Annie Spiegelman

Rated 3 * only because she does espouse organic methods, otherwise would be lower.
If you are a Cosmo Girl, you might really enjoy this book. For my taste, her approach is too brash, too much in-your-face New Yorker. However, she is a Master Gardener and does offer some good advice, promoting an organic, no chemical approach to gardening. Her advice falls short when it comes to recommending specific plants—her recommendations often are for Zone 7 and not appropriate for Wisconsin weather, show more and she will sometimes suggest plants that she acknowledges are invasive. There are enough different plant species that non-invasive plants could have been recommended. show less

Annie Spiegelman is a California Master Gardener and a proponent of organic gardening. I really enjoyed her tone in this book, light-hearted and witty. Much of the content is very basic introduction to the concept of organic gardening. I was pleased to find out I knew much of it already: embrace green manure crops, never underestimate the power of compost and mulch, and for goodness sake use a soaker hose. Got it! At the end of each chapter Annie also recommends a plant, giving each a show more whaa-whaa rating. (The higher the rating, the more complicated the plant.) This was a cute touch... but since I focus on planting only plants native to my area (or food) in my yard none of these recommendations really pertained to me.

A cute, browsable book on organic gardening. I'll give it a whaa-whaa rating of 2. show less