Gardening: plants and cultivation guides Books

Book SynopsisThe Old Farmer’s Almanac, America’s longtime trusted gardening resource, shares with you how to grow more than 30 stunning flowers throughout the year. Gorgeous photos accompany expert guidance and inspirational ideas, providing gardeners of all experience levels with the tools for success and creative enjoyment.We all want one—a lush, lovely flower bed or pot full of colorful blooms all season long! But it’s not easy to know where to begin or how to handle certain problems along the way that challenge making our dream a reality. This is where The Flower Gardener’s Handbook comes in. Created by The Old Farmer’s Almanac, America’s longtime trusted gardening resource, this book will take you by your garden-gloved hand and show you how to plan, plant, and care for more than 30 amazing flowers that will make you—as well as your family, friends, and neighbors—smile in absolute delight. Gorgeous photos accompany expert guidance and inspirational ideas, providing gardeners of all experience levels with the tools for success and creative enjoyment.Highlights include . . . Imagine the possibilities! This accessible and inviting resource introduces you to bulbs, annuals, biennials, perennials, shrubs, and vines that will perk up your space and season. Browse the 32 plants profiled in vivid detail (from asters, irises, and coneflowers to hydrangeas, roses, and wisteria); for each, you’ll find beautiful photos and essential information on planting, care, disease and pest problems, cut-flower harvesting, and recommended varieties. There are also helpful chapters on summer-flowering shrubs, tiny bulbs, flowers for constant color throughout the season, and more!  Invite birds to your garden! Discover flowering annuals, perennials, and shrubs that offer food and shelter to make feathered friends feel right at home. Go native! Native plants offer many advantages, such as requiring little to no maintenance or water once established. They also provide nectar for native pollinators. Read about native flower options for various parts of North America, and you’ll get a feel for which ones you might like to grow. Want to bring the joy indoors? Find out the best ways to cut and preserve your garden’s floral bounty or to dry your blossoms for long-lasting enjoyment. Don’t have the yard space to grow flowers or just want to keep things simple? Containers to the rescue! Learn the “pot-ticulars” about sizes, types, and growing mediums and then get ready to pot up your prized petunias! Nurturing flowers from seeds can be an inexpensive way to fill up a flower bed and offers more options for variety and color than you’ll likely see in transplants available locally. Choose your favorites and then discover how to get your plant babies off to a great start. Moving to a new location can take it out of us, and the same goes for plants. Whether you grow your own or purchase just-the-right flowers at your local garden center, find out when they can be safely transplanted to their permanent homes. True success starts at ground level—or even deeper. Learn about soil structure, texture, pH, nutrients, and fertilizers, as well as how to improve your existing soil so that your plants grow up healthy and happy. Water is a precious resource. Gardeners just about everywhere can face periodic drought as well as high water bills and seasonal water restrictions, so water-saving practices in the garden not only make good “green” sense but also save time, energy, and effort. Read about ways in which you can be water-wise! Diseases and pests like flowers, too. The Flower Gardener’s Handbook provides detailed, easy-to-understand information on how to identify and control a host of troublemakers.  Write it down! Take advantage of occasional journal pages to jot down important notes, such as your soil’s pH, seed-starting details, planting dates, and pest problems and treatment. Record your observations about plant performance, bloom times, and more to help you keep track of which varieties work well and which you’d like to switch out in the following year. What’s an Old Farmer’s Almanac guide without a little folklore and fun? Inside, you’ll learn how to interpret Latin plant names (Did you know that mirabilis means “wonderful”?), the symbolism in the language of flowers (a peony can express “happy life”), and what your birth flower is (hint: some months have two!). Plus, much more!  Carefully crafted by experts, The Old Farmer’s Almanac Flower Gardener’s Handbook is the second book in a best-selling gardening series that began with the extremely popular Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook (now its sixth printing!) and is followed by the newest volume, The Old Farmer’s Almanac Container Gardener’s Handbook. This second book introduces you to the large and varied world of beautiful flowers and offers inspiration and guidance on selecting, growing—and harvesting!—colorful blossoms that will brighten your home and life. An easy-to-use, informative, and enjoyable resource for gardeners of all experience levels!

Read more less

Book SynopsisGardening experts Georgia Tasker and Tom MacCubbin offer foolproof advice on gardening within the diverse landscape of Florida. The Florida Getting Started Garden Guide features region-specific advice on planting, growing, and caring for more than 150 of Floridas top ornamental and native plants. From flowers and grasses to trees and tropical plants, this step-by-step guide includes useful information for the novice and experienced gardener alike. With gorgeous full-color photos of each plant, this book will increase the enjoyment and satisfaction of any gardener hoping to learn about-and master-the natural environment of Florida.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIf you're interested in growing your own fruits and vegetables, you've joined the ranks of a blossoming group of DIY gardeners who place a premium on the idea of self-reliance. But like any other kind of gardening, growing edibles is not a one-size-fits-all pursuit: in order to be successful, you'll need to know not only which plants grow well in your state or region, but also how to grow them with careful methods and a schedule that caters specifically to your local microclimate. Fortunately for you, Mid-Atlantic Fruit & Vegetable Gardening is written exclusively for gardeners who want to grow edibles in Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, or Washington, D.C Author Katie Elzer-Peters, the master gardener responsible for our bestselling Beginner's Illustrated Guide to Gardening (2012), equips you with all the information you need to design your edible garden, tend the soil, maintain your plants throughout their life cycles, and--most importantly--harvest the delicious foods they produce. So whether you live in the Delaware Valley, in the Beltway, or anywhere else in the Mid-Atlantic United States, you'll discover the best fruit and vegetable plants for your garden in this beautiful step-by-step how-to guide . . . and they'll be on your table before you know it.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIt's time for home gardeners to rethink the traditional garden and explore the wide variety of options for growing edibles in "anywhere" gardens - from decorative pots and raised beds to unusual growing bags, hanging pouches, and tomato rings. These contained gardens are more manageable than long rows or plots and require much less work - yet yield just as much bounty. Featuring dozens of preplanned planting recipes, based on space or container sizes, Gardening Outside the Plot allows readers to mix and match vegetables, herbs, small fruits, and edible flowers to create a plant-style patchwork based on the "thriller" (dramatic, focal-point plants), "filler" (midheight, bushy plants), and "spiller" (vines and twining plants) formula for creating interesting and botanically sound gardens. Plot-free gardening offers practical solutions for any circumstance a gardener may encounter (challenging spaces, soils, or weather), white also taking into account budget, time, and aesthetic goals. Author Stacey Hirvela shares many other interesting concepts, like One-Minute Veggies (foods that go from patio to plate in less than a minute) Doubly Delicious Crops that give two flavours from one plant, and space/yield ratios (vegetables worth their footprint). Gardeners will also find an enticing array of 60 edibles that grow well in a defined space for productivity and beauty.

Read more less