Notes from The Virginia Gardener

Vol II
edited by Diane Relf

Like the first volume, Notes from The Virginia Gardener, Vol II contains a bunch of tips and ideas on gardening. It's easy to read and I skimmed through both volumes fairly quickly, jotting down lots of notes. Some of the information is repetitive, not only shared between the two volumes but often repeated within the same one several times. I must have read about wiping dust off houseplant leaves five times! My favorite tips from this volume were instructions on how to make your own biodegradable seedling pots from newspaper or brown paper bags, and some novel ideas for deer repellent. I've read before about using hot pepper sauce, hanging strong-smelling bars of soap in trees, or (of course) fencing. But this volume also suggests applying lion or tiger manure! (Isn't manure from carnivores bad for the garden? and where would you get it from?) or mixing a dozen rotten eggs into five gallons of water, which will spray an acre. The booklet says it "emits enough odor to repel deer, but not offend the gardener." What about the person mixing the rotten eggs into the bucket? I can't imagine any way of plugging my nose to make the stench from twelve to eighteen rotten eggs bearable!

As with the previous volume, I really liked the illustrations, which look like they come from publications at the turn of the century. Many show farming tools and implements (horse-pulled lawn mower, anyone?) or different varieties of things like cucumbers and corn.

Rating: 3/5 ........ unpaged, ?