Gaia´s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture
by Toby Hemenway
This was actually the first book we bought, as it sounded so lovely. Who wouldn´t like to have a Garden like Gaia? It is totally worth the money you will spend on it, because it is full of useful information. In a decent and enjoyable way Toby delievers a good overview about permaculture and it´s secrets. All the information is compact and broken down in easy sections. This makes the book to a very good plannning tool for setting up a garden. It only misses out on specific tricks and know-hows, so special gardening technics aren´t explained, but there are other sources for that.
Especially useful are all the tables in the book and in the appendix, listing plants, their usefulness to the garden according to nutrition, companionship, nursing and attracting of helpers.
This is worth 5 hedgehogs.
Der Gärtner
Baumschule ° Obstbau ° Samenbau ° Gemüseanbau
by Ulrich Sachweh
This is the stuff they teach you in gardening school. And that´s exactly how you will read it. It comes like a blue brick, dense information pressed on very thin and smooth pages in this specific “do-not-under-any-circumstances-read-me-or-you-get-bored-to-death”-font. You can literally invocate the poor gardening adept being forced to sit still in his classroom, while every fiber in his body longs for getting the hands dirty in some fresh, warm and rich soil. An empathic sigh is totally in order now!
Nevertheless this book is also filled with tons of stone cold information: how to cut trees, how to plant them, how to get seeds, what technic is used for stuff you wouldn´t have heard about otherwise, but without you couldn´t survive in a garden for five minutes. If you happen to run across it, get it!
It´s worth the initial boredom and therefor 4 hedgehogs.
Die Freuden des natürlichen Lebens
by Friederun Pieterski / Renate Habinger
This is for sure one of the books i am quite happy to not have bought. I borrowed it from the local library. Turns out, it is perfect to place in the bathroom next to the toilet to pick it up and read a random bit of information. I would describe it as a quite harmless book with recipes, nice photographs, lovely illustrations, the perfect pastime for a good and long dump. Do not get me wrong! There is useful information there! And it is nicely delivered. Maybe a perfect gift for a 13 year old nature enthusiast?
In my opinion it is not really necessary to own this book other then for nostalgic reasons (maybe your mom had it stored in the bathroom too), but it doesn´t hurt to have it, if you like this kind of thing.
2 Hedgehogs.