Since reading The Secret Garden as a child, I have had a playful interest in gardening. Not once have I taken gardening seriously, never have I amended soil or checked its pH. I subscribe to the school of “let’s see what happens” and have often been quite pleased with the results.
I recognize that a lot of science has gone into gardening and those who use the science actually have beautiful gardens. But who can plod through testing the soil, having the latest gadget and learning the Latin names for plants? I cannot. Gardening to me is about having my hands in the soil, taking risks and hopefully ending up with some carrots at the end.
It is that attitude that I found in “No Guff Vegetable Gardening: Garden Coaches Chat”: the attitude of play, the attitude that this is not all serious, the attitude that there may be more than one right answer. Gardening coaches Donna Balzer and Steven Biggs bring you along for the ride as they expose the “guff” (the nonsense) and share gardening fun with the reader.
Between them, Balzer and Biggs have years of gardening experience but they don’t necessarily agree on everything. Dare I say there are gender differences in gardening? There are also differences in geography: Balzer gardens in Calgary and Biggs in Toronto but both have gardened across Canada.
No Guff Vegetable Gardening is such an appealing book: it is full of colour, illustrations, photographs and no end of humour. Every page is an expression of the excitement the authors obviously feel about gardening. When it arrived in the library, we were all immediately enthralled and even the non-gardeners among us wanted to read the book! And of course I recommend it to you, too. Yes, I realize it is nearing end of the season, but admit it: this is when you start planning for next year!
Request this book now.
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