TITLE: Staking Out the Home Landscape

AUTHOR: Paul E. Stake

 ISBN: 0971917205

The Following review was contributed by: Paul Lappen: To view Paul Lappen's Other  Reviews Click Paul Lappen's Reviews

This book consists of a series of newspaper columns on
gardening, published between 1995-2002 in the
Willimantic, Connecticut Chronicle. Stake was a
professor in the University of Connecticut College of
Agriculture and Natural Resources for more than 25
years, until failing health forced his early
retirement.

A surprisingly large number of topics in the areas of
gardening and landscape management are covered in this
book. Gardening is not something that happens just
during warm weather. The author looks at making plants
go dormant over the winter, to storing seeds from one
year to the next, to the care and feeding of christmas
trees.

Subject areas in this book include flowers and
vegetables, gardening mulch and fertilizers, weeds,
herbs and wildflowers, trees and shrubs, lawn care,
food safety, and enjoying birds. Some of the
individual columns explore carpenter bees, earthworms,
potting soil, russian sage, spaghetti squash, how to
control aphids, herbs like goldenrod and purslane,
chamomile, maple sugaring, pussy willows, apple
disease and pest management, controlling moles in the
lawn, selecting firewood, thanksgiving food safety and
winter shelter for horses, among many others.

This is a fine example of, for lack of a better term,
one stop shopping concerning trees, flowers and
gardens. It's good for those who care about the
scientific name of a plant, and those who just want to
know when and where to plant. In one respect, this
book is meant to be used in Connecticut, but, in
another respect, it can be used anyplace. Both novice
and experienced gardeners should read this book.