Product Description

Imagine savoring the taste of your own homegrown tomato, fresh from the vine, in February! How about harvesting fresh organic salad greens year-round, or stepping into a blossom-laden tropical paradise on the coldest of winter days? Today, greenhouses and sunrooms are real living spaces where gardeners spend as much time with a book and a cup of coffee as they do with a watering can and a pair of pruning shoes. In this fully revised edition of a best-selling classic, veteran gardener Shane Smith embraces this new lifestyle approach to greenhouse gardening.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6360 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

From Publishers Weekly
There's something refreshing about a gardening book that doesn't start out with soil. Smith ( The Bountiful Solar Greenhouse ) puts off the nitty-gritty subject until chapter nine. In the meantime, he covers such subjects as vegetables, flowers and herbs, light and temperature, ground beds and containers, and crop spacing and scheduling. This is not a complicated book; the operative word for it is "companion." And while some of the advice is rather elementary, it does lead the reader painlessly through the steps and requirements of owning and gardening in a greenhouse. Undoubtedly, Smith's role as a lecturer and host of a radio gardening show has also inspired him to write in terms simple enough for beginners. His saving grace is a quiet sense of humor that's evident throughout the book--from his warnings about weather to his "biased opinion of hydroponics." When Smith does get around to soil, he goes at it from the point of view of providing plants with a healthy root system--covering soil pH and nutrients and organic soil amendments in beds and pots. The extensive final chapter is devoted to everything that can go wrong--i.e., pests and diseases, for which Smith recommends mostly organic and biologic controls. As he points out, a "greenhouse or sunroom garden is probably the closest garden you'll ever live with." This is a book to live with. Illustrated. Garden Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The director of Cheyenne Botanic Gardens and author of The Bountiful Solar Greenhouse ( LJ 4/15/82) has produced a practical, comprehensive guide to making the most of any greenhouse or garden room. Addressing almost every aspect except the actual construction, Smith covers the greenhouse environment (light, humidity, temperature), interior design (plant placement, fans, drainage), individual plants and their propagation, pollination, growth, and scheduling for flower or fruit production. There are chapters on problems, diseases, and insects, and lists of associations, mail-order suppliers, and sun averages during the year across the country. As a Wyoming gardener, he puts a good deal of emphasis on using the greenhouse in summer as well as in winter, but this is a useful, practical guide for readers in most of the continental United States.
- Molly Newling, Piscataway P.L., N.J.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ingram
An environmentally friendly sourcebook that is actually two books in one, providing everything the gardener needs to know about setting up a healthy growing environment within a sunspace, plus a complete guide to growing flowers, vegetables and herbs in the greenhouse. Veteran greenhouse gardener Shane Smith is the author of The Bountiful Solar Greenhouse. Two color; line illustrations.

Customer Reviews

Great way to start learning about greenhouses
This is really a reference book. I can't imagine anyone reading it cover to cover. For me, the first 90 pages on green house design and operation were exactly what I needed. In the middle, there are 170 pages of commentary, organized by plant, in which the author makes witty and pointed comments on the utility of growing the specific plant in a green house. For example, on Avocados, he writes: "Before you get excited about homegrown guacamole fresh from your greenhouse, I need to tell you that avocados are difficult to get to produce fruit in a greenhouse." On banana, he states: "Bananas are worth growing solely for the tropical look they bring to a sunspace, and you can also get a harvest from your banana."

Throughout the other 200 pages, Smith offers guidance (and opinions) on just about everything you might want to know regarding green house gardening. For example, he has his own favorite composting technique and cannot get excited about hydroponics. He is excited about manual pollination techniques, though. He likes to have fun in his greenhouse, and his enthusiasm is contagious.

(...)

great book for beginners
This is a great book for some one who needs the basics on gardening. I found the first 126 pages full of good info on setting up a greenhouse, but got to mention over 25 picture from a greenhouse supply catalog that I all ready got free.. the next 50 pages on propagation didn't have any thing on air layering or some other fun ways of growing plants. Its (air layering) the best way to start many plants. The next 125 pages is used to describe lots of flowers and vegetables, already in most good gardening books. The section on insects is very good and is worth the cost of this book. But the biggest problem I have with this otherwise well wrote book, is the negetive comments about hydroponics. The author does not seem to know of the latest fun growing methods that most greenhouse growers would like to dabble in. There are organic hydroponic fertilizers or you can make them. Growing hydroponic vegges does not have to be done the expensive set ups that some commercial growers use. Most large growers are using a very simple method that anyone can use. The directory had no surprises, alittle small. Do get this book if you no very little about gardening. A great first gardening book.

Great
One of the best Greenhouse books out there!