Gardening for Dummies

by: Mike MacCaskey, Bill Marken

Topics include: tine speed, mild winter regions, red autumn color, white spring flowers, thinning cuts, mild winter climates, cold winter climates, floating row, hardy roses, branch collar, permanent plants, your soil, blooming bulbs, susceptible plants, modern roses, last spring frost, flowering tobacco, daisylike flowers, root ball, summer pruning

CLICK HERE for more information and price

Book Description:

If you want to learn more about gardening - and you must if you are reading this - just where do you start?

Starting off with ultrabasics, like "how do I get my plants to live rather than die?" Gardening for Dummies is a terrific textbook for the novice gardener. Explanations are laid out simply, and all terms are defined as soon as they are first used--if you've never grown so much as a houseplant, this is the book to get you started. Emphasis is on choosing proper plants for your zone (it's OK--the color map will show you which zone you're in) that are fairly low-maintenance and high-success. Large sections on both seeds and bedding plants will give you lots of options and specific instructions for getting good results--seeds, especially, are treated as persnickety little critters that require some extra effort in exchange for low cost and large variety. The big downside to this book is its lack of pictures. There are lots of line drawings, but they tend to show particular stages of a process, rather than each step. Color photos are limited to two sections, and most of them are close-ups of various plants. While it's nice to see what the bark of a paperbark maple looks like, it doesn't particularly add to the value of the book. For folks who learn best with straightforward reading, the sections on mulching, pruning, soil preparation, and tool choices are all extremely helpful. With bullet-point lists, icons for highlighting categories like ecofriendly or time-saving, and simple tables and charts, how-to photos aren't essential, but if pictorial aids are what you need for learning, look elsewhere. --Jill Lightner

From Library Journal This book has much to recommend it, in spite of the title. It is a simple, well-laid-out introduction to basic gardening by the editor-in-chief of National Gardening magazine and editors of the National Gardening Association. Its light tone is clearly aimed at novice gardeners. Snappy headings, the use of icons (as symbols are called nowadays), checklists, and diagrams make the book appealing for beginners. Gardeners with some experience might prefer a more substantial and better-illustrated introduction such as the one provided in Burpee Complete Gardener: A Comprehensive, Up-to-Date, Fully Illustrated Reference for Gardeners at All Levels (LJ 2/15/96). This volume is even more up to date, including good lists of mail-order suppliers and further readings and information about on-line resources. Recommended for public libraries.?Daniel Starr, Museum of Modern Art, New York Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gardening is one of the most popular, least exclusive hobbies of all. Everybody can garden. Gardening is good for the body; an hour or two of daily yardwork provides just the right kind of light exercise we all need. Responsible gardening also does good things for the environment: materials get recycled, and empty lots become community gardens. Gardening also can boost your mental health; it delights the eye and fuels the soul with a connection to the earth. Even if you've never repotted a plant, you have the heart of a gardener if you love the taste of garden tomatoes or close your eyes when you sniff a blossom. Gardening For Dummies, 2nd Edition, will help novices get off to a solid start and help seasoned gardeners broaden their breadth of knowledge. This book is for you if you want to * Create a garden for the first time * Know how to mow your lawn the right way * Find out which bugs are eating up your plants * Determine when and how much to water your garden * Attract birds, bees, and butterflies to your yard * Grow your own herbs and vegetables Find your way around the garden center by knowing which soil amendments to buy, which tools to use, which plants to choose, and how to use pest controls. You can turn that brown thumb into a green one by exploring these other topics: * Creating a landscape design: Know what you have; define areas and flow * Exploring annuals, perennials, bulbs, and vines: Choose healthy plants; water and feed for longevity * Buying and planting roses: Understand classifications, pruning methods, and winterizing * Putting in a new lawn: Buy seed; remove sod; explore mowers and trimmers * Planting seedlings, trees, and shrubs: Transplant from cell packs and larger containers; get bare-root or balled-and-burlapped plants into the ground * Pruning and propagating: Understand the purpose; look at tools, techniques * Dealing with weeds and disease: Identify damage; control spread Gardening For Dummies, 2nd Edition, offers a slew of lists, illustrations, and color photographs to guide you as you garden. No matter what size your planting area, from sunny windowsill to patio to yard, you can nurture and grow a glorious garden. From the Back Cover "Packed with down-to-earth gardening advice." Doug Jimerson, Vice President, Editor-in-Chief, garden.com Praise for Gardening For Dummies® "The perfect map for a new generation of gardeners." - William Rapp, President, Gardener's Supply Co. "All the basics are covered here..A great introduction." - Ann Arbor News "Straightforward, yet light-hearted..A thorough, readable beginner's guide." -Des Moines Register The bestselling classic, now revised and updated Your green-thumb guide to growing flowers, vegetables, trees, and shrubs Brimming with illustrations, advice, resources, and suggested plantings, this friendly guide shows you step-by-step how to create the garden of your dreams. From cultivation basics to garden design 101, it's just what you need to start playing in the dirt! Discover how to: Pick the best plants for your climate and lifestyle Design the perfect garden for you Keep your plants healthy Use compost, fertilizer, and safe pesticides Locate garden supplies Get smart! www.dummies.com Register to win cool prizes Browse exclusive articles and excerpts Get a free Dummies DailyT e-mail newsletter Chat with authors and preview other books Talk to us, ask questions, get answers About the Author Michael MacCaskey is editor-in-chief of National Gardening magazine. Bill Marken is editor-in-chief of eHow.com. The National Gardening Association is the largest member-based, nonprofit organization of gardeners in the U.S.

