The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping: Home Landscaping with Food-Bearing Plants and Resource-Saving Techniques

Happy with the condition of the book. A great book for anyone considering using edible plants in their home landscape.

I was a little skeptical of purchasing this book based on a few reviews here - suffice to say the book exceeded my expectations. True, it is an older book but the information is still good. The thumbnail info on size of plants, what they can be used for, how to grow them, certain things they need and so forth enables planning for even plants not previously grown. The photographs as well as artists sketchings gives a visual idea of what combining fruit/nut trees, flowers and vegetables looks like in various ways. The use of containers both large and small, raised beds and other methods of planting gives a variety of looks and possibility. Love the idea of a floating deck around trees! The warnings of some plants, such as bamboo, spreading as well as suggestions on using the plants grown are a starting point, but a good one. Possible miss on some things, such as the availability of bush cherries for those not wanting cherry trees; but those are few. There's enough information to adequately plan, to fit plants into the budget and allow for adding more later and to plant and make use of "wasted space" for the average person capable of reading, comprehending and following suggestions. A bit dated it's true but still a lot of great information and well worth the money. If you're buying one book on the subject this would be a good one, with a great deal of information, to start with!

Being in a rural area and living on a small family farm, we aren't overly concerned with decorative landscaping. We try to make every inch of our property productive and useful. Apart from the fields and pastures in use for livestock, we have allotted a small area for produce on our property. Within the 1.5 acres surrounding our farmhouse, we have made allowance of space for a vegetable garden (based upon the concepts of Edward C. Smith in his book titled "The Vegetable Gardener's Bible" and an orchard that adheres to the philosophy found in Patrick Whitefield's book titled "How to Make a Forest Garden". With the ideas found in this book, "The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping", we are now planning to landscape with a conscience and purpose aside from simple aesthetics. We are delighted with the information provided to serve as a foundation for our planning. We have given the 4 star review based upon the fact that this book hasn't been revised for nearly 25 years and could certainly benefit from more current data. And, we would always like to see more color photographs and illustrations to complement the text.