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InvisibleBig L
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Registered: 02/11/09
Posts: 3,532
Loc: Luxury
Book Review Thread
    #12714344 - 06/09/10 10:42 AM (13 years, 9 months ago)

Been thinking about doing this for a while. Basically, it's the same as grade school book review.
I read my fair share of great plant/garden books, and I think it would be beneficial to describe and recommend some of them to ya'll.
It may even get me to read more often.




Current review links
I. Organic Gardening written by Geoff Hamilton
    (Big L)
     
II. Cacti: The Illustrated Dictionary written by Rod Preston-Mafham
    (Cactusdan)

III. American Horticultural Society: Plant Propagation
    (Methadone)

IV. Cactus The Most Beautiful Varities and how to Keep Them Healthy written by Elisabeth Manke
    (Methadone)

V. Teratopia "The World of Cristate and Variegated Succulents" written by Gordon Rowley
    (Methadone)




First book.


Organic Gardening

by Geoff Hamilton
288pg

Table of Content

1. Introduction

2. The Organic Way
     
  • Improving On Nature

3. The Soil
  • What is Soil
  • Soil Types
  • Soil Management

4. Soil Improvement
  • The Four Phases of Soil Management
  • Applying Soil Conditions
  • Compost
  • Animal Manure
  • Alternative Soil Conditioners
  • Worm-Worked Compost and Manure
  • Green Manure

5. Fertilizers
  • Acidity
  • The Need For Nutrients
  • Organic Fertilizers

6. Organic Pest and Disease Control
  • Maintaining a Healthy Garden
  • Companion Planting
  • Controlling Birds and Animals
  • Controlling Soil Pests and Insects
  • General Garden Diseases
  • Biological Control
  • Organic Chemicals

7. Organic Weed Control
  • Clearing Uncultivated Ground
  • Hoeing
  • Mulching
  • Recognizing Weeds
  • Useful Weeds

8. Planning Your Garden
  • The Physical Characteristics of Your Garden
  • Features to Include
  • Drawing Up a Plan

9. The Ornamental Garden
  • Preparing the Soil
  • Hedges
  • Lawns
  • Trees
  • Deciduous Trees
  • Coniferous Trees
  • Planting Ornamental Borders
  • Choosing Suitable Plants
  • Winter Plants
  • Early Spring Plants
  • Mid Spring Plants
  • Late Spring Plants
  • Early Summer Plants
  • Mid Summer Plants
  • Late Summer Plants
  • Autumn Plants
  • Cultivation of Border Plants
  • Ponds and Aquatic Plants
  • Alpines
  • Cultivating Wild Flowers

10. The Container Garden
  • Types of Container
  • Planting Containers
  • Hanging Baskets

11. The Vegetable Garden
  • Crop Rotation
  • Preparing Vegetable Beds
  • Sowing
  • Protecting Crops Against Cold
  • Choosing What to Grow
  • Salad Vegetables
  • Cultivating Salad Vegetables
  • Shoot Vegetables
  • Cultivating Shoot Vegetables
  • Pod and Seeds Vegetables
  • Cultivating Pod and Seed Vegetables
  • Fruiting Vegetables
  • Cultivating Fruiting Vegetables
  • Bulb Vegetables
  • Cultivating Bulb Vegetables
  • Squash Vegetables
  • Cultivating Squash Vegetables
  • Root Vegetables
  • Cultivating Root Vegetables
  • Leaf Vegetables
  • Cultivating Leaf Vegetables
  • Vegetable Pests and Diseases

12. The Fruit Garden
  • Selecting Plants
  • Planting and Training Fruit Trees and Bushes
  • Cultivation of Fruit
  • Tree Fruit
  • Citrus Fruit
  • Cultivating Tree Fruit
  • Soft Fruit
  • Cultivating Soft Fruit
  • Fruit Fruit Pests and Diseases

13. The Herb Garden
  • Planning a Herb Garden
  • A Herb Collection
  • Cultivating Herbs

14. Greenhouse Gardening
  • Choosing a Greenhouse
  • Heating a Greenhouse
  • Caring for Greenhouse Plants
  • Maintaining a Greenhouse
  • Deciding What to Grow
  • Greenhouse Pests and Disease

15. Basic Techniques
  • Choosing the Right Tools
  • Choosing Garden Machinery
  • Cultivation Techniques
  • Watering Plants
  • Supporting Plants

16. Propagation Techniques
  • Growing From Seed
  • Other Methods of Propagation

17. The Gardening Year
  • Spring
  • Summer
  • Autumn
  • Winter

18. Useful Addresses
19. Index


Review

Without a doubt, the most comprehensive organic gardening book I have ever seen. This book would be helpful and educational to people of all skill levels. I learn something new every time I pick it up.

