Lasagna Gardening
 Patricia Lanza
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 1998 Rodale Press, Inc. Emmaus PA USA
  ISBN: 0875969623


A new system for bountiful gardens: no digging, no tilling, no weeding, no kidding! A non-traditional organic, layering method to create better soil while keeping your garden neat & attractive.

Douglas Schneider's cover art drew me into this energetic & chuckling book; Elayne Sears' & Jane D. Ramsey's charming interior illustrations gave me useful & evocative ideas.

The basis of Patricia Lanza's method of vegetable gardening is to start beds without digging halfway to Tasmania, without sifting & hefting mounds of stones & beaten down earth. She delivers her ideas with panache! I bet her cooking is fantastic!

I recommend Lasagna Gardening as a permanent friend on your shelf. I like the way Patricia Lanza conveys her information & the page layouts are eminently readable. I've plowed my way through a forest of gardening books, all promising less work, higher yields & fewer pests of either the fauna or flora variety. Lasagna Gardening is a worthy edition.

Lasagna Gardening gave us new ideas to try out, some ideas to debate: i.e., what happens to the dyes from the inks and what if you don't read newspapers? I got a giggle out of Lanza's critter crap etiquette, notwithstanding the comedy, she's right on the money!

Lanza's Tips and Time-Savers are envigorating memos to keep your interest going; the side-bars pinpoint questions, problems & recipes & Pat's Picks are ready-made planting planners. Her idea of taking photos of all phases of the beds works well.

To sum up: Patricia Lanza's Lasagna Gardening is simple commonsense with a Mediterranean bouquet! Lovely read, well done!
(05/23/99)

Rebecca