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Library Journal
With today's concerns over waste, energy costs, and recycling, composting is experiencing a renaissance. Pleasant (Garden Stone: Creative Landscaping with Plants and Stone) and former garden book editor Martin here provide both a reference guide and an introduction to composting. The first section will be helpful to nearly all composting neophytes, though more experienced composters, too, should read it for the excellent prose and colorful illustrations. It includes a number of interesting facts, definitions, and even recipes (e.g., for Miracle Leaf Mold). The second section, on compost gardening techniques, examines easy methods of composting with piles, bins, and cans as well as more elaborate approaches involving pits and trenches. It also discusses the use of earthworms in composting. Finally, the third section treats in detail the kinds of plants that will do well in a composter's garden. Pleasant and Martin conclude with a helpful glossary and a resource list for tools, containers, and worms. Essential reading for any gardener interested in composting, this should find its way into many public libraries with active gardening communities and academic and special libraries with an interest in horticulture and gardening.
—Edward J. Valauskas
Overview
Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin turn the compost bin upside down with their liberating system of keeping compost heaps right in the garden, rather than in some dark corner behind the garage. The compost and the plants live together from the beginning in a nourishing, organic environment. The authors' bountiful, compost-rich gardens require less digging, weeding, mulching, and even less planting. And here's one of the best parts — no more backbreaking slogs from compost bin to garden. The authors even ...