If you are familiar with any books from DK Publishing, you will know that they are full of high quality pictures, and interesting side notes. This book is no different. The layout is fantastic and very well thought out.

The content in the book is great. As you can see from the table of contents, it covers a huge range of topics in this area. It runs from the extremely mundane to very technical, and offers very practical solutions that are extremely simple yet unbelievable effective.  Including a lot of DIY solutions that help keep the cost of organic gardening down.
The sections covering ornamentals, vegetables, herbs and fruit are organized very well, which allows the reader to quickly find specific information on any plant. The author begins each section with high quality pictures of each plant that will be covered. He follows this with a section on each plant that clearly explains specifics of each plant. These specifics include a short history of the plant, common/recommended varieties, proper soil/site (ph, sun level, type of soil, amount of organic matter, etc) How to plant, maintenance (feeding, watering, pruning), Harvesting and Storage, and Common pests/diseases of the plant.

I would recommend this book to absolutely everybody. It makes for a great, informational read, and a nice quick reference source. When I have a question on organic gardening, this book is the first I look.

:peyote::peyote::peyote::peyote::peyote: (5/5)

Buy it, meow.
Questions?

Edited by Big L (06/17/10 09:42 PM)

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InvisibleBrainiac
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Registered: 04/29/06
Posts: 13,259
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Re: Book Review #1 [Re: Big L]
    #12714490 - 06/09/10 11:23 AM (13 years, 9 months ago)

Have a look at Motherearthnews.com 30 years of there info on there website + its free....


--------------------
:Awesketch:

:cool: Fair is Fair :devil:

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InvisibleBig L
In tall buildings
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Registered: 02/11/09
Posts: 3,532
Loc: Luxury
Re: Book Review #1 [Re: Brainiac]
    #12714518 - 06/09/10 11:32 AM (13 years, 9 months ago)

That's a good website, and there are 100s more like it.
I'm not denying almost all of the information in this book can't be found on the Internet for free.


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OfflineiFennario
Creep creeping the earth


Registered: 08/11/09
Posts: 881
Last seen: 11 years, 8 months
Re: Book Review #1 [Re: Big L]
    #12714551 - 06/09/10 11:39 AM (13 years, 9 months ago)

:teacher:  A+ on your book report Big L :grin:


--------------------
I don't use or interact with illegal drugs. I joined for the wealth of information available in the Ethnobotanical Garden forum.

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OfflineCactusdan
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Re: Book Review #1 [Re: iFennario]
    #12714557 - 06/09/10 11:41 AM (13 years, 9 months ago)

Very nice Big, you certainly seem to have taken your time to write that.


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InvisibleBig L
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Posts: 3,532
Loc: Luxury
Re: Book Review #1 [Re: Cactusdan]
    #12714594 - 06/09/10 11:47 AM (13 years, 9 months ago)

Thanks. You think it's worth doing more like this?
Does anyone still buy/read books?


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OfflineCactusdan
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Re: Book Review #1 [Re: Big L]
    #12714611 - 06/09/10 11:50 AM (13 years, 9 months ago)

I buy/read books but they tend to be design books :lol:

I think it's quite well written and could possibly be have a continuing thread made out of.

If you type up some more and put them in here I'll be sure to add it to the FAQ and helpful links stickies.


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InvisibleBig L
In tall buildings
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Posts: 3,532
Loc: Luxury
Re: Book Review #1 [Re: Cactusdan]
    #12714642 - 06/09/10 11:55 AM (13 years, 9 months ago)

Design books? :gayflag:

:taco:
Oh you mean graphic design.


I'll continue them in this thread then.


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OfflineCactusdan
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Re: Book Review #1 [Re: Big L]
    #12714680 - 06/09/10 12:03 PM (13 years, 9 months ago)

:lol:

I don't go shopping around your bookshelf so I tend not to be near all those kind of design books.

:gayvirgin:

:smilingpuppy:


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Invisiblekarode13Facebook
Tāne Mahuta
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Re: Book Review #1 [Re: Big L]
    #12716339 - 06/09/10 06:05 PM (13 years, 9 months ago)

Nice book review and good idea Big L, I think more of these would be useful. I still read real books and it's nice to see others share my interest still. Digital information is great but nothing beats the smell and ease of thumbing through a book for that information you're after.


