Easy-Growing Gardening Series

At last, help for home food gardeners. The simple, month-by-month layout of Don't Throw in the Trowel will help gardeners grow a bounty of vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Grow luscious tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, melons, and more, and enjoy all the fresh produce (and give the surplus to family and friends) that your garden grows using these easy tips. Don't Throw in the Trowel: A Month-by-Month Vegetable Gardening Guide is a fun read for every locavore who wants to cart tomatoes out of the garden by the wagonful. Even if you've never been a farmer or a gardener before, this vegetable gardening book covers everything you need to know to get started. Here you can find specific information about starting seeds, transplanting, mulching, organic fertilizers, dealing with pest and disease problems, compost, and of course, information about different vegetables and helpful advice on how to grow them. You can also find information about square foot gardening, beneficial insects (and insect pests), easy ways to keep weeds down, and ways to extent the growing season into the winter months using cold frames and floating row covers. What's more, the methods used in this book are those to save time (and your poor back and joints). Gardening can hurt sometimes – as the author can attest after having been felled by a bad back during her horticulturing days. This book is full of ways to keep you from ending up the way she did. Many organic methods actually help make gardening easier. For instance, putting down a thick layer of mulch early in the year helps you keep weeds down, reduce watering, add organic matter to the soil, and keep the plants cool in the summer heat. Grow heirloom vegetables for a reliable, colorful crop – and you can keep using the seeds from these plants years after year. Most of all, this book also leads you on a month-by-month tour of the vegetable garden, so you can keep up with what needs to be done this month – and look ahead so you can be ready for next month. It's always good to grow your own vegetables, especially with concerns about how far grocery store produce is shipped, concerns about the environment, and concerns about the future. But there's also a new understanding of how good it is to get outside and work with plants, and how delicious those first sun-warmed tomatoes are, and how good a newly-picked strawberry tastes, and how astonished your toddler is when she pulls up her first carrot. There's nothing on earth that can beat that.

The National Gardening Association has found that, among vegetable gardeners, tomatoes are their favorite plant to grow. One in three Americans have a vegetable garden, and 9 out of 10 of those gardens have tomatoes in them. Tomatoes range in size from gigantic beefsteak tomatoes that can weigh up to a half-pound, to the smallest cherry tomato about the size of a marble. You can grow heavy-yielding hybrids or open-pollinated heirloom varieties in different colors, shades, and sizes. You can choose early varieties that set fruit when it's cool outside, mid-season varieties, and late-maturing varieties that will give you the biggest fruits but take 80 to 90 days to do it. Sometimes you'll need about 120 days to get a decent harvest, but hey, at least you get tomatoes! Tomatoes are so versatile and so good. You can cook them a million different ways or you can eat them, sun-warmed and delicious, straight off the vine. Some people grab a cherry tomato, a leaf of basil, and a slice of mozzarella cheese, and eat them like that. Welcome to the world of tomato gardening. There's nothing as sweet and good as a sun-warmed tomato fresh from the garden on a hot summer afternoon. It's no wonder that tomatoes are the most popular vegetable in America (though botanically, tomatoes are a fruit). Cordell's book walks you through the steps in raising tomatoes – through starting tomato seeds, planting (and tricks for planting tomatoes early), and staking and caging tomatoes. Readers learn how to fight off diseases and insect pests, decipher the mysterious letters on a tomato tag, how to harvest tomatoes, and how to dry, can, or freeze tomatoes for next year. With plenty of information for advanced gardeners, ready help for beginning gardeners, lots of expert knowledge, and a smidgeon of wit, If You're a Tomato will guide you in the ways of the vegetable garden with a minimum of fuss and feathers. And also with a minimum of weeding. Nobody likes weeding.  

Houseplants can be a challenge when you have poor conditions (poor lighting, freezing windows in winter, humidity levels that match the Sahara Desert's, destructive toddlers, cats that use flowerpots as a litter box, etc.) This book goes through a few simple tips for caring for and raising houseplants, things I've learned through the years as I worked at various garden centers, greenhouses, and when I ran my own greenhouse as city horticulturist. I hope that when you get done reading, you should be able to take care of your own plants a little more easily. This book gives you ways to beat insect infestations on your houseplants, tips on preparing plants for winter, how to raise orchids, African violets, grow a Christmas cactus the way your grandma did, and make poinsettias rebloom. You can learn how to make a dish garden and terrarium. You learn about the right way to water your houseplants, ways to fight back against aphids, mealybugs, spider mites on your English ivy, and fungus gnats (when I worked in the greenhouse, they always flew straight at my eyes and I mastered how to kill them in mid-flight). When insects afflict your houseplants, consult this book. I've worked over 20 years in horticulture, and before then, I was reading all of my grandma's houseplant books and getting plant starts from her, and had two tables of houseplants when I was in junior high and high school. These days I'm raising Phalaenopsis orchids (butterfly orchids) and other fussbudget plants. I've learned things through long experience. I share them all in this book to make your time with your houseplants fun and easy.

Perennials are the backbone of the garden -- a low-maintenance, long-growing mainstay that the garden revolves around. I've worked with perennials for 20 years, as a manager in the perennials section at the local nursery, and then as a municipal horticulturist in charge of over 20 gardens around the city. I've grown perennials from seed, potted them bare-rooted, divided them, deadheaded them, treated them for diseases and pests. Everything I've learned over the years I share here in this book -- Perennial Classics.

