W. E. Shewell-Cooper (1900–1982)

There's not a lot I can favourably say about this book; it's not bad, but it doesn't exactly excel either.

Common sense and your eyes would indicate if your rock placement is ugly and/or hideously unstable. The plant guide is helpful but not something you can't find elsewhere and whilst the ideals on implementation of secondary water features within the rock garden is mostly good it does contain the laughable suggestion of merely adding a water tap at the top of a slope and turning it on to have a stream... leaving it running spring, summer, autumn, but not winter - because that would be silly to have it on in winter.

Well written and easy to read but the substance of the content lets the book down. A massive departure from the quality of work seen in Shewell-Cooper's 'Soils'.… (mehr)

Wilfred Shewell-Cooper was a founding member of the well known UK Soil Association along with Lady Eve Balfour and Sir Albert Howard. In this book he shares the accumulated knowledge of organic & sensible farming he has gained through his career (lecturer, teacher, editor, etc) and through his associates at the soil association.

Whilst relatively short at 160 pages this should not give the impression the book is light on material or knowledge. It is in fact one of the better books I have read on soil management and composting. It also features information on lawn keeping & pasture.

All in all a rather handy little volume. It is part of the 1950's 'The ABC of Gardening Series'.… (mehr)

This is a gardening book written to enhance the publishing profile of the author. Publish or perish, eh? This author,Dr. W.E. Shewell-Cooper "internationally celebrated gardening expert" is a university trained agricultralist who probally was asked by his neighbor to offer some advice growing beets or something and the good "Doctor" decided to become a "home gardening expert" for the
ignoramuses he met every day.
There is nothing is this book you don't already know or need to know. Here is how you can tell a gardening book is full of B.S.:

Look at the photographs: In this book you only see photos of "serfs"
doing the labor. The author, Doctor Whats-His-Face never handled a shovel in his life. Heaven forbid! He is no gardener and shouldn't be writing about gardening. In some of the photographs the "gardener" is wearing a necktie. You try gardening wearing a necktie. It ain't done.

Read the text: Not an original thought anywhere. The "Doctor" copied the backs of seed packets or something. His instructions
include you using arcane equipment such as rhubarb forcing pots made of terra-cotta, building compost piles that sit for YEARS
and are SLICED like cake when finally employed. This is old 1890's
university garden theory writ again, and again, again.

Avoid this book and it's ilk. Don't waste your money buying this junk. Get "The New Organic Gardener" or "Gardening in Hard Times".… (mehr)