Gardening with Ed Hume: Northwest Gardening Made Easy

Rating:
Summary: A straightforward, "gardener friendly" guide
Review: Colorful photographs enhance Gardening With Ed Hume: Northwest Gardening Made Easy, a straightforward, "gardener friendly" guide to growing everything from perennials to lawns, hedges, trees, and vegetables. Tips on pest control, step-by-step instructions from seeding to harvest, and a wealth of time-saving advice fill the pages of this easy-to-follow and enthusiastically recommended resource designed especially for the non-specialized general reader in a Pacific Northwest climate wanting to enjoy the creation of everything from flowerbeds to yard lawns.

Rating:
Summary: A straightforward, "gardener friendly" guide
Review: Colorful photographs enhance Gardening With Ed Hume: Northwest Gardening Made Easy, a straightforward, "gardener friendly" guide to growing everything from perennials to lawns, hedges, trees, and vegetables. Tips on pest control, step-by-step instructions from seeding to harvest, and a wealth of time-saving advice fill the pages of this easy-to-follow and enthusiastically recommended resource designed especially for the non-specialized general reader in a Pacific Northwest climate wanting to enjoy the creation of everything from flowerbeds to yard lawns.

Rating:
Summary: Relaxed and informal how-to
Review: Ed Hume is recognized as one of the foremost garden authorities in the north west. His television show "Gardening in America" is watched by millions who appreciate his down-to-earth, practical gardening advice. Reading this book is much like watching his T.V. show - he shares information in a very relaxed, direct fashion. The advantage of the book is that the reader can keep checking back whenever the information is required.

The writer has organized his material well, moving from a general topic - landscaping - to chapters on different categories of plants, trees, shrubs, bulbs etc., with a final couple of chapters on composting and protecting plants from creatures. Each chapter has been further divided into sections and sub-sections so the search for information is simple. Better still, the information is supplied in digestible nuggets so the reader doesn't have to plough through excess verbiage.

Much of the book is taken up with "encyclopedias", for example "shrub encyclopedia", which takes up almost half of the 48 pages given to shrubs. These are not encyclopedias, of course, they're just plant lists with some helpful notes beside each species. I'm not a great fan of plant lists, even when they're called encyclopedias, they appear to me to be just an easy way to fatten out a book.

That, said, this is a very useful and readable book for the gardener in the Pacific North West. Buy it for your garden library - you'll find yourself using it often.

Rating:
Summary: gardening by ed hume...nw gardening made easy
Review: received quickly and in perfect condition...the book itself was informative but more photos of plants would be helpful to novice gardeners like myself.