cover image Old Fashioned Gardener: Lessons from the Past for the Gardener of Today

Old Fashioned Gardener: Lessons from the Past for the Gardener of Today

Nigel Colborn. Lorenz Books, $27.5 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-85967-160-3

Here's a rarity-a gardening book with coffee-table appeal that also offers hands-on practical advice. Colburn, a British garden writer and TV personality, leads readers down memory lane for a chatty, intelligent look at gardening practices of yore. Many of these low-tech traditional methods (boiling salted water as a weedkiller, for instance) rely on savvy and elbow grease instead of chemicals and, thus, are right in tune with today's trend toward organic gardening. Divided into three sections, the book covers productive (fruits, vegetables, and herbs) gardens, ornamental (flower) gardens and the elements of a working garden (tools, soil cultivation, propagation, etc.). A fine choice for either browsing or a more thorough read, this handsome tome also includes an abbreviated but informative plant list and an index. (Sept.)