A Brief History of Gardening
by Neil Fairbairn
40 Members (3.00)
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Description
In A Brief History of Gardening, Harvard graduate and gardener Neil Fairbairn chronicles more than 8,500 years of gardening with wit and irreverence. Fairbairn's gift for story-telling is evident throughout this engaging glimpse at the history of seed-sowing throughout the world, beginning in 6500 B.C. to the year 2000 and beyond. The book's nine chapters are arranged chronologically and are comprised of short, informative entries covering a particular person, event, or movement important to show more gardening. Readers will learn: -- The first evidence of conservation dates from 2700 B.C. China, where an agricultural document taught that "mountains exhausted of forests are washed bare by torrents"-- The Kama Sutra directed virtuous women in A.D. 350 to keep a garden, perhaps to work up an appetite for the other activities detailed in the text-- England in 1597 did not take kindly to the American tomato, believing it to be not only poisonous but also "of ranke and stinking savor"More than250 full-color photographs and illustrations grace the entries, and each chapter contains a two-page timeline that gives readers a sense of movement through history. Pairing an elegant, clean design with a lively tone, A Brief History of Gardening is a beautiful and entertaining guide sure to be picked up again and again. show lessTags
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10 Works 113 Members
Common Knowledge
- Dedication
- To my father, Harold William Fairbairn, who taught me nothing about gardening but who did grow the best tomatoes I've ever eaten.
- First words
- Gardening is both the most natural and most unnatural of human activities.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The U. S. Centers for Disease Control included gardening on a list of exercises that it recommended people do for at least 30 minutes a day. Gardeners were not surprised by the news that gardening was hard, healthy work, but after more than 11,000 years of digging, sowing, weeding, and harvesting, it was comforting to learn that they'd been doing the right thing all along.
Classifications
- Genres
- Home & Garden, Nonfiction, History, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 635.09 — Technology Agriculture Garden crops (Horticulture) modified standard subdivisions History, geographic treatment, biography
- LCC
- SB451 .F14 — Agriculture Horticulture. Plant propagation. Plant breeding Plant culture Gardens and gardening
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 40
- Popularity
- 727,090
- Rating
- (3.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 1
