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nafex - [NAFEX] The Truth About Garden Remedies: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why - book review

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  • From: Andriy Palamarchuk <apa3a@yahoo.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] The Truth About Garden Remedies: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why - book review
  • Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 14:43:11 -0700 (PDT)

While searching information on one particular garden technique stumbled upon
this book in Google Book Search.

"The Truth About Garden Remedies: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why" was
written in 2008 by Jeff Gillman Ph.D,  Professor at the University of
Minnesota. The author investigates different gardening remedies, some of them
traditional, some - crazy. The book summarizes the current scientific
knowledge for the remedies, the author performs experiments on his own. The
book has a big bibliography. The intended audience is anybody interested in
growing plants.

The book is very entertaining as well as educational. Reading it feels like
talking to a friend who is very knowledgeable, but not condescending. The
book is a very fine example of applying critical thinking to an everyday
matter. While reading it I many times had to stop reading to discuss some
interesting bits of information with my wife.

The gardening techniques are grouped into the following chapters:
- Basics
- Fertilizers and Other Soil and Media Amendments
- Water
- Biostimulants
- Insecticides
- Fungicides and Other Disease Control Agents
- Herbicides.
- Other Pesticides and Protect ants
- Commercial Pesticides
- Concoctions to be Avoided
- Take Home Message

The entries for remedies are well structured - first comes the introduction
to the technique, its historical background, then a section describing how
the remedy is used, a section on the theory behind it, a section on how it
really works, containing overview of research and experiments the author
performed, and the summary. Each remedy is rated on how well it works.
Chapters also contain summaries.

The author frequently compares organic with industrial approaches. He pays a
lot of attention to safety of people, plants and pets. The author tries to
approach investigation of remedies objectively. Some investigations came up
with the results unexpected to me and to the author himself.

Here are a few entries to whet your appetite: Beer as fertilizer, Coffee
grounds, Gravel for drainage, Planting deeply, Seaweed extract, Sound for
plants, Willow diffusate (as rooting stimulator), Garlic (as insecticide),
Beer as slug killer, Tree wrap, Water mist for frost protection. Many of the
topics come up quite regularly on the NAFEX discussion. Guess now people will
be referenced to this book, like they are referenced to the Lee Reich's books
for general questions about unusual fruits :-)

The book is excellent. I did not find any major flaws in it.

Can be a good gift to a gardener. Because it shows scientific, critical,
experimental approach, it may be a good read for a teen interested in
biology. As well as describing the many experiments the author performed, the
book gives a lot of ideas for biological experiments, instills scientific
worldview.

Andriy
Eastern MA, Zone 6







  • [NAFEX] The Truth About Garden Remedies: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why - book review, Andriy Palamarchuk, 05/13/2010

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