Martin Crawford (1) (1961–)

Good: nicely organized and attractively laid-out. A large selection of plants represented, both common and uncommon varieties. Good information on culinary uses of the plants.

Bad: Seemed oriented more towards the UK than US (obviously fine if you live in the UK). Info on cultivation was a little more inconsistent and sometimes incomplete.

Overall this works great as a source of inspiration for new plants to grow, but I'd probably turn to another reference to confirm the growing conditions and show more day-to-day needs of the plants. show less

Haven't finished this book, but have begun to notice that some critical safety information is lacking. There seems to be a lot of good information here, and it's an important topic, but this should probably NOT be anyone's go-to book on perennial vegetables.

Here is an ongoing list of poor information I'm finding. I feel like I should share these notes for anyone reading this book or thinking about adding it to their library.

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American elder (Sambucus canadensis): an amazingly useful show more plant, and rightfully included in this book, but the author leaves out the fact that all parts of this plant are toxic when raw and need to be cooked.

Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris) : I've read elsewhere that most of the Aquilegia genus is considered toxic. The author doesn't mention any reports of toxicity. He says that "all A. vulgaris varieties can be used as a vegetable" while also saying that it readily hybridises with other Aquilegia species... if you were going to let the plant re-seed, as he recommends, you might have problems...

More to come, I'm sure... show less