Customer Reviews

A Weed by Any Other Name: The Virtues of a Messy Lawn, or Learning to Love the Plants We Don't Plant

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

 

 

Weeds are still life, and there can be a certain beauty to them. "A Weed By Any Other Name: The Virtues of a Messy Lawn, or Learning to Love the Plants We Don't Plant" is a gardening manual with a new approach to weeds. Nancy Gift preaches a new method of gardening, pushing people to instead embrace the natural life on their lawn. With recipes to use some of these so called 'weed', Gift presents an intriguing gardening book. For this reason, "A Weed By Any Other Name" is a solid and recommended read for those sick of de-weeding their lawn.

The book is a series of first person narratives about the author's suburban life, kids, parents, in-laws, bygone school & working days, etc., with a smattering of weed and invasive plant information & history serving as a plot device. The writing is good, and the stories are entertaining, (if a little cloying and too politically polite). Certainly a "In Defense of Weeds" type collection of essays has its place and merits. But if you're looking for some concrete information about weeds, or about creating a decent looking lawn that doesn't give you cancer or intersex the local amphibians, this book will not deliver much. This book is about weeds like "This Organic Life" is about organic gardening; more personal rumination than usable information. Sad to say, you don't get the impression that it was written by a "professional weed scientist".

A Weed By Any Other Name is an excellent introduction to weeds and lawns in our neighborhoods. Dr. Gift's approach is very entertaining and gives lots of information in a non-accusatory manner to those of us who are just getting started into caring for our own lawns. It is a great companion to her second book, Good Weed Bad Weed. I'm glad to know that my laid back manner to lawn care is just the right approach!

This is one of the few books that I've bought, read, and then felt that I had just wasted my time and my money.

The book is presented as a loose series of essays taking the young academic / young mother through a year as she deals with her yard, family, and job. Since her job includes being head of the Rachel Carson Institute I expected her to be knowledgeable about pressures facing and options available to suburban homeowners faced with ... the front yard, the lawn, the neighbors. I especially hoped to find inspiration and practical suggestions for me, a worker with limited time and resources, who wishes to be an ecologically responsible homeowner without trying the patience of my neighbors too much.

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy or relate to the personal anecdotes which form the bulk of the book.

The lack of index would make this book difficult to use as a reference book if you did wish to reread her description, say, of how a newly sodded lawn does -- or most likely doesn't -- "take".