Customer Reviews

Landscaping with Fruits and Vegetables

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

 

 

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.

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).

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.

I bought this book because I am interested in adding a few fruit trees and have heard a few intriguing mentions of edible landscaping. This book is excellent. I read it straight through when I received it. The illustrations are gorgeous and the book is laid out in a very thoughtful progression. There is a wealth of practical information on particular cultivars, specific zone information, and even details on which nurseries you can purchase particular cultivars at. There are a number of nurseries mentioned; the book treats them fairly. Thorough, consistent and clear details on each plant. The book introduced me to a number of fruit trees and fruit-bearing shrubs I was unfamiliar with. Basic landscape design information and good pruning information is included as well. The book also has some very inspiring and beautifully illustrated sample plans. I am very happy with this purchase and would recommend it to anyone interested in fruit and nut trees, edible landscaping, or vegetable gardening.

Nice illustrations (no photos), and good information on each plant such as size, time to first crop, texture - information helpful for both design and production.

It is a wonderful book that bridges the traditional landscape designs and the newer permacultural designs. It is great for those who want to incorporate edible plants in to their garden while maintaining the focus on overall beauty, and do not have the need to maximize their garden food production. Sample designs are mostly formal. It dedicates about 60 pages to how to design your landscape. It gives lots of details in an easy-to-understand language even for the first-time home landscapers. Recommended plants are categorizes by size, which is very helpful. The author spends one page for many of the plants with multiple illustrations, and gives lots of info that are sometimes hard to find in other books. It also covers pruning and disease control.

I would've given it 5 stars if I lived in the East coast or even in the Mid West. I live in USDA Zone 9, and the book does not include plants that would do wonderfully here. I also wish that included permacultural concepts. However, there is still much in this book that can be applied to Zones 9 and 10, thus the 4-star.

Invaluable resource when it comes to planting and designing a nice-looking yard that you can eat. The front half of the book outline basic design and growing concepts, the back half an index of about every edible plant you can imagine with its growing needs, a detailed description, and size and shape information. Pick up a copy, because I'm not loaning out mine!

I've had this book for awhile, so don't remember what I paid for it, but I'm sure it was worth it, because it's loaded with useful information for anyone who wants to make full use of yard space.
Edible landscaping certainly does that, and he tells you how you can do it by showing examples and explaining how you can make up your own plan.

If only he would do the digging and planting...

but aside from that, if you're serious, this is a good book to read and to keep for future reference. You'll never be sorry you bought it.