Reviews for Ornamental Grasses for the Western Garden

The average rating for Ornamental Grasses for the Western Garden based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-11-08 00:00:00 Michael Mack Ed Engle enjoys fly-fishing and especially bamboo rods. His appreciation for the rod builder and the finished product is clear and present throughout this book. You learn as much about the rod builder as you do about their finely crafted rods in each chapter. Engle's treatment is exactly right here . you can't consider one without the other. But you should realize the chapters are written much less as a critique and more of a celebration of the rod and its maker. Each of the chapters of Splitting Cane derives from magazine articles the author wrote for Anglers Journal. An apparent boilerplate is used to create many of the chapters. It goes something like this: "I meet rod maker XYZ through a friend of a friend. He sent me a rod to cast. I tested it out on the lawn in front of my house. It casted.... So, Mr. XYZ how did you get into building bamboo rods, etc." The last five chapters of the book provide solid references from where the raw material is grown to how to get started building bamboo rods. In general, the publisher, editor, and author missed the mark. To imagine a book without any color photos of the actual bamboo rods seems wrong . almost criminal. Instead the author serves up fairly sober descriptions of the rods appearance in page after page of text. No, the only color image you'll get of a bamboo rod length is on the jacket cover of this book. What a shame, I really wanted to like Splitting Cane. But imagine an art book (and yes, bamboo rods combine art and function) without any photos of the artists' works. The result is similar. To quote from one of the rod makers in the book: "Rods not only have to be functional, they almost have to be works of art." -- Jeff Wagner.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-09-30 00:00:00 Andrij Usztan Niles District residents Jill Singleton and Kris Sandoe researched and authored many of the plant descriptions in this beautiful plant book produced to encourage water wise gardening by the Water Conservation Department at EBMUD. If you are looking for a plant book that will help you with your Fremont or East Bay Garden, this one should be on your coffee table and you should have a second copy for your potting shed! Nelson Kirk, local Big-Tree-Guy extraordinare and long time landsacpe professional for Fremont and Union City municipalities confirmed Jill and Kris' research regarding localization in the East Bay for many of the plants described here. Looking for a little water-wise inspriation? You've come to the right place!