Today, I just started reading "Backyard Winter Gardening" by Caleb Warnock. So far, I am less than pleased because the book reads more like an op-ed submission to a newspaper than a non-fiction gardening book. I've decided to review each chapter to preserve my own sanity. There is nothing more frustrating then reading something full of conjecture that is presented as fact.
Chapter 1: 9 reasons to read this book and 6 you might not have considered
First of all, reviewing scientific literature requires a thorough literature search of peer-reviewed research from reputable sources. Peer-reviewed research means that a researcher submitted the article to a scientific journal and one of the editors from that journal sent it to several recognized leaders in that specific subject area to review and critique the experimental design, analysis of the data,and the conclusions based on that data. First of all, a major discussion of irradiation of foods is backed by only one citation. Second, it is presented as a citation from a scientific journal. Physics Today is a popular magazine and from what I've read about it, there is no peer-review process for submitting articles to the magazine. This is not the only topic that is discussed in the chapter that utterly lacks a balanced, informed treatment.
One week later . . .
This book is chock full of shameless self-promotion. The final straw was when the author stated that he was renaming a lettuce variety, a quite famous one, because he had saved the seed after growing it for multiple winter seasons. Most growers when they have selected a line from the original variety, will give credit to the original variety and add just a few letters or numbers at the end of the variety name to identify their selection. The over-zealous claims continue that he is the sole varietal tester for a federal government germplasm source. What???? And to top it all off, the author lists himself as a seed source before the Seed Savers Exchange.
Aside from the self-promotion, this book is poorly written. The explanation of hot beds lacks any warning of food-borne illnesses when using fresh animal manure until the last page of the chapter. In addition, it fails to give a thorough treatment of other winter growing methods. My recommendation is to buy a book by Eliot Coleman, a recognized authority on four-season vegetable production.
Do yourself a favor, don't purchase this book. I will be gladly returning this book to the library after reading only half of it. It is a book dominated by self-promotion and personal opinion not sound-gardening advice and information.
