The Book of Weeds by Kenneth Thompson

by Ken Thompson

Finally, from the author of "Compost," fascinating information and advice on handling weeds - how to recognize them, how to control them, and how to exploit them. The first step is to know your enemy, so weeds are identified and the survival strategies of various types is explained to enable you to get rid of them more easily. Finally, an explanation of what makes a plant a weed, and what makes it a useful or even critical part of the garden ecosystem.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published March 16, 2009

Reviews

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the author’s gentle humour and found out quite a bit. Really desperate to find an easy way to remove the bindweed which has infiltrated my garden from the neighbouring garden.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about the battle with weeds, with practical (and non herbicidal) advice, and just plain fun to read. It's obvious this guy is an experienced gardener.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haha, well I’m more often pro-weed. Liked the layout, thought it was funny how so many weeds have “silver linings” that make them sound quite useful. But I would like a little less creeping thistle in my life.

[Clivemichael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining text and good photos for ID.

[Bobby Jo Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little disappointing. The book is mostly pictures, so it OK for identification purposes. But every weed is eradicated in pretty much the same way: hand pulling.

[Emma Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

'The Book of Weeds' follows a pattern that will be familiar to anyone who has read a book on weeds – it tries to define what a weed is, then goes through techniques for keeping them under control or eradicating them and then goes on to describe some of the worst offenders. Unusually, it covers aquatic and pond weeds as well as terrestrial ones.

Ken Thompson’s experience and entertaining writing style come out most strongly in the first section – defining what makes a weed a weed and how plants spread, with snippets of his own struggles with weeds in his back garden. He explains why it is all but impossible to rid yourself of some weeds, especially dandelions and other weeds that spread by wind-borne seeds.

He touches on plant fashions, seedling identification, green manures and coming to terms with your weeds.

The Rogues’ Gallery shows you some of the most common weeds, which means that you’re likely to be able to identify the ones in your garden without wading through photos of every plant that is a weed in the British Isles. The high quality photos have enabled me to identify a couple of my weeds that I wasn’t sure about, for example.

For each rogue weed, there is information about why it is so weedy, details of how to eradicate it and interesting snippets of information or humour. I like the page on bindweed: “All bindweeds have attractive flowers, but is it best to admire them in someone else’s garden.“

At the back of the book there is a short list of useful addresses and books, and a decent index. Throughout, Ken Thompson’s scientific background comes to the fore and all the plants are referenced by their latin names as well as their common ones.

All-in-all, this would be a nice book to have on your bookshelf. It’s not preachy, and it doesn’t encourage you to live with your weeds, or to try and eat them. It’s not a definitive guide to weeds and wild plants, but if you’re a gardener trying to keep on top of the weeding in your garden then you should find it both informative and entertaining.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim, and it turned out not to be very valuable. First of all, the relatively short ID section is all about common British weeds, which doesn't really help me atm. The even shorter intro body text is almost insulting void of content. His advice for dealing with weeds is essentially just to weed diligently, plant cover crops and fill up the space, and use smothering tactics like mulch, gravel, and fabrics. That's all well and good - probably as good of a strategy as I could come up with - but it's not very interesting as a book (because it is not expanded substantially beyond the mere statement of those ideas). He proclaims his opinion that, while weeds have some benefits and it's healthier for us to not stress out too much trying to keep a 100% weed free garden, there are almost always companion plants that do the beneficial aspects of weeds better (soil cover, associational resistance, attracting beneficial insects). He seems to scorn the idea of eating them a bit, though this seems silly - I've done a fair amount of wild edible harvesting this spring, and it's become quite clear that harvesting and eating weeds has little bearing on their survival. If you want to eat them before you hoe, go for it; if not, just kill them. They are apparently very, very nutritious.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those small colorful books which will be memorable that it introduced me to flame weeders. http://www.pesticide.org/pubs/alts/we...

Fire and Gardening!

I hope some day to be able to tell the difference between the things I'm trying to grow and weeds.

Read in one night.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

The catchy title caught my eye, but I found the book to be a little boring. For some reason most of the weeds I was used to pulling did not make the cut for this book. The author seemed to say the same thing over and over, use a hoe while the weeds were small.

It did have good pictures and scientific names.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

I probably would not have checked out this book from the library if I had known that it was about weeds in Great Britain.

It is interesting to note the difference between the weeds there and the weeds here.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm using this book to help me identify weeds as they pop up. The author speaks with an unexpected sense of humor.

[Ruthann Bender]

Quote: "Cultivate such virtues as determination, persistence, thoroughness, and - especially unfashionable these days- patience..." p74

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

good but doesn't mention anything about the huge garden problem ivy.