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 enlarge | Creator: Kathleen Norris Brenzel
Publisher: Sunset Books
Category: Book
List Price: $34.95
Buy New: $10.95
You Save: $24.00 (69%)
New (41) Used (24) from $6.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  96 reviews
Sales Rank: 3190
Media: Paperback
Edition: Rev Upd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 768
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.9
Dimensions (in): 10.7 x 8.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 0376039167
Dewey Decimal Number: 635.90978
EAN: 9780376039163
ASIN: 0376039167
Publication Date: February 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: NEW AND IN EXCELLENT CONDITION! SAME DAY SHIPPING WEEKDAYS BEFORE 3:00PM EST
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| Customer Reviews:
 Index July 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A good reference book to replace my 40th Anniversary edition (1998) hoping to get more information on draught tolerant landscape (not much more than the 40th edition). What's missing though is the Index with scientific and common names. My 1998 edition had a 12 page index the new one has 3 pages. All in all, I like the old one better.
 Great Reference Guide July 6, 2008
As Master Gardeners my wife and I are often asked questions, and while we have a lot of gardening books, this is the book that most often answers our questions.
 List of the Cons June 3, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I know many people love this book, but here are the reasons why it didn't live up to the hype of being a plant "bible" for me. I was looking for details (specific to my zone), pretty photos (to help me ID plants), and overall ease of use (easy-to-read font with good layout & organization).
1) It's hard to read. For most of the plants listed, the header is accompanied by a single tiny (~1inch size) representative pastel-colored illustration followed by 1-10 short paragraphs of generic text.
2) To find something, you have to thumb through pages of tiny print with nothing to grab your attention. It reads like a dictionary to me, when I wanted more of an encyclopedia. It's boring, having neither anecdotes (if you like those), interesting pictures, nor the utility of bullets.
3) Like a dictionary, the blurbs are short and generic. For all the bountiful garden greens available in California & along the west coast, there is a 7 paragraph generic description of "lettuce". The strains are mentioned in passing as filler --- not to describe their look or taste (which is ok since seed catalogs do a very good job), but neither were they suggested for certain parts of the west coast. They were simply listed to be listed, which bugged me. Obviously, I didn't read everything in the entire book, but I did read through the popular garden vegetables and that was my impression from all those entries.
4) I felt that this book passes the buck. For example: (a small blurb on tomato problems) "If certain diseases or nematodes cause trouble locally, you may be able to grow varieties that resist one or more problems. Keys to resistance you may see on plant labels or in catalog descriptions." I already know I can ask the local nursery and look at the plant labels there. The point of a home reference is to save me time & free me from dependence on others & to be there whenever the nurseries are closed. I want my home gardening reference to answer my questions so I could stay at home & continue gardening.
5)The margins are about 1/2 inch. This wouldn't normally be a critique, but bc the blurbs are general, I wanted room to jot down notes I found from more thorough resources (ex: AHS Encyclopedia of Gardening).
6) I didn't know the scientific names of strains I saw at the store & wanted to learn more about, and the one section with color photos (a short seg in the beginning) is alphabetized by scientific name.
7) I was really impressed by how blah I felt about this book bc it's obviously loved by many, so I checked the library for older editions to see how this book had improved over time. Unfortunately, the library only had the 7th ed and it seemed the same as the 8th, minus different cover art. Again, I read through only the sections pertinent to vegetables I wanted to grow.
I thought the following books were better as general gardening references bc they were more thorough, made for more interesting reads (bountiful containers has no photos), or had gorgeous color photos that were inspiring and helpful for ID purposes.
American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening
The Vegetable Gardener's Bible: Discover Ed's High-Yield W-O-R-D System for All North American Gardening Regions
McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers
The Random House Book of Vegetables (Random House Garden)
In terms of Western coast gardening, there are books that are specific to regions of the coast that are more detailed.
The Gardener's "Bible" June 2, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book has been a mainstay of gardening information for many years. There have been positive changes/updates through the years and it is a great reference.
 Sunset Western Garden Book May 30, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I love this book....it's been years...and I mean years since we bought a new one....such an improvement from the old one...great pictures...easy to find what you're looking for....love it...love it..love it!!!
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