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Invisiblejokefox
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Registered: 12/22/09
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Re: Book Review #1 [Re: karode13]
    #12720394 - 06/10/10 12:33 PM (13 years, 9 months ago)

nice book report

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InvisibleKBG1977
Registered: 08/23/08
Posts: 11,017
Re: Book Review #1 [Re: jokefox]
    #12720476 - 06/10/10 12:48 PM (13 years, 9 months ago)

yeah,good review man:thumbup:I'd like to have a copy of that myself:grin:

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OfflineC_T
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Registered: 11/09/07
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Re: Book Review #1 [Re: KBG1977]
    #12721268 - 06/10/10 03:30 PM (13 years, 9 months ago)

indeed, keep them coming Big L.

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Invisibleferrel_human
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Re: Book Review #1 [Re: C_T]
    #12721307 - 06/10/10 03:39 PM (13 years, 9 months ago)

could it really be that easy, bigL?


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Nature is my church and walking through it is gospel. It tells no lies and reveals all to those who look, and listen, closely.
-Karode

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Offlinehaymaker
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Re: Book Review #1 [Re: ferrel_human]
    #12721598 - 06/10/10 04:30 PM (13 years, 9 months ago)

I found that very helpful - when i have a proper garden of my own to grow more in I may well buy this book to help set myself up.

I prefer books for reading large amounts than the internet, easier on the eyes and I find more comfortable to read books than a pc/laptop.

thanks for the review!

:peace:


--------------------
"Make hay while the sun shines"
My Trade List

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OfflineCactusdan
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Book Review: Cacti: The Illustrated Dictionary [Re: haymaker]
    #12727944 - 06/11/10 06:41 PM (13 years, 9 months ago)

BOOK REVIEW: CACTI: THE ILLUSTRATED DICTIONARY



Cacti: The Illustrated Dictionary (1997)
by Rod Preston-Mafham
224 pages

Table of Contents:

1. Acknowledgments

2. Introduction

3. Using the Dictionary
  • Sources of the Plants
  • Understanding the Notes

4. Illustrated A-Z of Species

5. Appendices

6. Index of Alternative Names

7. Picture Acknowledgments

REVIEW

Cacti: The Illustrated Dictionary
is one of those books that sounds like a really great idea, but in actuality falls far short of expectations.

Although it contains a wide array of decent quality photographs and information, it lacks many things. The biggest is that it only covers the globular species of cacti, leaving out almost every single one of the columnar, epiphyte, and padded cacti; which, if you know about cacti, tend to be one of the most confusing and murky sections of the family. On top of this one must take into account the publishing date, January 1997. Many major new species have been described since that time including Aztekium hintonii, Mammillaria luethyi, various Lophophora sp., etc. Also, many of the names, even being a little over 10 years old, are outdated and now days obscure.

This however shouldn't deter you from looking at this book though as it does come in handy as a very helpful resource, especially when trying to ID globular cacti. It has many many many pictures, many with flower for more accurate identification. The source data is also an interesting addition. It gives distribution, brief descriptions, and synonyms which also come in handy, especially when in the field.

All in all, although this book is limited in some areas, it can still prove to be a helpful tool in globular cactus finding and identification.

I wouldn't rush out and buy it over some other cacti books, but if you can find a cheap copy it's worth having on the shelf.

RATING

:peyote::peyote::peyote::badpeyote::badpeyote: (3/5)


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InvisibleBig L
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Posts: 3,532
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Re: Book Review: Cacti: The Illustrated Dictionary [Re: Cactusdan]
    #12728158 - 06/11/10 07:40 PM (13 years, 9 months ago)

Nice dan.
lol @ loph rating system.

Title changed.


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Invisiblekarode13Facebook
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Re: Book Review: Cacti: The Illustrated Dictionary [Re: Big L]
    #12728232 - 06/11/10 07:55 PM (13 years, 9 months ago)

I thought the loph rating system was cool but I did lol when I seen it the first time, in a good way.


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OfflineCactusdan
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Re: Book Review: Cacti: The Illustrated Dictionary [Re: Big L]
    #12728269 - 06/11/10 08:04 PM (13 years, 9 months ago)

I added two new smileys for it :grin:

:peyote and :badpeyote

:tongue:


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Invisiblekarode13Facebook
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Re: Book Review: Cacti: The Illustrated Dictionary [Re: Cactusdan]
    #12728276 - 06/11/10 08:05 PM (13 years, 9 months ago)

Ah, I see. Good job. :cool:


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