Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening

When this book arrived after ordering it from Amazon (and being fooled by other reviews), my husband and I couldn't stop laughing--this is not an encyclopedia but a pocket sized dictionary (literally 2inches squared), with entries such as "ants"--the descriptions of anything are way too short to be of any merit, and if you really need to look up the definition of "ant" you are going to need a lot more help in your garden than this book can supply!!

The only reason it gets two stars instead of one is the shock-value I had when I received it--and a good laugh is always worth something.

In place you might consider Nancy Bubel's "Seed Starting Handbook"--lots of useful, easy-to-follow, and fairly detailed information on gardening.

This book has been around for many years and is one of the most valuable resources on organic gardening. True, it does not have beautiful glossy coloured pictures to capture one's attention, and you likely will not find it sitting around on someone's coffee table ready to stimulate conversation. However, what the book does offer is a wealth of information covering organic garden techniques, vegetable growing, organic fertilizers, fruit orchards, fruit and nut culture, herb gardening(my favourite section) and exotic tropical fruits (certainly not conducive to all climates, such as mine, if you are an outdoor gardener.) This is not a book the average person will sit down and read, cover to cover, in an evening - the length is over one thousand pages! However, if you are into organic gardening this is a must-have book. I particularly like the way the book is organized; considering the size of this monsterous volume, everything was easy to find. You are definitely getting a terrific value for your dollar, considering this is probably the only book you will ever need in respect to organic gardening.

I have been a poor man's gardener for 40 years or so. Over the years I have accumulated dozens of books or booklets on gardening, yet I always end up looking up any subject in the Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening. It's the most useful book I have.

Well it is a textbook. It is authoritative and boring to read unless you are into the subject. It has no pictures. It is a classic. Put it on the book shelf and pull it out to look stuff up on organic gardening. You know it will have the answer. Well most of the time - keep in mind if you are trying to find out about Neem oil for roses look in something more recent.