cover image The Kitchen Garden

The Kitchen Garden

Sylvia Thompson. Bantam, $27.95 (389pp) ISBN 978-0-553-08138-1

Emphatically opinionated as well as passionate, syndicated newspaper columnist Thompson (Feasts and Friends) imparts her hard-earned views in a delightful, saucy style. In seed catalogues, she notes, inferior-tasting ``round seeded peas get comments like `a useful crop.' That's like saying they're nice.'' The first and longer section, ``In the Garden,'' alphabetically lists and describes growing requirements of vegetable-garden edibles from amaranths to watermelon. Thompson includes recommendations among varieties and invaluable, rarely found tidbits of information like a list of plants for a beginner's garden and intelligible explanation of the difference between ``sugary enhanced'' and ``supersweet'' corn. ``The Gardener's Notebook,'' an extended, comprehensive glossary of anecdotal and technical organic gardening information, is rounded off with a superb annotated source list, directory of nationwide cooperative extension services and a bibliography. Practical, hands-on gardening books don't come much better than this one. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)