Reviews:

For those to whom digging is dangerous ground: I am born and bred of centuries of pure inner-city living, apartment-dwelling stock. The lights blow out, tub leaks, or toilet won't stop flushing? Call the Super. Trees and dirt? You see them in the park. Flowers? You buy them to give, smile when you recieve, and go to admire them in the Botanical Gardens. Vegetables? You buy them at the supermarket or produce store; they often are frozen or come in cans. My sister, whose entire repitoire of handyperson skills involved changing lightbulbs, recently moved to a house in what my family calls the "country." Translation: suburbs not reachable by the New York City Subway System. She's got a lawn and a backyard, and can achieve a goal we've always yearned for...a garden. But what do you do when for all of your childhood you got in trouble for digging in dirt because it ment an extra trip to the Laundromat? Because I learned everything I needed to know to get rock 'n rollin' on computers from the very excellent "Dummies" series, and there is no Julia Child or Martha Stewart of gardening that I know of, I bought her a copy of this very excellent book. She grew tulips, hyacinths, pansies, marigolds, and lots of other flowers I forget the names of. Tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, zucchini, onions, green beans, cucumbers, etc. flourished under her stewardship and graced her table. Mint, Dill, Basil, and other herbs grown in her garden enhanced her cooking. She's organizing her work for the '98 season now. The "Secret Garden" can be real! But don't be misled by the "Dummies" title. You don't have to be as totally green-thumb challenged as my family to benefit from this book. It's got a wealth of advice for anyone interested in growing a garden, from what experienced friends tell me.

Just right. I am a novice gardener who is trying to figure out how to maintain a well-landscaped property that I inherited. After the first couple of years of letting the place "rest on its laurels" (i.e., get by on its past grandeur and do nothing to maintain it except to water it every now and then, but otherwise neglecting it and letting it get weedy and rangy), I have finally tackled the project of educating myself about gardening and trying to restore some freshness and style to my garden. This book offers a very skillful overview of everything I need to know in order to take on this project. It gives an overview of pretty much every fundamental of gardening, giving enough explanation to help you understand the logic behind the "rules" of garden creation and maintenance, but without the kind of technical detail that would make it tedious or would glaze the eye of the beginner. I have found this an excellent "starter" book--gives the lay of the land, as it were, so that you can establish basic competence and understanding before you go onto more specialized knowledge. THANKS!

Garden Book for Idiots: Actually this is a pretty decent book and there are many good gardening tips in it. I guess the main reason I'm not very fond of it ( got it as a gift and promptly gave it away myself ) is that I find the whole idea of it rather tasteless. Perhaps for folks whose idea of good reading is comic books, this would be the perfect garden book. It is indeed set up for those who are easily distracted, lots of bullet points and little boxes and so on. I question whether or not this book was even needed. There are many fine how-to garden books already out there. The old Taylor's Encyclopedia of Gardening, for example, can usually be found used for about the same price or less. Taylors, although old, is a real gardening book. Somehow I equate gardening with intelligence, with class, with good taste. I enjoy having shelves of books on all the different aspects of horticulture and hardly want one titled Gardening for Dummies. I have a book, Auto Repair for Dummies (also a present) and somehow I don't mind being an automotive dummy. But a garden variety dummy is a bit much. Nonetheless, if you simply don't have the patience for most books, and you don't know beans about gardening, go for it. Despite the title, the author, Michael MacCaskey, knows plenty about gardening.