Price : $11.26

Product Description

Discover the secrets of a naturally pest-proof vegetable garden with Great Garden Companions. Let master gardener Sally Jean Cunningham show you how to keep pests and diseases at bay with her unique companion-gardening system. By planting special combinations of vegetables, flowers, and herbs, you can minimize pest and disease problems and create a high-yielding, beautiful garden!

Customer Reviews

Review date : 2008-09-05
I’m an avid gardener, and I garden organically. My specialty has always been ornamentals, but recently I’ve become interested in vegetable gardening. This book has been a great resource to help me understand how to layout and manage a sustainable organic garden that is productive, beautiful, and fun to work in. Although there are not many color photos in this book, there are many illustrations that provide the nuts-and-bolts of laying out a garden. In addition, there are lists of vegetables and companions, along with information that specifies when to plant, basic plant requirements, and when/how to harvest. This book is fun to read and a great resource to refer to again and again.

Review date : 2008-07-08
i checked this book out from the library, and let my neighbor borrow it. she liked it so much didn’t want to give it back. as soon as i started reading it, i understood why. it’s very approachable, and has lots of crucial information for first-year and experienced gardeners alike. and it’s got nice pictures and clear diagrams. i really like the "top crops and how to grow them" section.
so i bought my own copy, and i’ve been showing it to everyone who stops by to see my veggies. i like her "messy-looking" technique of interplanting all different kinds of vegetables. altho i should have paid more attention to how far apart to plant seeds, i had a veritable tomato forest under my squashes.
i bought another copy for my stepmom, and she loved it. she’s a top notch gardener. she wrote to say this book had answered some of her longtime questions, and she had only owned it for a few hours. she said the book was "awesome" and she uses it frequently.
i have half a dozen gardening books, but this is the one i re-read most often.

Review date : 2008-06-14
I checked this book out through inter-library loan – had to return it last week & am really missing it! So needless to say will be buying my own copy soon. I had read some other books on companion planting but they weren’t as thorough or impressive as this one. Excellent resource, especially for beginners. The bulk of the book is about companion planting but she also discusses the marits of mulching, composting, beneficial bugs & more in an easy to read format. I personally have never been to fond of the separate "garden plot" – off, alone by itself (never mind that we don’t currantly have the space on our city lot for one anyway . Have already put some of companion planting to practice & so far am having success (you should see my leafy lettuce & spinach!). This is a great book for many reasons – it’s a budget friendly, green guide to gardening! Blessings…

Review date : 2008-06-06
I am findingg this book to be very interesting and helpful My goal is to not have to use any pesticides and garden in a very small space. This book is giving me many helpful ideas.

Review date : 2008-05-19
I love this book. It is filled with loads of useful information explained in a clear and concise manner. Not only is it a great book to own, but it is also a great book to give as a gift.

It’s not so easy to hand the care of your garden over to another person. But sometimes, you just have to do it, and you might as well make it as painless as possible for both of you by preparing a checklist, giving a brief tour, and then letting go of all illusions of control over what happens in your absence.

Since one characteristic in common among many gardeners is the enjoyment of bringing order out of chaos, the letting go of all control part is the hardest, and perhaps the most important. So let’s save that for the end and start with the easy stuff: the garden sitter checklist and tour.

Keep it simple. Trust your garden caretaker to have some sense, and just give general instructions such as, Thin the vegetables if they look like they need it. Weed if you’re inspired. Harvest whatever is ripe and enjoy it yourself or share it with friends. Water before the plants start to droop from thirst.

Then you can go beyond the general to a few – read, very few – specific requests. If your checklist gets too detailed, the caretaker will be overwhelmed, so choose your special situations carefully. After all, the garden is your labor of love, not hers. She’s just doing maintenance.

For example, let’s say you have a new asparagus trench that is gradually being filled in as the shoots grow. If you have a pile of topsoil mixed with manure on hand for the interim gardener to use as needed to cover the new asparagus, then ask her to help sustain this long-term crop.