Roses are the Queen of Flowers. They're beautiful, fragrant, and elegant - and roses require all the pampering of a real Queen, don't they? Actually, they don't! Rose gardening can be easy and pleasant. I've worked 25 years in horticulture and cared for over 300 roses in a public rose garden when I was municipal horticulturist. I found ways to keep rose gardening fussbudgetry to a minimum while growing vigorous roses that bloomed their heads off. Rose to the Occasion: An Easy-Growing Guide to Rose Gardening shares tricks and shortcuts that rosarians use, plus simple ways you can keep up with your to-do list in the rose garden. Gardeners of all skill levels will find this book helpful, whether they be beginning gardeners or old rosarians, whether they have a green thumb or a brown thumb. Rose to the Occasion includes * old illustrations of roses in bloom, plus historical background on each flower * down-to-earth wisdom on how to plant, grow, and prune roses * the in and out of fertilizing roses to get the lushest foliage and best blooms * advice on choosing the right rose for your garden, as well as many easy-growing varieties * the latest on organic pest control and fungicide use in the rose garden * hardy, tough old roses that can take whatever Mother Nature throws at them * and general garden maintenance help that you can use anywhere in the garden. If you love The Rose Bible by Rayford Clayton Reddell, or books by David Austin, or books like Right Rose, Right Place; or Everyday Roses: How to Grow Knock Out® and Other Easy-Care Garden Roses; or The Organic Rose Garden, and if you like garden books leavened with humor -- then this book is for you.  

Leave Me A Lawn lays out the best ways to make a great lawn without having to buy hundreds of dollars worth of chemicals and supplies. I'll talk about how to add fertility to the soil, how to water to keep the grass growing up and the water bill down, and how to keep your lawn mower serviced and working. And we'll pick up a lot of other helpful tips along the way.

Style: Everybody has it but nobody really knows what it is. And when it comes to garden design, everybody has style. Sometimes, though, they have just haven't figured out what their gardening style is. Some people lean more toward traditional gardens with flowers to cram them into. Other lean more toward the formal gardens and parterres. Or maybe you might prefer a tropical style with all its orange and yellows and cannas and lush leaves. And some like to mix styles in a fun pastiche of plants and colors. What do you like? Maybe at this time you don't know. But you eventually figure out ideas from poking around the world of plants and styles and colors and shapes and forms. This book is written for the do it yourselfers, the DIY folks, who like to be puttering around in a garden and have dirt under their fingernails that won't entirely go away even when they scrub and scrub. These folks have rough, chapped skin along the outside of their index finger from pulling weeds – though this probably doesn't go so much for those of you with sense enough to keep your gloves on while you're gardening. This is also for the gardeners who have smaller budgets. Times are tough, and the hell of it is, times going to get even tougher. So if you can't afford a huge garden, I'm going to talk about ways to design a garden that doesn't take a lot of money and time (especially if you're working a full-time job with a side gig to make ends meet). This book is also for those with means, since there will be plenty of good suggestions for you guys to play with as well. And this book is especially for those gardeners who take an earth-friendly approach, those who are a little more laid-back in the garden, and gardeners who are a little more informal in their approach to plants and design. My style tends to be natural, organic, and forgiving. If things get messy once in a while, it's okay, because we're all human.

Japanese beetles arrived in America in 1916. Since then, the beetle has cut a destructive swath across a great portion of the United States. Japanese Beetles and Grubs: Trap, Spray, and Control Them is an indispensable guide for home gardeners, landscape professionals, and farmers. This Japanese beetle book is your secret weapon to help you control the beetles and safeguard your trees, roses, and vegetables. This book walks you through many methods for stopping Japanese beetles, whether through organic means or (in some cases) chemical means. The book relies mainly on eco-friendly ways to control these garden pests so you don't have to rely on harsh chemicals. In researching this book, I read through agricultural bulletins from the past and today. I've gleaned information from many University Extension sources and scientific studies, as well as good old-fashioned field work, to find out which control methods work (and which don't). I've put every control method I could find into this book, in order to give the gardener as many options as possible in vanquishing these pests.

Hello, fellow gardeners! Are you ready to get your hands dirty and cultivate the soil of your dreams? Then you need "Stay Grounded: Soil Building for Sustainable Gardens," the comprehensive guidebook that will help you grow a thriving, healthy garden that nourishes both your body and soul. As a lifelong gardener and sustainability advocate, I've spent years perfecting my approach to soil building. In this book, I share my tried-and-true techniques for assessing soil health, choosing natural amendments, and nurturing a healthy ecosystem that supports a wide variety of plants and animals. From composting to cover cropping, this book covers all the essential topics that will help you create a rich, fertile soil that produces abundant, delicious crops. You'll also find practical advice on companion planting, seed starting, and other key skills that will help you maximize your garden's potential. But "Stay Grounded" is more than just a guidebook - it's a call to action. With our planet facing unprecedented environmental challenges, we need sustainable gardening practices now more than ever. By cultivating healthy soil and reducing our reliance on harmful chemicals and practices, we can create a better ecosystem and better world. So join me on this journey towards sustainable, nourishing gardening. Together, we can make a difference - one garden at a time.

Gardening Month by Month lays out general gardening tips and tricks through the whole year. Are you planting vegetables, growing orchids, finding organic ways to care for your lawn, trying to raise fragrant roses? This book lays out what you need to know. Written for the beginning gardener, but also with plenty of information for the more advanced gardener.

Every seasoned gardener has a few tricks up their sleeves to make the work easier. They can improvise materials that get the job done in a way that's more sustainable for all. This book shares many gardening lifehacks that can make your work easier and your plants happier.

Whether you are new to gardening or simply an experienced gardener who wants to learn more, Garden Potpourri is a good place to start. This book, a compendium of wisdom from the eleven books in the Easy-Growing Gardening series, is a quick read full of gems for the beginner gardener and more advanced students of the soil. From simple tips for starting seeds and preventing damping-off disease, to favorite roses, to principles of garden design, to organic soil practices, Garden Potpourri is full of ideas to teach you how to master the art of gardening. One-click to increase your gardening know-how today.