“Gardeners Choice: The Best Home Improvement Knife – For the Serious Gardner” by Monty D. Donohue is a comprehensive, easy-to-read book on all aspects of landscaping tools and supplies. There are many useful tips on selecting and maintaining the right tools for the job at hand. In this concise guide, Donohue provides step-by-step instructions and recommendations for all sorts of landscaping tools and supplies. His language is simple and his illustrations are clear and concise. This book will help even the most inexperienced gardeners quickly become competent at their job.
Donohue begins with an introduction to basic gardener’s tools and supplies, then goes into more specific topics such as types of lawnmowers, trimmers, rakes, spades, forks, knives, axes and landscaping hand tools. There are also several sections on planting, preparing your soil, general garden planning, planting, weed control, and garden safety. There are numerous plant varieties, including annuals, perennials, bulbs, and vegetables, as well as various fertilizers, soil additives, and mulch available. There are also several recommended weed killers, disease prevention, and gardening tips, as well.
One of the nice aspects of the book is that it is divided into chapters focusing on each of the subject areas mentioned in the introduction. Each chapter focuses on a specific tool or topic. The following chapters cover general landscaping care information such as how to prepare your soil, types of fertilizer, mulching, weed control, and garden design.
Donohue then covers practical information such as how much water a gardener needs, general yard care information, planting tips, some basic landscaping tools and supplies, and more. There are chapters on how to prepare your soil, fertilizers, worm castings, organic mulches, greenhouse gardening, vegetable gardening, landscape design, and much more. There is a short index at the end of each chapter, as well.
A short, but helpful review of the book follows. According to JoAnn, it was well written and easy to read. She did feel that the book was geared more towards professional gardeners and that the information was a bit over generalized. However, she did find the book very interesting and did have some great recipes that she uses on a regular basis.
I found the information provided to be quite extensive. The fact that the book is geared towards professional gardeners may mean that some of the information is redundant, but I still highly appreciated the detailed information. Another positive aspect of the book was that it was well-organized. Each section of the book was clearly identified and the information was given right in the table of contents. It would have been nice to have the table of contents listed the chapters, but that might have been nitrated.
There were some things that I felt could have been explained a bit more. In addition, I think the book could have been condensed a bit more. There were pages where Donohue gives recipes for common vegetables, but I think the explanations of how to prepare them was a bit more clear cut. This book is certainly a gardener’s bible, but like most books on gardening, it does touch on a lot of topics that are beyond the scope of the simple gardening tip that it contains.
I do recommend this book to any serious gardener as it does have many useful tips that can save time and money, as well as help maintain a healthy garden. For people who are new to gardening or who have just started, I recommend this book to get them up to speed on basic tools and equipment as well as the different species of plants. For more advanced gardeners, I recommend trying some of Donohue’s other books on specific subjects such as planters, trellises, fountains and rocks. The book has only positive reviews so far, but it may surprise many who enjoy gardening.