But if you have a patch of spinach that is bolting, don’t ask her to keep pinching off the blossoms unless you really really want her to spend valuable time on keeping the spinach going during your two-week vacation.

Then make clear your greatest priority, such as This is an organic garden, so please use only the supplies in my shed. No Round-up or Miracle Grow, thank you. But in general, your temporary help shouldn’t be asked to deal with fertilizing or pest control unless you’re going to be gone a long time, or the person owes you a really big favor.

Now, for the tour. Before you leave the precious vegetable or flower garden in a caretaker’s hands, make a point of meeting with your garden sitter in person in the garden. Make sure she knows where things are, from watering tools to an emergency number for backup.

Also, make sure she knows what things are. Else, she might pull the joi choi, thinking it’s a weed rather than an Asian vegetable.

And that brings us to the letting-go-of-illusions-of-control part of the deal. If she does mistakenly pull the joi choi, oh well. Unless the garden is burnt to a crisp or mowed down, just be grateful that someone was there to care for it as best she could. Who knows? She might even have done some things differently and better than you would have. Then you’ve got some new tricks up your sleeve.

Expect miracles, and do your best to enjoy whatever it was that temporarily took you away from your garden.

Life-time gardener Judith Schwader specializes in organic gardening methods. She shares expertise, humor, and advice for your gardening success at A to Z Gardening. Also visit FB Home for additional home and garden information.

It’s not so easy to hand the care of your garden over to another person. But sometimes, you just have to do it, and you might as well make it as painless as possible for both of you by preparing a checklist, giving a brief tour, and then letting go of all illusions of control over what happens in your absence.

Since one characteristic in common among many gardeners is the enjoyment of bringing order out of chaos, the letting go of all control part is the hardest, and perhaps the most important. So let’s save that for the end and start with the easy stuff: the garden sitter checklist and tour.

Keep it simple. Trust your garden caretaker to have some sense, and just give general instructions such as, Thin the vegetables if they look like they need it. Weed if you’re inspired. Harvest whatever is ripe and enjoy it yourself or share it with friends. Water before the plants start to droop from thirst.

Then you can go beyond the general to a few – read, very few – specific requests. If your checklist gets too detailed, the caretaker will be overwhelmed, so choose your special situations carefully. After all, the garden is your labor of love, not hers. She’s just doing maintenance.

For example, let’s say you have a new asparagus trench that is gradually being filled in as the shoots grow. If you have a pile of topsoil mixed with manure on hand for the interim gardener to use as needed to cover the new asparagus, then ask her to help sustain this long-term crop.

But if you have a patch of spinach that is bolting, don’t ask her to keep pinching off the blossoms unless you really really want her to spend valuable time on keeping the spinach going during your two-week vacation.

Then make clear your greatest priority, such as This is an organic garden, so please use only the supplies in my shed. No Round-up or Miracle Grow, thank you. But in general, your temporary help shouldn’t be asked to deal with fertilizing or pest control unless you’re going to be gone a long time, or the person owes you a really big favor.

Now, for the tour. Before you leave the precious vegetable or flower garden in a caretaker’s hands, make a point of meeting with your garden sitter in person in the garden. Make sure she knows where things are, from watering tools to an emergency number for backup.

Also, make sure she knows what things are. Else, she might pull the joi choi, thinking it’s a weed rather than an Asian vegetable.

And that brings us to the letting-go-of-illusions-of-control part of the deal. If she does mistakenly pull the joi choi, oh well. Unless the garden is burnt to a crisp or mowed down, just be grateful that someone was there to care for it as best she could. Who knows? She might even have done some things differently and better than you would have. Then you’ve got some new tricks up your sleeve.

Expect miracles, and do your best to enjoy whatever it was that temporarily took you away from your garden.

Life-time gardener Judith Schwader specializes in organic gardening methods. She shares expertise, humor, and advice for your gardening success at A to Z Gardening. Also visit FB Home for additional home and garden information.