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MY GARDEN COMPANION by Jamie Jobb

MY GARDEN COMPANION

By

Pub Date: May 16th, 1977
Publisher: Sierra Club/Scribners

A thick but inviting, pleasantly old-fashoned-looking guide, which starts out advising beginners that they needn't read the whole book at once but should cover Part One, on location, growing seasons, soil and compost, ""before you dig in."" But background information--on ""how soil breathes,"" how weather and climate affect your garden--is intermixed throughout with such practical material as how to deal with bugs (don't use chemical poisons) or how to tell when a vegetable is ready to pick. For the more ambitious there's a chapter on plant breeding, and a plant-by-plant appendix gives specifics on climate, history, and cultivations for 50 different foods and flowers. It's a bit talky for the impatient up-and-do-er (and at times, a bit cute--""good soil is like lasagna""), but undemanding reading for the would-be gardener who wants some understanding of what he's doing.