cmaw63's Full Review: Louise Riotte - Roses Love Garlic: Companion Plant...
I love roses, so when I saw this book at my local library I had to know why Roses Love Garlic. To get the specifics out of the way...I have the 20th printing edition of this book. The cover is yellow with two roses on either side and garlic bulbs in the middle. Same name and same author...just different cover than what is shown here.
Roses Love Garlic
In an A to Z look at the types of plants available to people, Louise Riotte has included a massive amount of information in this book. Not only does she include types of plants, she inserts helpful hints as well.
T: Tools- Paint the handle of your small gardening tools orange. It makes them easy to spot when laying in grass or dirt.
Different types of insects are described letting the reader know which ones are beneficial and how to get rid of the bugs that are harmful. I found out which plants will help repel aphids. I needed this information as the little buggers love my rose bushes. I will experiment this year with garlic, alliums, petunias, and others to see if they work as she says.
For plants, at times, she leans heavily on plant vendors for information. While they are helpful descriptions, my first thought was "They are in the business of selling plants, they aren't going to tell you the pitfalls of planting them."
Speaking of pitfalls...kudzu vine, while it is warned that it is the veritable "Jack & the Beanstalk" and needs to be kept in bounds, it is mentioned that it is great to prevent erosion. While, kudzu vine isn't in my area, I have been south. Can you even attempt to keep this vine in check? It covered hillsides, entire trees, telephone poles and homes. Miles of it.
Another downside to this book is, if you don't know what you're looking for, such as a plant that will repel bugs from tomatoes, you will have to read each entry to find it. Ahhh...finally, under tomato hornworm I found that borage, marigold and opal basil will turn the nasty critters away.
Now, the plus side. This book is full of useful information. I found so much that I wanted to remember that I kept a pen and paper at hand to write down the page number of the entry that I wanted to go back and look at. I learned what to plant together in a bed and what to keep apart. Best of all...I did find out why Roses Love Garlic. It fights against the dreaded disease known as black spot. Last year I had several rose bushes with this problem. This year I am going to experiment with planting garlic next to a few of them to see how effective it is.
Extra information on how to extract vitamin C from rose hips is included towards the back of the book. A tidbit I found was that some rose hips contain 20% more vitamin C than citrus fruit. Another added bonus is a short chapter on how to dry flowers and arrange them. The effects of Night Lights on Plants, Growing Wildflowers From Seed and Old Roses of Romance and Legend each have their own few pages.
Dying With Nature's Color tells how and which parts of the plant to create the dye is stated. There is an included 4 page chart that tells you which plants create what color. I found this interesting and plan on trying a few. There are even a few pages on how to Dye Easter Eggs, Naturally.
Night Bloomers for Daytime Workers and Try a Touch of Silver in Your Garden have the final 4 pages of the book.
Overall
This is a handy book for those that like to garden. While I will take some of the suggestions with a grain of salt... I am interested to see if the companion planting works. Helpful tips, such as the orange tool handles, will make my gardening time more streamlined and efficient.
I am only giving it 3 stars, though, as it doesn't warn the gardening newbie about several very invasive plants. This is a great book to start your gardening bed fellow combinations, but further investigation on each plant is warranted to make sure your house doesn't become the "beanstalk".
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