The Planet Whizbang Idea Book For Gardeners

I first came across Herrick Kimball on his Youtube videos and thought, "Man, this guy knows what he's doing." I ordered this book the next day. I have read a lot of gardening books, and this one tops them all. It's great because:---While he does devote chapters to carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, and a few others, Mr. Kimball doesn't go into a lot of details about individual plants as much as he gives you ideas on how to set up your garden and explains WHY and HOW things work so that you can logically make adjustments / substitutions based on what you have available. I realized that I have not been setting up my trellises the best way I could and plan on fixing that next year!---He is all about finding things you already have and reusing them, like forks for cultivators, tires for tiny gardens, y-shaped twigs for stakes, etc. I got so many ideas from this book. Also, there are no photographs, but line drawings instead, which are actually MUCH easier to read and interpret, and usually quite entertaining.---He includes a lot of excerpts from old almanacs from the 1800's which are full of valuable information.---He covers everything from soil amendments to composting to restoring old garden tools to making your own solar pyramids.... each with its own chapter so it's easy to navigate.I am so glad I have my own copy of this book! It is full of information, but is never overwhelming; I read it cover to cover in a weekend. It will be used for years to come! A big thank you from deep East Texas, Mr. Kimball!

I very much like this how to book of inspiration. Kimball's ideas and historical approach to gardening is one of a kind. I bought the book because I wanted to know about carrots and his tri growing technique. I read the whole book and some sections twice. The part about weeding and the hoe I found most interesting. I really enjoyed the quotes and historical approach; after all gardening is not new.Kimball asked in his book for a favorable review and I would have given 5 stars except for the layout of the book and that it's not digital. I use kindle almost exclusively to read and do not enjoy having to order, wait , and then carry around a bound book. If this book was better printed, in color, or digital it would have had 5 stars. And for the price home printing with smudged words is not acceptable.Great ideas and a cool book

Great book packed with interesting and innovative ideas to help you in the garden. I learned a lot and I've been gardening for years. The soil remineralization chapter was particularly helpful and interesting to me. He also included lot of old, tried and true gardening wisdom from the pages of the Farmer's Almanac, and other similar sources from many decades ago.Buy this, you'll be glad you did.Also, be sure to check out his YouTube channel: Herrick KimballHe continues to innovate and experiment. And in ways that every gardener can learn from.

This is probably one of the best gardening books I have come across. Very well written and illustrated with lots of wonderful ideas that anyone can implement simply and cheaply. I recommend it highly. The following from the table of contents seem particularly commendable:How to Make a Whizbang T-Post Trellis Span (make your own grape trellis easily)How to String-Trellis Tomatos (no more tomato cages, yeah!!)Bush-Planting Raspberries (so simple --love it. Check out noursefarms.com for many great raspberry varieties)Homemade Seed EnvelopesA Primer on Gardening in TiresHow to Steam-Fryalize CmpostAn Introduction to Soil RemineralizationAn Introduction to Brix and Brix TestingUpdated Review:I have recently set up two grape vine trellises and two vegetable trellises. These are attractive and function quite well. In the process, here are some things I learned: The 10' EMT pole really is ten feet long and can be hard to transport in a car. My local Home Depot, Plumbing Section was able to cut the pipe for me (you specify how much; price was around $1.50) For the grape trellises, I had two feet cut off and was able to transport the 8' poles pretty easily in my Honda CRV hatchback (pole ran the length of the car but I had no passengers -- I transported only one pole at a time). For the vegetable trellis, I had the 10' pole cut in half (two 5' poles) and was able to transport both in the car in one trip. I had to search a few Home Depots before finding the 7' metal stakes (check online) but was worth the look. All of the ones I found were quite dented so when staking in the ground, I checked placement with a leveling aid to minimize the sway. The use of a metal pounder (as opposed to a staking bar) is very helpful when pounding in the 7' stakes. (Kencove.com offers a steel post pounder for sale). In terms of attaching the EMT pole to the metal stakes, I found that the pole fit much more snugly with the so called "grape trellis connector" than the "Y" connectors (The designation "grape connector " is a bit of a misnomer because there is nothing inherent about that connector that requires it to be used for a grape trellis -- could be used on vegetable trellises too). The #9 gauge wire specified for the grape trellises is very heavy and doesn't pull taunt. In Home Depot, Hardware aisle, I found a 1/16" vinyl coated wire rope on a roll (galvanished finish, load limit 96 lbs) to work much better. I planted one grapevine per trellis (right smack in the middle) and attached the vines to the wires using a soft velcro plant tape. I found that 4 wires on a grapevine trellis spaced about 12" apart to work well (run wires through holes of metal stakes and secure to sides using pulleys)Check out Trellis Netting by Red Earth Naturals for use with vegetable trellises -- sold on Amazon and elsewhere

I bought this book based on the recommendation of my gardening guru, David the Good. I was not disappointed! It's full of ideas to make gardening easier, more fruitful, and fun. Plus, the seller added some extra whimsy to make this package a joy to open! When I finally got some down-time to read during a recent power outage, this is the book I grabbed (with all of its sidebars of wisdom from generations past, it seemed appropriate) and was glad I had it to turn to. Thank you, Mr. Kimball, for your WhizBang contribution to gardening know-how.

A delightful read!Packed full of “how to” information for gardening and building little projects. I especially appreciate the fun excerpts planted throughout the book. Very engaging!

Its quirky but not really about gardening. I have gardened fror40 years and cant really find anything in here that's really made me think .Sorry to be negative but if you are really keen on gardening I can't recommend that you buy this despite what it says on AMAZON.com.