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.

Nothing adds drama to an outdoor space like a marble fountain or a stone statue. This history of American garden ornament presents a wealth of information on American gardens and their decoration from 1740 to 1940.

"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.

This sumptuous guide to heirloom plants -- species that have been in cultivation for at least a century -- provides all the information and advice needed to grow these enduring favorites in any garden. Here is an enchanting and diverse selection of plants from the familiar to the exotic, as well as explanations on how to use them in an array of garden designs.Many garden types are covered, including: -- Cottage gardens-- Formal topiary gardens-- Wildflower gardens-- Meadow gardens-- Antique kitchen gardens-- Container gardensThis delightful journey through our horticultural heritage is enhanced with informative biographies of many of the plants, including where they originated and when they were introduced to the cultivated garden, as well as engaging profiles of the intrepid, often eccentric, plant collectors who traveled the world in search of unusual varieties.

Just as a sculptor turns everyday wood and stone into art, a creative gardener takes the elements of a given place and turns them into a living paradise. According to Heriteau, a shady spot isn't just a place where grass won't grow, it's a cool respite from the outside world. With over 275 full-color photos, this is the most spectacular compendium of garden design, technique and information ever assembled.

In Grow Your Own For Kids, Chris Collins shows how to sow and grow 10 easy vegetables that kids love to eat. Simple step-by-step sequences will guide and inspire them; presenting fun challenges such as growing the tallest sunflower and the largest pumpkin. A "letter to the grown ups" will explain how parents and guardians can provide a garden for their kids, whether this is a container, a window box or a small plot outside. A shopping list, general advice and words of wisdom and encouragement will ensure that nothing goes wrong for those budding green fingers.
A great add-on to the book is the Sow-your-own-Salad page with lettuce-seed impregnated paper. This cut-out page will come to life when placed in a seed pot with compost and water. The miracle of growing your own, springing from the pages of their first gardening book!

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. 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.

Gardeners living in New York or New Jersey need this easy-to-use guide for year-round plant care!

If you're a passionate gardener and a resident of New York or New Jersey, there's a book you must acquire for your bookshelf: New York & New Jersey Month-by-Month Gardening. Falling in line with the Cool Springs Press gardening series, this book provides monthly gardening advice, written just for New York and New Jersey gardeners.

This gardeners' guide is organized according to calendar month--January through December. Each month is divided into the following categories: planning, planting, caring for plants, watering, fertilizing, and problem solving. Within those categories, gardeners will find the major plant groups (annuals, edibles, perennials, trees, lawn, and shrubs) covered in detail. Learn the proper time to plant your favorite bulbs and edibles, and find out how to plant bare-root trees. From planting perennials to coming up with a strategy for pest management, New York & New Jersey Month-by-Month Gardening guides readers through every major question that crops up.

With essential how-to information organized into helpful sidebars as well as step-by-step photos to illustrate technique, this book is a veritable road map for a year's worth of gardening tasks in this diverse region. Roll up your sleeves, gardeners, and prepare to get dirty!

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.

From the first name in lawns comes the last word on lawn care! This book brings you all the experience and insights of these foremost experts on growing the perfect lawn. Here you will find the secrets of success for your garden -- you will have fewer weeds and greener grass -- all explained in easy-to-follow steps. You will be amazed by how uncomplicated it is, and your neighbours will be asking you for your secrets.

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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.