Book Review- Backyard Harvest

Courtesy of Google Images

Hello All,

Hope you are finding yourselves well.  I wanted to spend today's post adding another resource to my collection.  Below is a review of a book that I not only really enjoyed reading but found to be very informative and helped shape the way I looked at my garden and how I intended to use it.

Backyard Harvest Book Review

Overview of the book

This book was a surprise for me.  While perusing the library at the school where I work I stumbled upon their garden section. Written by Jo Whittingham, Backyard Harvest instantly earned a place on my personal bookshelf.  As a beginning gardener and food preserver this book is a great guide.  It shows what a gardener can focus on month by month and how to make the most of their harvest through preservation, storage, and cooking.  Personally I found this book to be inspiring and I hope that you will, too.

Topic

This book focuses primarily on gardening and food preservation for the beginner.  It covers planting and growth of a variety of vegetables and fruits and gives important tips for pruning, pests, and other aspects of gardening beyond the first dig.  For a beginning gardener knowing what to do month by month is very helpful.  Ditto for someone who is new to canning and food preservation, like me.  The suggestions of not only what to save but what to use up is really helpful to keep stores of food super fresh.

Layout / organization

The book primarily organized month to month and the introduction in the beginning of the book shows readers how to use the format.  Each month has a guide of what to eat, followed by what to do, and then pages that build on that information with details on what to grow and what to harvest as well as what to preserve.  Most chapters have special sections that highlight pertinent information – like types of tomato plants or types of herbs or recipes for canning fruit or tips for composting – that go along with the tasks for the month.

Text / Illustration / photographs

I like how the text is easy to ready and well laid out.  I understood the book easily and it was visually appealing.  The photographs were great because they showed me how the beds or fruit or whatever I was looking at were supposed to look. This book was literally a pleasure to read.

Pro’s / Benefits

The greatest benefit of this book is the simplicity of its focus.  It’s great for a beginner gardener (like me) who is getting their feet wet in the art gardening and food preservation.  As an intermediate gardener some of the information might be trite but its layout and easy to understand format makes it a real winner.

Con’s /  Limitations

For better or worse the calendar, which is so wonderful, may be incorrect for your area.  Most everything aligns but I think the words of warning the book gives about being mindful of your skills, your environment, and your taste buds, are really wise. So use this book in conjunction with a growing calendar for your area and you’ll find it’s a real winner. 

What gardening books can you not imagine life without?

Take care,

Rebecca