Gardening

From flowers and foliage to ferns and grasses, learn to create the perfect garden with the best perennials. This handy format offers experts, practical advice and inspiration.

America's Garden Book There are very few garden books that have lasted like America's Garden Book--and with good reason. Since its first edition in 1939, the book has been specifically geared to North American backyard, do-it-yourself gardeners and their particular needs. The Plants More than 3,000 plant recommendations are listed throughout the book. Chapters devoted to specific types of plants go one step further, offering multiple listings based on the particular merit and special growing habits of certain plants. Appropriate plants for every garden situation are offered from disease-resistant climbing roses, water lilies for pond gardens, or rock garden plants. The Techniques There are instructions for constructing various paths, walls, steps, and grading structures. Detailed plans are included for naturalizing a prairie, constructing compost bins, and arranging indoor lighting systems. The Photography More than 1,000 photographs illustrate everything from more than 60 roses to the step-by-step of dividing a lily root clump. Each chapter contains scores of identification photographs to help the home gardener choose the ideal plants for the garden.

Expert advice from a trusted name in gardening. Get the solutions to your gardening problems from the American Horticultural Society's Practical Guides! Select from this ever-growing library of titles for the best gardening advice on plants and plant care, garden design, and garden construction. Low-Maintenance Gardening Includes: Planning your garden -- analyzing your requirements and the garden site in order to choose low-maintenance options for the design; easy-care plants and features. Garden plans -- a selection of six garden designs chosen to show formal and informal styles; a family garden; an hour-a-week garden. Essential know-how: illustrated guide to preparing the site; surveying your plot; making a plan; low-maintenance gardening techniques; basic pruning; safety tips. Plant catalog -- an illustrated selection of attractive, low-maintenance plants.

Jackson & Perkins is the leading brand of roses in America. Through years of development, Jackson & Perkins now offers roses that have characteristics that allow gardeners to enjoy roses without all the maintenance requirements.

Jackson & Perkins Beautiful Roses Made Easy is available in regional editions and explains how roses can now be easy to grow and enjoy in any part of the country.

Some gardeners have avoided roses assuming that they were too tricky, fussy, and difficult to grow. This book will help gardeners identify the roses that are easy to grow in their region of the country, and also give tips on how to care for and maintain them.

Through six regional editions, Jackson & Perkins Beautiful Roses Made Easy explains how breeding and testing provide modern-day roses that are much easier to grow, with better results.

Regional editions give readers specific information on growing conditions in their area and the best roses for those conditions.

Classic Garden Style is all about the decorative, ornamental details that make a garden an extension of the home-an additional room with a variety of purposes. The book begins with a wide variety of containers and supports, including urns, terra cotta pots, zinc containers, trellises, pergolas, and other visual devices you can use to add height and depth to any garden space. Every garden needs a place to sit, and garden furniture-from table and chair sets to hammocks, settees, folding chairs, and other elements that invite seating, reclining, or entertaining-are covered in detail. Accessories of a practical nature come next. The items highlighted here, from birdbaths, baskets, cloches, and greenhouses to watering cans, lamps, and more, have some practical use in the garden in addition to adding visual interest. Strictly ornamental elements inject a sense of whimsy or art into the garden and range from garden gnomes to obelisks, statues, and fountains.
This book catalogues many different types of ornament and decoration you can use to transform an ordinary garden into an exciting and comfortable outdoor room that extends the living space of your home.
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"Packed with planting and design ideas that will transform even the humblest of pots into a flower festival."
--Doug Jimerson, Editor in Chief, Garden Escape, www.garden.com

"Who better to turn to for everything you need to know about container culture than a guy who has 'been there, done that' for a careerful of years?"
--Joseph F. Williamson, Former Garden Editor and Managing Editor, Sunset Magazine

While historical reports of container gardening go back thousands of years, over the last half-century, this unique form of husbandry has blossomed into a pastime enjoyed by hobbyists worldwide. Millions have discovered the immense satisfaction to be found in growing something beautiful, in creating interesting combinations of plants, experimenting with new plants, and getting to know plants more intimately than they ever could with plants in the ground.

