Gardening Books: Crockett's Victory Garden
Written 28 years ago and discovered last summer in the depths of my parents' basement, this is my primary gardening resource. It's wonderful. Jim Crockett is to Michael Weishan as The Sugar Hill Gang is to Kanye West. He was the original host of the Victory Garden and blazed a trail for subsequent hosts including the homeless-looking dude with a beard and the current host who's a bit irritating.
1977 was a different time indeed. Carter was president and was urging Americans everywhere to swaddle themselves in wool in an effort to stick it to OPEC. We were making peanuts while Jimmy was growing them. And, judging by Crockett's book, pesticide use wasn't too big of deal back then. He loves the stuff. Slap it on some bread, rub it on your face, and gulp it down, because Crockett seems convinced that there truly can be better living through chemistry. Despite warning readers not to eat food from pesticide-treated plants for up to 14 days (scary!), he seems quite comfortable with pesticides, some of which (see Diazinon) have been later banned by the EPA.
Crockett's pesticide evangelism aside, this is a fabulous book. Laid out by the month, instead of by plant, this book provides a nice summary of the challenges each month poses. Crockett writes with a friendly tone and never pretends to be God's gift to gardeners. His passages about his failures are perhaps the best parts of the book.
As a bonus, he has lots of pictures, all of which seem to have been shot on the set of Three's Company. While I have yet to spy my erstwhile TV buddies, Jack Tripper and Chrissy Snow, in the pictures, they are fun to look at. My fav shot is on page 182, when Crockett boils compost, not as a prank but because he wants to pasteurize it. Sweet.
In summation: this is a great book. It has loads of useful information. Skip your copy of the New York Times for a day and buy this book. Used copies go for $0.75.
1977 was a different time indeed. Carter was president and was urging Americans everywhere to swaddle themselves in wool in an effort to stick it to OPEC. We were making peanuts while Jimmy was growing them. And, judging by Crockett's book, pesticide use wasn't too big of deal back then. He loves the stuff. Slap it on some bread, rub it on your face, and gulp it down, because Crockett seems convinced that there truly can be better living through chemistry. Despite warning readers not to eat food from pesticide-treated plants for up to 14 days (scary!), he seems quite comfortable with pesticides, some of which (see Diazinon) have been later banned by the EPA.
Crockett's pesticide evangelism aside, this is a fabulous book. Laid out by the month, instead of by plant, this book provides a nice summary of the challenges each month poses. Crockett writes with a friendly tone and never pretends to be God's gift to gardeners. His passages about his failures are perhaps the best parts of the book.
As a bonus, he has lots of pictures, all of which seem to have been shot on the set of Three's Company. While I have yet to spy my erstwhile TV buddies, Jack Tripper and Chrissy Snow, in the pictures, they are fun to look at. My fav shot is on page 182, when Crockett boils compost, not as a prank but because he wants to pasteurize it. Sweet.
In summation: this is a great book. It has loads of useful information. Skip your copy of the New York Times for a day and buy this book. Used copies go for $0.75.
