I have many gardening books but this is definatly my favorite. My copy has been used so much it is starting to fall apart. It contains excellent information on what to plant were. I would definatly recomend it.

This book has revolutionised my gardening methods. Within a year of buying it 15 years ago, my garden became healthy and productive. Riotte has taught me how to match plants which are able to protect each other from pests and diseases without the use of sprays, chemical or organic. Her methods have built an invisible wall around my garden which keeps pests confined to my neighbors' yards without crossing into mine.

Had I never read another gardening book or watched any gardening show, this book alone would have made me a successful organic gardener. I highly recommend it to beginning or advanced organic gardeners alike.

It's not as weird as it sounds. Okay, there are references to astrological connections and such, but there's also theory around water levels and tides driven by the moon.

At any rate, I have been through the Master Gardener program and tried various methods to increase yield (red plastic mulch for tomatoes...you name it, I've tried it), yet the planting scheme outlined here has created the best gardens of all. A combination of companion planting (expounded on more in Carrots Love Tomatoes and Roses Love Garlic) and planting by moon phase and sign, this guide brings great results.

I bought both of Louise Riotte's books, only to be disappointed by the fact that companion gardening is a small portion of the book. There are several other chapters on various interesting topics, but I wouldn't bill either one as a guide to companion planting.

The book is very interesting, but don't buy it if you are trying to get started in companion planting/gardening. Buy Great Garden Companions by Sally Jean Cunningham instead. You'll get much more out of it.

I love CARROTS LOVE TOMATOES-an update and revision of the original companion planting book. I used many of these ideas the summer of 1975 when I had a half acre garden. My traditional farmer neighbor laughed when I told him what I was going to do, but later in the summer when the insects devastated his vegetable patch he threatened to come over and pull up all my borage and marigolds. He had to admit I was onto something. We had a few mishaps-white and yellow corn planted to close together = polka-dot corn, but we ran beans up the stalks as Riotte suggests and it worked well. The Mexican bean beatles came to visit and stayed for dinner, but we soon learned how to control them. Marigolds in the rows and our evening search to destroy the yellow egg clusters ensured a good crop. My kids learned a great deal about "real" survival that summer and they didn't find it on tv. We had squash, melons, tomatoes, and all sorts of other vegetables, herbs, and flowers, and mixed and matched them as companion plants. At the end of the summer, I canned like crazy and made colorful jars of green beans and white and yellow corn. Everything we grew was organic and it tasted great.

Louise Riotte includes many suggestions from the first book. Topics in the new edition include vegetables, herbs, wild plants, grasses and grains, and others. Considering what is planted where is important. For example, you should not plant peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes close together or in the same container. These vegetables are related and planting them close together inhibits growth.

Matching vegetables and herbs or avoiding combinations of vegetables and herbs that inhibit each other isn't the only topic discussed in this book. Riotte says that tomato leaves can be pulped in a blender full of water and used as a spray that inhibits Black Spot on roses. Similarly, certain kinds of peppers produce a nice insect deterrent. I've grown Pyrethrum (a type of Chrysanthemum) in my garden for years. Pyrethrum has been marketed in the West as a bug repellent since at least 1828, but the Chinese are thought to have used it for perhaps 2,000 years.

The best news is that you don't have to have a half acre to become a gardener and use these ideas. Today, I live in an urban area and have a very tiny lot. I have converted the whole thing into a series of gardens, but half the yard is in shade and vegetables need sun. So, I have placed containers along the driveway in the sun and off the walkway near the patio out back. I am also using many ideas for vertical gardening. I continue to use the planting techniques Riotte suggests, including many for container planting. Compost is important-and even in urban areas you can save kitchen and garden scraps in a compost bin. Carrots may love tomatoes but roses love sh-.

Carrots Love Tomatoes has become one of my top gardening reference guides. A simple flip through the pages allows a gardener to find specific plant information and a guide to what will be it's best pest-repelling companion.

I planned our family garden using this method and continue to reap the rewards. Not only have I had few pest problems, but I planted a multitude and variety of veggies that have thrived throughout the season.

This book is a must read for all stages of vegetable gardening. We must care for our Earth and using few or no chemicals is an excellent start. Carrots Love Tomatoes will show you how.

Sleeping with a Sunflower: A Treasury of Old-Time Gardening Lore. Louise Riotte

Louise Riotte, whose popular books on companion planting Carrots Love Tomatoes and Roses Love Garlic have sold many thousands of copies, shares some of her vast knowledge of North American gardening in this 220 page book. She starts by paying tribute to the native people who taught settlers enough about growing crops to enable them to survive and she also mentions some of the well-known early farmers and gardeners, such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Quincey Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

The author has arranged her material chronologically throughout the year, but instead of naming the first chapter "January" she has chosen to use the native American name "Wolf Moon". Each month, or moon, is named for the natural events that could be relied upon - Strawberry Moon in June, Hunter's Moon in October and Cold Moon in December. In each chapter you will find gardening tales, gardening lore and gardening advice appropriate to the time of year. In January she tells the reader (among other things) about early seedsmen, about almanacs, about forcing blooms and about planting by the moon. She wraps up the month with a recipe for Oklahoma Pecan pie, made with the last of the pecans that the January wind shakes from the trees in that state.

This a book of garden wisdom dispensed in small doses - a little of this and a little of that. Scientific it is not, but it will deepen your understanding of plants, how they grow and how they can be used.

Tucked in between these pages are quotes, poems, symbolism, old wife's tales, recipes and more that keep you well entertained. Brings to mind some of the things your grandmother told you but you never quite understood why. Like why am I putting eggshells by this plant and bananna peels by this plant? This book not only tells you why but in a humerous and easy going way. This is a great book for anyone who appreciates gardening and a desire to understand the old ways.

I was a bit disappointed in this book. There were some references as to what plants complement each other, and what ones are used to repel certain insects, but those references were too few and buried deep within certain textual descriptions of various plants. Many, if not most, plant references did not even have companion planting information. Then there were the chapters referring to cosmetics, fragrances, and skin care that better belonged in a health and beauty aid book. I will be looking for a different book to supply my needs on companion planting--but this time will preview the book at a bookstore or library so I know what I am getting.

Roses Love Garlic is a great book for novice and experienced gardeners alike. For the beginning gardener, chapter 19 offers many sample garden plans for both small and large plots. The more experienced gardeners might enjoy chapters 12 and 13 which provide projects involve dried flowers and the use of natural dyes. My personal favorite is chapter 7, "Companion planting with flowers and herbs." This book is a must own for anyone interested in chemical free gardening.

Mostly touchy feely pointless antedotes. At most one page of useful information.

I found that this book would have been helpful for pond plants or if I needed a recipe to cook something I had raised in a pond, but I wanted information on keeping fish in a pond. Specifically I was interested in catfish, and silly me, I 'judged the book by its cover.' This book provides very little helpful infomation on raising pond fish as a hobby. If you're interested in spending several thousand dollars to commercially raise fish such as trout, then this book has something to offer. Otherwise don't bother.

This is a beautifully written book! It contains many whimsical anecdotes on the process of building a pond, also much practical information on plants, fish, frogs, turtles, and ducks. Having just built a pond, I found this book just the ticket. It doesn't have much about the actual digging and construction--that information is best obtained from your local Soil and Water Conservation Office. But I highly recommend this book if you're building a "real" pond (not one of those plastic pool things).