Since Rosalind Creasy popularized the concept of landscaping as well as edibles a quarter-century ago, concern ingesting healthy, fresh, locally grown dishes has swept across the nation. More plus supplementary Americans are yearning to grow clean, delicious construct at home, saving wealth as well as organic assets at the equivalent time. And cuisine foliage experience been freed fancy the backyard, gracing the greatest landscapeseven the White House grounds!
Creasy’s knowledge on edibles furthermore how to add each other inside beautifully intended outdoor environments was primarily showcased inside the foremost edition of Edible Landscaping (Sierra Club Books, 1982), hailed by gardeners all over the place for the reason that a groundbreaking classic. Now this exceptionally imagined brand new edition offers the newest plan with how-to evidence inside a wonderful full-color format, featuring additional than 300 stimulating photographs.
Drawing on the author’s eras of examination furthermore experience, the textbook devotes the entirety you taste to absorb to construct an inviting house panorama that will bring forth mouthwatering vegetables, fruits, nuts, with berries. The conclude Encyclopedia of Ediblesa textbook itselfprovides horticultural information, kitchen uses, sources, with worthwhile varieties; also appendices protection the basics of planting plus maintenance, also of controlling pests plus diseases by way of natural also environmentally dear practices.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #6695 Books
- Published on: 2010-11-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .90″ h x 8.48″ w x 11.06″ l, 3.14 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 384 pages
Reviews
83 of 84 people found the following review helpful.
Beautiful gardens that look good, do good and taste good!!!
By Working Mom
Rosalind Creasy is an amazing landscape designer who really shows how to create amazing landscapes with edible plants that look ornamental, provide a wonderful ecosystem and provide plentiful food. She is a very talented photographer and most of the photos in her book are the ones she took and often in her own edible front yard in Los Altos california where she has been growing edibles for over 25 yrs. This is the bible if you want to really enjoy the fruits of your effort in the garden. It is not just a cottagey informal garden you can create but edible plants will work even in formal landscapes. Be inspired to break free from the confines of tucked away out of sight backyard veggie garden!! This is the garden book to get for your foodie friends. The book covers it all- trees, vines, companion planting, herbs, flowers, shrubs. Best of all, it gives very specific advice on the landscape aspect of it –> How to keep that hedge of variegated basil looking nice, when to harvest your produce and how to (Lettuce and chard is one leaf at a time from each plant) to keep your garden looking good. What plants do better in containers. How to use, color and form and line to make your garden visually stunning.
163 of 188 people found the following review helpful.
See it in person before buying
By veratrine
I love Amazon. I say this without reservation. I buy all kinds of things here, including many books, but occasionally I run into a situation when I wish I’d seen the book in person at a bookstore before pulling out my credit card…because I might not have decided to shell out 25 bucks in that case. An example of a book I wish I’d seen in person is Rosalind Creasy’s Edible Landscaping. It has some beautiful pictures both from Rosalind’s garden and from the gardens of others, but not as many as I had hoped for. Overall, however, they are the highlight of the book.
Unfortunately, since there are proportionately fewer pictures than I hoped for, there is also proportionately more text, and the text is not as helpful as it could be. (I find that the text is frequently the weak point of gardening books in general, and perhaps of garden design books in particular.) In the case of Edible Landscaping we have the following observations as samples (and I did not have to read closely to pick these out):
“Climate has a huge effect on your landscape.”
“Paved paths are a necessity if you want to keep your feet clean and dry as you move from one part of the yard to another.”
“A retaining wall holds back the soil on a hillside or slope.”
“Certain plants or interesting structures and decorative gates or pottery are intended to stand out in the landscape…”
“Form (shape) is the most obvious characteristic of plants.”
“Texture describes the coarseness or fineness of a plant…”
The text is very environmentally conscious, which I certainly don’t object to. But green advice is sometimes less scientific than other advice, as if the environmentalists’ rejection of the products of the highly-scientific chemical industry prevents them from actually backing up their concerns with data. I find some of this tendency in Edible Landscaping. For instance:
“Although (rubber) is a recycled material, I don’t think it should be used near edible plants because of possible toxins.” Well…are there toxins, or aren’t there? And will they leach into soil and be absorbed by plants or not?
“If your soil has been repeatedly treated with artificial fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, no doubt it is deficient in microbial life.” One of the suggested solution is adding mycorrhizae, but this is of debatable value. For instance, one extension article states: “At present, there is very limited, unbiased scientific evidence demonstrating that mycorrhizal inoculations of urban soils with commercial preparations make plant establishment more successful or that the inoculated plants grow better and remain healthier over time”.
Edible Landscaping is just over 400 pages long; pages 184 and following are devoted to an `Encyclopedia’, Appendices A and B (two lists of edible plants), Appendix C on planting and maintenance, and Appendix D on pests and disease, plus resources and an index. There’s not much to say about the appendices, but truthfully, I’m not sure for whom most of the information in the Encyclopedia was written. Consider:
Broccoli: How to use: “Both broccoli and cauliflower are terrific raw in crudités platters…”
Lettuce: How to use: “Lettuce is the keystone of salads of all sorts.”
Tomato: How to use: “Tomatoes need no introduction.” Okay, thanks for giving us at least that much credit. But the entry goes on to mention that tomatoes can be eaten fresh, frozen, canned, dried, or pickled and they can then be used in salsa, soup, or pizza. If your conversations in restaurants sound like this, you may need this part of the book:
“Bubba, there’s some red things on this plate…what do you think they are?”
“I dunno…there’s some green things on mine, and I can’t tell what they are, but I sure can tell you they’re tasty.”
I think the rest of us can manage without this advice.
Overall, this will not be a book I return to frequently or perhaps at all. I have stronger books both on gardening and on design. None of is perfect, but they offer more that is of use to me than “Edible Landscaping.” So…why did I buy this book in the first place? Because of rave reviews from Garden Rant and the LA Times. Eh. I guess I’ll be a little more careful next time.
41 of 44 people found the following review helpful.worth reading
By J. Henry
I am a professional permaculture landscape designer and this book has been invaluable to me as a reference for edible landscaping. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to add edibles to their yard. It is an easy and beautiful way to get more from your yard!
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