BOOK REVIEW   by Lynda Pelletier,  The Edmonton Sun. April 18 1999

No nonsense, no-frill approach
Reading The Rusty Rake Gardener is like listening to two old friends share their expertise while the three of you visit on the verandah on a warm summer day sipping lemonade.

Award-winning
Written by award-winning gardeners and husband and wife team David and Cathy Cummins (with literary assistance from John Lawrence Reynolds), The Rusty Rake Gardener is an excellent, superbly written guide for those people who want a beautiful garden but don't want to spend a small lifetime maintaining it.

Whether you are a fledgling horticulturist of expert gardener, you will glean something useful from the authors' no nonsense, no-frills approach to the art of gardening.  The book's 174 plus pages comprise 12 chapters covering garden plot planning, to plants that need pampering, to tools and everything in between.  Layout and type style, combined with the writers' knack for conversational prose, make for an effortless read.

Humorous
Another refreshing attribute of The Rusty Rake Gardener is the authors' generous use of humour.  Chapters are peppered with relevant and often hilarious anecdotes like It's his story and he's sticking to it where Cathy relays her husband's insistence that "Tool Fairies" are responsible for his missing gardening utensils.

Another priceless story follows the Cummins' "raccoon Vs the corn patch" saga in And on the seventh day, the raccoons feasted.  Acting on friendly advice, the couple hooked up a radio in their yard, hoping it would keep the critter away.  Cathy writes "Dave wanted the tape deck playing an endless Barry Manilow cassette form dusk to dawn, but we feared being charged with excessive cruelty to animals."

Despite it's jocularity and casual tone, The Rusty Rake Gardener is chock-full of great ideas , tips and commentary on environmental issues.