grandma Putt, in with his advice for your lawn. Mr. Baker has finally gotten better in orginazing his books. You can quickly find the information that you want. His chapter headings give you an idea about that that chapter is about which makes it easier to find a given subject and the book is indexed. He has put all of the recipies that crop up in the book for his various tonics and such in the back of the book as well as through out the book. It makes it a lot easier to look up what is in a given tonic. I like the tonics that he gives though, the neighbors raise eyebrows when they find that I am buying Beer for my lawn, but, if you do what he tells you to do then you will have a more beautiful lawn.

Sometimes all of his tonics can get confusing but in this book they are well organized with an index at the back. In chapter two he lists steps one through five of what to apply when. There is a chapter for weeds which helped to me to finally figure out that what we used to call Winter Grass is Annual Bluegrass. He uses a lot of non-standard products like mouthwash and beer. In this book he explains a little bit more about why they work which I really liked. He also talks about the five grass growing regions of the country and the properties of various cool and warm season grasses. I thought he covered the western states better than in the other two books I have from him. All in all I would highly recommend.

I'm totally impressed. Let me first admit that I'm lazy when it comes to lawn care. This summer, my lawn finally got to the point where I was embarassed about it. Unfortunately, I thought, it was already early August and there was no way I would have a good looking yard this year. Fortunately, a friend (my buddy "Marmaduke") told me about Jerry Baker's tonics, so I bought the book and his video. Within three and a half weeks, my lawn was looking just as good as the guys who spend most of their free time working on their lawns. In particular, I used Jerry's "Drought Buster" tonic to get my grass green again.

I'm very pleased with this product and believe that my yard will look totally FANTASTIC my the end of this month and even better next year!

The tips and tonics for yard care alone make this book worth the price. I have spent numerous $$ on trying to get my yard in tip top shape, with chemicals and expensive items. Jerry has simple, grocery store items, that can help make a sad yard happy!

Okay, I'm going to get clobbered for my review. I'll represent the lone voice in the wilderness that cries out to you NOT to buy this book. If you still want it, I'll sell you my copy for a few bucks.

I recently purchased my first house and first yard. I had KBG sod installed by a landscaper and wanted to keep it looking great as the day it was laid down. So, not knowing anything about gardening, lawns, nor Jerry Baker, I bought this book and hoped for the best -- and not incidentally because of the overwhelmingly glowing reviews it has received on Amazon.

I found the book an annoying read. Firstly, the puns and wordplay are non-stop. Secondly, one would think Jerry Baker was paid by the word; he takes 20 sentences to communicate what could be said in one. Some people possibly find his friendly and playful writing style endearing. I found it very tedious.

However, I'm not really here to bash Jerry's writing style. If the book were good in its substance, I wouldn't bother giving a negative review. The sad fact is, this book is bad. It contains a special recipe for darn near any situation, which should immediately raise some eyebrows. Are you planning to seed your lawn? Apply Jerry's new seed tonic! Have you already seeded your yard? Apply Jerry's just-seeded tonic! Is your grass brown? Apply Jerry's green-up tonic! Is the wind blowing from the West? Apply the westerly-winds tonic! (I kid, but I'm trying to prove a point...) There must be nearly a hundred special potions (Jerry calls them tonics) that promise everything from a perfect lawn to ending world hunger.

Let me make a suggestion to anyone who reads this review with an open mind: Go to your local brick and mortar bookstore and read through the tonics. Almost anyone who isn't a total novice to gardening should be able to see fairly easily that these tonics promise the world and are largely a waste of time and ingredients. Jerry's tonic ingredients aren't completely arbitrary, which makes it seductive to think they could work. Beer is one oft-listed tonic ingredient, and Jerry backs up his suggestion for including it by describing how it biologically helps your lawn. The thing is -- to take it to the extreme to make a point -- you would find yourself sprinkling beer, cola, urine, surfactants (like dish soap), and sugar on your lawn practically every week if you were to take Jerry's "expert" advice. The idea that one could place a couple tablespoons of cola, a dash of dish soap, and a pinch of yeast into a hose-end sprayer and douse his yard to the point of run-off (his recipes are always to the point of run-off) to get a great result is just wishful thinking. If memory serves, Jerry doesn't even list the rate of application, such as 1TB per gallon -- he just says "spray to the point of run-off." Not really helpful...

Look, if you think I'm just a "Jerry Hater," I recommend you Google "Jerry Baker" and see what you can learn about this guy. Read about him on professional gardening and landscaping forums. One thing you may learn is that his "master gardener" designation is self-appointed. His magic potions are widely criticized by actual gardening professionals (again, find out by Googling) as doing little to no good at all. (And please don't take the fact that his program has been on PBS (during pledge drives, interestingly...) to be a sign of credibility or endorsement by PBS.)

If you do nothing else based on my review, I recommend you DO NOT use any of his tonics that include "tobacco tea," as the nicotine is quite toxic and will kill earthworms. If you want a healthy lawn, you'll want happy earthworms in your soil beneath.

All I can say this is one of the best book I bought about growing grass. I could never get my grass to grow. If your into natural recipes this is the book for you. A lot of the ingredients you need to make the recipes are everyday household items. I have a dog that is alergic to everything I could never use any type of fertilizer on my lawn. This book show you ways to feed your lawn without using a lot of chemicals. So if your like me and never can get grass to grow this book is the solution.

Great book with simple to use household items. The foundation of what the tonics are and how they work are sound and practical. The typical Organic people hate this type of writing and formulas because they feel it's not organic. Maybe opening a beer to use or using amonia out of a bottle isn't the same as waiting for things to decompose, but they work. Much like anything, if you follow the instructions and stay up with it on a regular schedule it will work.
I think most people want a quick and easy fix, well what's easier than using household products to achieve the results you would get from going to the co-op.
Overall the information works if followed and you follow the recommendations
Happy Gardening !!

Very handy and practical. Great resource for enviornmentally friendly solutions to lawn and garden care.

I have used the recommended schedule that Jerry suggests and my grass is thick and healthy. His recipes use items that are easily found in any store or around your home and don't cost a fortune. I am looking forward to seeing how my grass will fare throughout the summer. I am sure my neighbors are quite envious and can't figure why my grass is so GREEN. :-)