Florida Lawn Handbook: An Environmental Approach to Care and Maintenance of Your Lawn

Rating:
Summary: Every Florida Homeowner Should Own This Book
Review: All around me, I see people spending a FORTUNE in time, money and effort "maintaining" their lawns, and it doesn't appear that they've done as much as read a pamphlet, book or web site on lawn maintenance. They water at the wrong time. They fertilize too much. They cut their grass too low or too often.

EVERY FLORIDA HOMEOWNER SHOULD OWN AND READ THIS BOOK! The lawn is a large investment, and this is a small price to pay to take care of it. This is the bible for Florida lawnowners.

This book is very complete. There are chapters on planting, water, fertilizing, insects and disease. And there is a chapter (or two!) on each common variety of Florida turf grass. This book is written by Florida university researchers and agricultural extension agents, so is the most authoritative reference there is.

I have two main complaints, although these problems are often interlinked. First, the chapters are written by different authors. As a result, there is some inconsistency in advice and writing style, and many topics are repeated. The second is that it can be a little technical. This could be remedied with an introductory chapter with pictures and definitions of the terminology used in the book. The authors assume that you know what the different parts of the grass plant are. As a new homeowner, I didn't even know what thach was.

I am going to use the info from this book and from the St. John's River Water Management District web site to write an article for my homeowner's association newsletter. Perhaps the neighbors will quit wasting water watering the mailbox in the evening from which I have to retrieve my mail.

Rating:
Summary: Every Florida Homeowner Should Own This Book
Review: All around me, I see people spending a FORTUNE in time, money and effort "maintaining" their lawns, and it doesn't appear that they've done as much as read a pamphlet, book or web site on lawn maintenance. They water at the wrong time. They fertilize too much. They cut their grass too low or too often.

EVERY FLORIDA HOMEOWNER SHOULD OWN AND READ THIS BOOK! The lawn is a large investment, and this is a small price to pay to take care of it. This is the bible for Florida lawnowners.

This book is very complete. There are chapters on planting, water, fertilizing, insects and disease. And there is a chapter (or two!) on each common variety of Florida turf grass. This book is written by Florida university researchers and agricultural extension agents, so is the most authoritative reference there is.

I have two main complaints, although these problems are often interlinked. First, the chapters are written by different authors. As a result, there is some inconsistency in advice and writing style, and many topics are repeated. The second is that it can be a little technical. This could be remedied with an introductory chapter with pictures and definitions of the terminology used in the book. The authors assume that you know what the different parts of the grass plant are. As a new homeowner, I didn't even know what thach was.

I am going to use the info from this book and from the St. John's River Water Management District web site to write an article for my homeowner's association newsletter. Perhaps the neighbors will quit wasting water watering the mailbox in the evening from which I have to retrieve my mail.