Book Review “Coffee For Roses by C.L. Fornari

Coffee for Roses

…and 70 other Misleading Myths About Backyard Gardening

By C.L. Fornari

 Coffee for Roses, …and 70 other Misleading Myths About Backyard Gardening, by C. L. Fornari, St. Lyons press, Pittsburg 2014: 146 pages. Reviewed by Kenneth Wilson “The Gardening Whisperer”.

This review is prepared to be on www.Gadeneningwhisperer.com  C.L. Fornari is a writer, speaker, radio show host, and an avid plant person and blogger. She has written and talked about myths within the gardening and horticulture lore. Many of these myths have been passed along for a number of years. As see on pg. 88 “News Paper in 1913, Reports that Department of Agriculture’s bureau of soils was evaluating the loggerhead sponge for use as fertilizer”.

As Fornari takes seventy (70) myths or sayings that have been entrenched the gardener’s bag of tricks she explores with modern logic and science on these myths to see their accuracy.   Many of these have been handed down since the 1890s. Fornari has taken documentation from newspapers and books example pg. 25 a quote by “Samuel Parsons. Jr., 1895” on using space for growing vegetables in flower gardens to show how far back these myths have been in trenched in gardening.

Gardening and horticulture are not an exact science and as people have success with a notion they soon relied on those outcomes as truths. Fornari reviles the facts about these myths with modern science and modern logic, this does not make them true nor should they be followed. She has taken seventy (70) common sayings or advice that are used to help people advance their yards and gardens. Using humor, facts and her many years of gardening she has put a new light on to these recommendations. Of the 70 she has changed or at least altered these truths. Gardening is not a precise science and there are many ways to accomplish the same goals, Fornari has given us new insight into old ideas.

This book is a must-read for all that give advice to others about gardening, it also makes you think about what you are saying and what are your facts you use. Tucked into this book are other gardening tips that are as important as the myth-busting. I left the book wondering if there are more than seventy (70) myths and why she chose only these and is there another book pending.

©Ken Wilson Gardening Whisperer 2015 This entry was posted in Book Reviews and tagged Book Reviews, C.L. Fornari, Gardening, Horticulture Myths, Horticulture tips on April 14, 2015, by Ken Wilson. Edit