Written by leading gardening journalist Bill Marken and the experts of the National Gardening Association, Container Gardening For Dummies is the ultimate guide to cultivating charming gardens in everything from a redwood window box to a hanging basket to an old pair of cowboy boots. It fills you in on how to:

Grow almost anything in a container

Make greens flourish on roofs, balconies, and windowsills

Create a one-of-a-kind garden using classic and offbeat containers

Use the best fertilizing and watering techniques for your climate

Grow exotic and low-maintenance cacti and succulents

Prevent insects, pests, and diseases from invading your containers

Featuring clear, concise, step-by-step instructions and sixteen pages of stunning color photos, Container Gardening For Dummies covers all the bases, including:

Opportunities and limitations of different climates

Ready-made versus homemade soil mixes, starting plants from seeds, and other fundamentals

Choosing, planting and caring for flowers, ferns, succulents, fruits, and vegetables

Expressing your sense of style with color, form, texture, proportion, and other design elements

Adding special effects to your container garden

Container Gardening For Dummies is a fun, informative guide for inexperienced city slickers and savvy country cousins alike.

It takes only basic techniques and imagination to create beautiful garden art!

This invaluable book expands the traditional notion of the cutting garden and shows how any part of the garden landscape can provide a wealth of fresh flowers and foliage for glorious year-round arrangements. Plant lists, suggested reading and bibliography, sources. Over 200 full-color photos.

In Gardening with Nature, James van Sweden shows home gardeners and professionals how to conceive, design, build, and plant the romantic gardens for which he is renowned. In Part 1, van Sweden describes formative influences and outlines his credo: bold, massed, asymmetrical plant groupings, reverence for site, low maintenance, and attention to all seasons. Part 2 explores design strategies and then embarks on a garden tour to show the rationale behind specific plant choices and design decisions. Part 3, "Planting Your Garden Step-by Step, " gives the nuts and bolts and hundreds of useful tips, and Part 4, "Favorite Plants, " offers a short, illustrated glossary of plants photographed in garden settings.

Learn how to transform your yard into a beautiful landscape using native plants!

You don't have to compromise beauty for natural landscapes with ecological responsibility and sustainability. In master gardener Lynn Steiner's book Grow Native, you'll find guidance for planting stunning gardens using native species that support your local ecosystem. Organized in an easily accessible way, the book offers instructions for planting, maintenance instructions, helpful tips about soil, watering and fertilizing as well as gorgeous photography. With guidance about how to weave native plants into your landscape and replacing common ornamentals with natural plants, this book should have a place on every gardener's bookshelf.

Grow Nativecombines inspirational garden shots of native landscapes with plant specific chapters and photos. Topics covered include:

- Hardiness Zone Maps
- Inspiration Gallery: Gardens Full of Native Plants
- Why Grow Natives?
- What Do You Mean by "Native"?
- Lower Water Usage / Drought-Tolerant
- Hardier / Tougher
- Easier Care
- Sustainability
- And more

Additionally, sidebars throughout Naturescape offer pointers for attracting specific butterflies, birds, bees and other beneficials to your yard--all through plant selections.

The newest and most up-to-date plant-care reference; The book focuses on plant care needs for healthy, vibrant results; Identifies a specific plant group and addresses cultural requirements for a variety of the most widely grown species; Contains an A-Z listing of over 400 plants by both common and scientific names which makes finding a plant easy every time; Over 500 photographs.

The only guide with month-by-month advice about caring for your Mid-Atlantic garden.

If you liked Mid-Altantic Getting Started Garden Guide, Mid-Atlantic Month-by-Month Gardening should be the next addition to your bookcase!

This is the perfect book for beginning to intermediate gardeners and home landscapers living in the Mid-Atlantic (including the states of Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, DC). Mid-Atlantic Month-by-Month Gardening gives you the when-to and how-to for growing, caring for, and maintaining your garden and all types of plants.

All of the information you need is given in a chronological, straightforward way. From January to December, each month has specific advice on what should be done in your garden. Step-by-step photographs give you the confidence to make your garden as unique as your Mid-Atlantic home.

Author George Weigel is a garden writer, designer, and speaker, a Pennsylvania Certified Horticulturist, and--as his balding, plant-killing brother likes to put it-a "Certified Gardening Wacko." He is your guide to the garden, with specific when-to and how-to content to give Mid-Atlantic gardeners the tools to be successful.

Gardening is now the favorite leisure pastime in America; for New Englanders, this guide a great inspiration for the perfect garden.

Homeowners are realizing the health benefits derived from gardening and the increase in their home's property value. This book contains easy-to-use advice on the top landscape plant choices. It also recommends specific varieties, and provides advice on how to plant, how to grow and how to care for the best plants.

