Reviews for A Weed by Any Other Name: The Virtues of a Messy Lawn, or Learning to Love the Plants We Don't Plant

The average rating for A Weed by Any Other Name: The Virtues of a Messy Lawn, or Learning to Love the Plants We Don't Plant based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-08-20 00:00:00 Jeremy Ruiz This is a collection of lovely essays combining science, personal stories about graduate school research on weeds, motherhood, and gardening and home (actually, yard) ownership. Gift makes many cogent points, and I wish her book were better known. If you liked Michael Pollan's essays on gardening ("Second Nature"), then you'll probably like this book. Also, if Gift doesn't convince you to stop putting pesticides on your lawn, nothing will.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-10-21 00:00:00 Andrew Chugg This wasn't really worth the effort. The book is divided into four sections representing the different seasons, with each chapter discussing a weed that is prominent during the corresponding time of year. Unfortunately, this was less about the weeds themselves and more about a) the author's opinion of weeds, b) musings about what her opinion about weeds says about herself and others, c) pesticide manufacturers and the inner turmoil she has endured for caving into the easy approach to poison ivy control* (aka Roundup), and d) the scientific accuracy of plant flowering and pollination as portrayed in the Seinfeld vehicle Bees. (Ok, that last one is kind of a throw-away, but it was at about that point that I realized this was a lost cause.) Aside from the cover page for each season the book is devoid of any pictures or drawings, which would have been helpful in identifying which of the myriad plants in my yard she was talking about. Other than a recipe for dandelion wine and something she refers to as camp pesto, there is little information regarding the usefulness of any of the plants discussed. While there are some interesting tidbits sprinkled throughout, you really have to...dare I say it...weed them out (ba-doom, ching!)I gave up when I hit Fall and just skimmed the remaining chapters. *To be clear, I have a yard full of weeds, I'm generally opposed to the use of the fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides necessary for the archetypal suburban lawn, and I'll be happy if I can get moss, clover and some other attractive (to me, at least) low-maintenance low-growing *weeds* to take over. BUT, when it comes to poison ivy my position is: spray the fucker and be done with it. I tried the pull-and-dispose method one season and while it resulted in a slightly thinner crop the following year mostly what I got for my efforts was a rash. I've got too many other home and yard maintenance challenges on the list for me to spend multiple seasons donning full hazmat gear in an attempt to eradicate this particular scourge.