Product Description

In The No-Work Garden, Bob Flowerdew shares his revolutionary approach to garden design and maintenance, showing you how to make the most of your garden with the minimum of effort. His aim is to reduce the onerous burden of chores; to that end, he encourages you to trust in nature, so that you can spend more time enjoying your garden and less time arduously digging and manicuring. He also emphasizes that if crucial tasks are done effectively, unnecessary work is avoided later—for instance, a good mulch reduces weeding and watering, and prompt pruning deters pests and diseases. With practical advice on mowing, fertilizing, and the benefits of choosing plants that thrive locally, this is an essential reference. Bob Flowerdew is Britain’s leading organic gardener; among his many books are The Complete Book of Companion Gardening and Bob Flowerdew’s Organic Bible.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #435483 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The title "No-work" is a bit of an exaggeration, but veteran British gardener Flowerdew (Bob Flowerdew's Organic Bible, etc.) gives excellent advice about keeping gardening busywork to a minimum. Profusely illustrated with attractive photographs and drawings, the book covers the gardening gamut: lawns, houseplants, flowers, vegetables and a particularly long and detailed section on fruits. Flowerdew gives commonsense advice: don't listen to rose experts obsessed with the giant flowers that win prizes when your own interest is to enjoy an abundance of blooms in your garden; if you prefer strawberries, why not grow them instead of the radishes you never eat? He also provides some quirky but handy tips such as the Romans' technique for killing pernicious weeds: drown them in a barrel of water, add a layer of vegetable oil to keep mosquitoes away and use the liquid for plant food. His dry British humor may be a bit difficult for the American reader to fathom, but most of his emphasis on following your pleasure in gardening choices will be especially welcome to new gardeners who worry about doing things right. (July)
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Review
“excellent advice about keeping gardening busywork to a minimum. Profusely illustrated with attractive photographs and drawings.” -- Publishers Weekly

“will be especially welcome to new gardeners who worry about doing things right.” -- Publishers Weekly

...ideas, advice, and opinions on ways to make gardening more of a pleasure and less of a penance. -- Organic Gardening

About the Author
Bob Flowerdew has gardened organically for over 20 years and is Britain's foremost authority on organic gardening methods. He is constantly experimenting with new methods and ways of saving labour. In addition to his own books, was recently a co-author of The GQT Plant Chooser (see opposite).

Customer Reviews

Fabulous -- witty AND helpful!
I love the tone and the approach of this book. I've just read some books by Ruth Stout (a previous generation's evangelist of lazy gardening), and I must say I find these lazy gardening books delightfully written, with a good dash of wit along with practical advice.

Flowerdew does a good job of combining overall approaches (for example, advocating no-dig gardening over the sweat and toil of tillage) with very specific recommendations and tips (like putting small bottles over little seedlings to protect them and make weeding easier).

If the book were a bit more systematically organized, it could make a better reference for my gardening library. But it was useful enough that, after reading the book at my local library, I decided to buy a copy from Amazon.

Fantastic Book!!!
I've read about "Lasagna Gardening" and "Square Foot Gardening", and all about Ruth Stout's methods. But this book has them all beat! It is so filled with practical ideas for making gardening not just easy, but productive and beautiful! I checked this out from the library and after just a day or two with it, I knew I *had* to have my own copy! Everyone interested in gardening should read this book; gardening does *not* need to be difficult!