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5 comments about Cinder Block Gardens.

1. I bought this book after a friend told me about it. I skimmed it at her house briefly and then I ordered a book for myself. After reading about it, I was excited. I have never had a garden before and Mrs. GIllespie made it sound so simple. Build a raised bed with cinder blocks, then put in the special soil mixture she recommends and plant. You will have a garden that will produce more than if you just use the natural soil or your area.

   Well, I spent over $300 on a five unit garden. I even called the author and talked to her about her "soil mixture". Because when calling around for the different elements for the soil mixture, I had the people at different nursuries tell me they had something better, so I called and asked if I could use what the nurseries already had pre-made. This would have saved me eight hours of mixing the soil which consists of peat moss, sand and compost. Well Mrs. Gillespie said "If you don't do the soil mix, then you might as well throw the whole book out." Thus I decided to go ahead and make my own soil mixture according to her specifications in the book. Not having ever had a garden before I didn't know what I needed and the book wasn't specific enough. The peat moss and sand were easy to get and not worry about, but the compost was a different story. I bought compost, but only realize now that it was not the type of compost she proably uses. The compost I bought was basically mulch from last year that had composted over the winter and the nursery now called compost. But being new to gardening I didn't realize I probably needed manure compost instead. Thus I am 2 1/2 months into my garden and my plants are not producing hardly anything. My husband who planted a garden by hoeing up a portion of our back yard is producing a ton more produce than my raised bed garden with the magic soil mix.

   I am very disappointed. I think that the book has a good idea with using cinderblocks for a raised bed, and that her illustrations of how many things can fit into each unit of the garden it good. However, she needed to be more specific on the type of compost and not so adament that the soil mixture is the ultimate. I could have spent a little bit more on a mixture that probably would have been excellent but since she told me on the phone that the soil mix was the point of the whole book I passed it up to try her mixture.

   The book does have some good ideas but dependinding on your geographical location, some of what she says may or may not be accurate. Obviously, the soil that I have in my back yard is better than the soil mix in my cinder block garden. So, if you do the soil mixture make sure you get good compost...




2. I've been gardening for a number of years but have never tried raised bed gardening. This book has inspired me to not only try raised beds, but to do it with cinder blocks. The authors introduction and logic about using cinder blocks as opposed to other materials makes a lot of sense.
   
   The books reads very easily. I especially like the unit approach and the cost estimates per unit and the yield estimates per unit. Very clever and practical.
   
   I must admit that I skipped through parts of the book. The section on soil and pests didn't interest me because I'm not planning to plant such a diverse number of crops. I plan to plant primarily strawberries (not mentioned in the book).
   
   I would recommend that beginners read this book to get ideas and to get their thought processes working. It's not an expensive book but I believe I got my money's worth with ideas I gleaned from a couple hours of reading and hopefully I won't make as many mistakes on my first time out with cinder block raised beds.
   Mike



3. I just recieved the book today. It really is great. I was thinking of buying one of those plastic board raised bed kits but those are really expensive. With Lynn's way I can make more units with cinder blocks than I could with just a plastic raised bed.The soil mixture on one part, sand, peat moss, compost is a perfect blend. I am going to take her advice and have the bulk sand and compost delivered to save me even more money. I will have the lumber yard deliver the blocks also.Take her advice and buy the professional weed barrier cloth for under the beds and also the pathways. I am going to use pea gravel for the walkways. I am a disabled lady and I can once again get into my passion for gardening.I also will do this organically, now if I just could raise chickens or a nice Guernsey cow in her raised bed system, I would be self sufficient for food.



4. I purchased this book as just another gardening tool, but after reading it, it just made sense, so...I convinced my husband to spend the $$ required for the cinder blocks and we built 3 beds. I got a very late start and planted about 3-4 weeks after I should have, and all I can tell you is that my produce it amazing! It's only mid August and we've had tomatoes, radishes, corn, zucchini, potatoes, lettuce, basil, peppers, cilantro spinach, romaine, etc... My tomatoes are 3-4 inches in diameter and turning red. We used the formula for the soil in the book and the drainage is awesome, we had flood conditions in the beginnning of July here, I didn't have to worry that my plants were sitting in the wet and rotting, they had just enough. We did use a very well composted (almost 2 years) horse manure for the compost. My husband was a doubter and now he's building me 6 more beds this fall for next years garden. I have herniated disks in my back, which is why this was appealing to me at first due to the factor that you can sit on the edge and weed. I spend less than 10 minutes a week weeding though. (A well composted manure will have less weed seeds due to the heat involved in the composting process kills the seeds.) We live in an area that is nothing but rocks and clay. Every year we would put $300-400 in our soil trying to improve it to no avail, I finally gave up. Now, this is the most pleasure I've ever had gardening. Not having to water where you walk is a time saver also and not walking where youve planted makes this concept a true winner!



5. I would love to say that I bought this book and it is wonderful and I have an abundant garden now, however, at $51.00 for a USED, 200+ page, PAPERBACK book, and over $100 for a NEW PAPERBACK book, these sellers are absolutely insane! I will absolutely NOT buy this book!! These sellers have to be crazy!!! "Search Inside" view the back cover, bottom right hand corner, oh what is that? Is that the suggested retail price? This is a $15.00 book!!!! Does the author of the book come and plant the garden for you? Does it come with several pallets of cinder block to build your garden?? It should at these prices for this book!!

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