Product Description
A vegetable garden (also known as a vegetable patch or vegetable plot) is a garden that exists to grow vegetables and other plants useful for human consumption, in contrast to a flower garden that exists for aesthetic purposes. It is a small-scale form of vegetable growing. A vegetable garden typically includes a compost heap and several plots or divided areas of land, intended to grow one or two types of plant in each plot. Many families have home kitchen and vegetable gardens that they use to make food. In World War II, people had gardens called a ‘victory garden’ which provided food to families and thus freed up resources for the war effort.
With the increased interest in organic and sustainable living, many people are turning to vegetable gardening as a supplement to their family’s diet. Food grown in your own backyard, uses up little if any fuel for shipping, and the grower can be sure of what exactly was used to grow it. Organic horticulture, or organic gardening, has become increasingly popular for the modern home gardener.
There are many types of vegetable gardens. Potagers, a garden in which vegetables, herbs and flowers are grown together, has become more popular than the more traditional rows or blocks. (Quote from wikipedia.org)
About the Author
Andrew Lang (March 31, 1844, Selkirk – July 20, 1912, Banchory, Kincardineshire) was a prolific Scots man of letters. He was a poet, novelist, and literary critic, and contributor to anthropology. He now is best known as the collector of folk and fairy tales.
The Andrew Lang lectures at St Andrews University are named for him. (Quote from (Quote from wikipedia.org))
About the Publisher
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This book can be very useful for the small space gardener as it discusses at length, basics of gardening. Anywhere the book describes use of horses, logic would indicate that a tiller of varying sizes could be substituted. Crop rotation is also discussed, and multiple acres are not needed for this.
I enjoyed the instructions on constructing a manure-driven hotbed. This was the way it was done before electric seedling heat mats were around. Also prepping sods for seed starting. It reminded me of the way things were done years before pellet pots, plastic seed flats and cell packs were common.
The book is old enough to resurrect much of the forgotten techniques used by our grandparents and great-grandparents -of the way things were, the way things could be again for those trying to garden more naturally and self-sufficiently… not buying everything from the garden store. It might also be helpful for the budding survivalist who no longer wants to rely on manufactured products.
I found the list of seed varieties in the book to be fascinating. Recognizing many of the listed varieties to still be available today. It was neat to see some of the Heirloom seed choices i made were also the Author’s picks.
The age of the book in most cases matters very little when it comes to gardening basics, things don’t change much at all. In fact, this book might be better for beginners since it is a book that encourages a do-it-yourself and a ‘from the ground up’ tone. It is almost void of any pre-made devices and there are no gimmicky products being hocked.
The old standby tools are recommended, time tested and readily available.
My only real problem with the book at all is that the rewrite of the eBook version omitted a number of images and pictures that would have been helpful. But a quick internet search of the names of the described items in most cases will quickly locate images.
The book itself is full of sound instruction, good logic and the author has a friendly writing style.
The book is about 100 years old and free… just download it already. It is well worth the time spent to read it.
Rating: 4 / 5
Unless you have acres and a horse to plow them (the method described frequently for soil prep) then this book is not at all helpful.
Rating: 1 / 5
There was not enough information in this book. When they reprinted it, they left out the drawings. This took a lot away from the book.
Rating: 2 / 5