Full-color photos and helpful illustrations and charts make this an easy-to-use resource for all New England gardeners with expert advice for home gardeners in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

"Ortho's All About Perennials" teaches you how to plan and plant a perennial garden in layers for beautiful color every season--even winter. Our comprehensive guide shows you how to choose plants, blend colors, and create themes, as well as how to grow and care for your perennials to ensure a stunning garden year after year.

From its fully illustrated, meticulously detailed directories of indoor plants to its inspiring ideas for using plants to enhance any setting, Indoor Plants makes it easy to turn a window sill, a corner, or even a whole room, into a delightful garden spot. 540 full-color photos and illustrations.

Discover how peace and tranquility have been tapped through the personal stories of ordinary people, ordinary gardens, and extraordinary spaces. As professional horticulturalists, as husband and wife, and now as authors, Michel and Judy Marcellot explore motivations to garden for peace, for balance, for relaxation, for contemplation, and to memorialize loved ones. Above all, they find joy expressed within and through gardening. Personal stories show how the simple act of gardening changed lives and individuals. The authors chronicle their own paths from naive and idealistic, back-to-the-earth entrepreneurs who wanted to "be of service to the planet, and have a good time doing it," to respected horticulturists and sought after speakers who still embody the same ideals as when they started out. Examples illustrate varied elements of sacred sites and suggest ways readers might create the sacred in their own gardens. Read on and see how ordinary gardeners can attain their own backyard bliss.

The built environment has a tremendous impact on public safety. The authors SafeScape principles challenge planners and citizens alike to create vibrant, integrated, self-policing, and sustainable communities. The co-authors examine aspects of the urban environment that influence crime and the fear of crime and recommend strategies for building-or rebuilding-communities where residents feel safe and are safe. SafeScape communities empower citizens and offer many and varied opportunities for positive action. Their inherently safer design makes them easier and less costly to keep safe. The authors focus on planning and design solutions that minimize opportunities for criminal and victim to come together. Throughout, they stress that these efforts will succeed only if they engage citizens, embrace diversity, and enhance a sense of community. Personal observations, case studies, and hundreds of photographs from communities across America make this book an interesting, practical, and inspiring guide to safer, livelier, and more inviting communities. This is compelling reading for planners, designers, public safety professionals, and elected officials.

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Outstanding Perennials" is the book for those who want the latest developments and trends in Perennials, from new varieties to design ideas."

Outstanding Perennials" is available in six regional editions.

Authors are among the most highly respected gardening experts in their individual regions and share their advice on the Perennials that perform best in their area.

Gardeners will be attracted to "Outstanding Perennials" for the same level of trust associated with Jackson & Perkins Roses."

Outstanding Perennials" gives gardeners advice on how to select, plant, grow, and provide care for Perennials.

An added bonus, Outstanding Perennials offers valuable design ideas, based on great Perennial and Rose combinations.

An introductory manual on gardening in pots and containers. Containers, of course, are the norm in cities and many suburbs, where space is at a premium, but gardeners with plenty of room will also appreciate the benefits of container planting. Containers dress up front walks, hang brightly from the limbs of trees, and energise a deck with colour and life. They are a great laboratory for experiments, and also allow a gardener to grow plants that wouldn't otherwise winter over in northerly climate zones.

This guide offers useful information to add color to your garden. It includes tips on planning your annual garden, as well as how to plant and the best time of year to plant.

You can have a colorful, striking garden that's drought resistant too!

Water-Smart Gardening gives you all the tools needed to create a water-smart landscape and garden. Drought is spreading throughout the country. Even areas that previously had plentiful supplies are feeling the strain, and the price of water is climbing. If you have to water your garden during non-drought years, many of the water-saving techniques from this book could still pay for themselves in no time.

Choose water-smart plants that survive and even thrive in low-water situations. Tap into the power of evolution and use plants native to your area. Time your irrigation and install water-collection devices such as cisterns and rain barrels. Creating a water-efficient garden can even be as simple as designing your landscape to harvest as much rainfall as possible, using berms, terraces, and raised beds.

Gorgeous photos throughout Water-Smart Gardening will inspire you with beautiful garden ideas and help you see your way to a garden that sips water instead of gulping it. Helpful how-to information gets to the nuts and bolts of everything from installing a cistern to using seep irrigation.

Author Diana (Dee) Maranhao brings over 30 years of experience to help you create the garden of your dreams and save water at the same time.