58 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great practical guide, basics and history, May 9, 2010
This review is from: Home Vegetable Gardening -a Complete and Practical Guide to the Planting and Care of All Vegetables, Fruits and Berries Worth Growing for Home Use (Kindle Edition)
This book can be very useful for the small space gardener as it discusses at length, basics of gardening. Anywhere the book describes use of horses, logic would indicate that a tiller of varying sizes could be substituted. Crop rotation is also discussed, and multiple acres are not needed for this.
I enjoyed the instructions on constructing a manure-driven hotbed. This was the way it was done before electric seedling heat mats were around. Also prepping sods for seed starting. It reminded me of the way things were done years before pellet pots, plastic seed flats and cell packs were common.
The book is old enough to resurrect much of the forgotten techniques used by our grandparents and great-grandparents -of the way things were, the way things could be again for those trying to garden more naturally and self-sufficiently... not buying everything from the garden store. It might also be helpful for the budding survivalist who no longer wants to rely on manufactured products.
I found the list of seed varieties in the book to be fascinating. Recognizing many of the listed varieties to still be available today. It was neat to see some of the Heirloom seed choices i made were also the Author's picks.
The age of the book in most cases matters very little when it comes to gardening basics, things don't change much at all. In fact, this book might be better for beginners since it is a book that encourages a do-it-yourself and a 'from the ground up' tone. It is almost void of any pre-made devices and there are no gimmicky products being hocked.
The old standby tools are recommended, time tested and readily available.
My only real problem with the book at all is that the rewrite of the eBook version omitted a number of images and pictures that would have been helpful. But a quick internet search of the names of the described items in most cases will quickly locate images.
The book itself is full of sound instruction, good logic and the author has a friendly writing style.
The book is about 100 years old and free... just download it already. It is well worth the time spent to read it.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great guide, great tips and help!!!, April 1, 2011
This review is from: Home Vegetable Gardening -a Complete and Practical Guide to the Planting and Care of All Vegetables, Fruits and Berries Worth Growing for Home Use (Kindle Edition)
This guide is like listening to your grandparents. It's not a fast read. I' ve spent 60 yrs growing my own dinner and almost everything I've read in it works for here in the Smoky Mtns for gardening. I had zero problems with my Kindle download. For free? Way to many complaints. I highly reccomend it. Old Geezer
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Do *NOT* buy on the kindle, January 3, 2011
This review is from: Home Vegetable Gardening -a Complete and Practical Guide to the Planting and Care of All Vegetables, Fruits and Berries Worth Growing for Home Use (Kindle Edition)
My rating is based solely on the Kindle (& Kindle application...) versions. This book has a lot of tables, none of which transferred to the Kindle. There are many pages of random lines and dashes with the occasional word thrown in.
I will likely look at the paperback in the store to see if it is useful, but the Kindle version is an absolute waste of time.
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