No comments about Window Boxes (Step-by-step).

2 comments about The Border Book.

1. This extremely well-conceived book gives planting plans for a variety of border situations (shady, sunny & stony, poolside, a very narrow space, etc.). It features drawings of each border in two different seasons, showing how the look will change as different plants come into bloom, photographs of each plant, and suggestions for varying each border by substituting plants which will give a different color scheme or look. A lot of information is packed into a concise format full of interesting planting ideas, making this an exceptionally useful and readable book.



2. This is an awsome book to have if you like to decorate your yard with living things! Bushes,flowers,plants- you name it and it can be turned into a beautiful border. I have this in the large paperback version and let me just say...my yard sparkles with life. It is a wonderful and easy to understand guide to creating stunning borders around your home and yard. I bought one for my mother-in-law and she loves it. Can't go wrong with this item!!

No comments about Cassell's Encyclopedia of Gardening: The Definitive Single-Volume Guide to Garden Plants and Gardening Techniques.

1 comments about The Border in Bloom: A Northwest Garden Through the Seasons.

1. This book could also be used to advantage by gardeners in coastal areas of northern California. Lovejoy takes one through the calendar in a Northwest garden, detailing flowers and shrubs in bloom and garden tasks appropriate to the season. She includes lots of recommendations for design combinations and mentions of unusual plants - with clues in an appendix about where to locate them. Ideas on siting and caring for plants specific to our cool rainy winters/cool dry summers are also valuable. The book contains a through-the-seasons planting guide for a 20' x 40' garden, parts of which could be abstracted for almost any border, large or small. This book is chattier and more personal than some of Lovejoy's more recent works, which I find charming. Drawbacks: 1) The book was apparently put together from a series of separate essays, which occasionally shows - transitions are not always smooth from one chapter to the next. 2) Lovejoy gardens in the warmest part of the Puget Sound area, and her plant picks reflect that - it would be nice if she had included more information on hardiness zones, at least for the more marginal varieties. That said, this will join my collection of indespensable references for my zone 7 Pacific Northwest garden.

4 comments about The Intuitive Gardener: Finding Creative Freedom in the Garden (Garden Book Club Selection).

1. The Intuitive Gardener: Finding Creative Freedom In The Garden by gardening expert Marilyn Raff is an impressively "user friendly" guide to imagining and creating the garden of one's dreams. Raff accessibly teaches the reader how to follow intuition rather than be captive to overused and stale rules. Individual chapters cover creative raising of roses, grasses, plants for shady sites, and a great more. Vibrant color photographs add a visual appeal to the extensive text. The Intuitive Gardener is a welcome and invaluable addition to any personal reading list or professional gardening reference collection.



2. If you have an opportunity to see this author in action, snap it up. Otherwise, just buy the book. Buy the book, in fact, whether you can meet the author or not. Here's why. When we learned more than two years ago that we would be moving to Colorado, I snapped up every book in sight on Colorado gardening. For me, they were long on detail but short on vision. I simply could not divine how to get started, other than having to unlearn every thing I had known about growing things in the temperate climates. Buh-bye, broadleaf evergreens! So long, lotsa roses! Hello... to what?

   Right now Colorado is in serious drought; watering, if allowed at all, is extremely restricted. Some areas forbid new plantings. Marilyn Raff responds to this challenge with gusto. Parts of her garden have had limited watering for years "because I do not like to haul the hose that far." She has a long list of plants that like dry conditions and another list of plants who, with extravagant water, become weedy. Ration their water, decrease the trouble they cause, and increase your pleasure in the garden.

   None of this should be construed as saying that this book is short on details. It is not. But in addition to the details, you'll find the author's own interesting ideas about combinations and various areas of a garden, as well as plentiful affirmation for getting to know your own plot, however large or small. Ms. Raff advocates gardening by wandering around: getting to know your unique space and its possibilities. Her attitudes encourage experimentation and acceptance of the occasional inevitable failures. It's all part of informing your intuition, of finding creative freedom.

   The author's breezy but informative style and the plentiful color photographs make this book a treat. I find myself returning to it again and again both as a reference and as inspiration.




3. Marilyn is my kind of gardener. No longer will I feel guilty about my style of casual gardening. I now know that I'm an intuitive gardener. Moreover, her book gives me courage to try new plants and new arrangements. As she points out, you can always change things. The style of writing and the excellent photographs, all from Raff's own garden, make this book reader friendly. I can't wait for her next book on roses.



4. I was disappointed in the book. I couldn't get over how many times she talked about buying, buying, buying....(does she ever collect cuttings from her neighbors? does she ever dig up a dearly departed friend's most treasured shrub and transplant it creating a bit of a memorial?).

   And then so often there were no "technical" details...more like, "I garden only by intuition, if my soul tells me to plant it in one corner of my garden, I don't bother to look up whether it should be in sun or shade or whether lime would be right or rocky soil is okay -- because it's all about how I'm feeling at that time!" But, but, wait! Shouldn't it be about how the PLANT is feeling at the time???

   Scattered about were nice pictures (although it was frustrating that they usually didn't correspond with the text on that particular page) and here and there I got a good idea or two, but overall I felt as though it was written by someone who has WAAAAAAAY more money to spend (and maybe waste) at nurseries than I do. {Not much value added" to my gardening skills, but she does indeed look like she has a beautiful back yard.

1 comments about Backyard Building Projects: Complete Plans for More Than 40 Useful or Decoratve Objects to Make for Your Garden (Taylor's Weekend Gardening Guides).

1. My family found a number of fun projects in this book. We'd been thinking about ways to accent our flower beds and found useful project in this book. We created some different birdhouses as well as a few paths throughout the garden. We very pleased with the results.

2 comments about Rejuvenating a Garden.

1. when faced with "what to do?" with old, overgrown, or neglected landscaping; without bulldozing. The author is very clear and very honest about the process of rejuvenating a garden. He has great infomation and advice about evaluating what is there, looking for the potential, determining what stays and what goes, plus lots of practical tips. What I really liked about this book is that is is geared to anyone; I connected right away with the gardens and his message. Some gardens books feel inaccessibile to us regular folks, showing designer gardens that probably cost thousands of dollars....not here. I felt very right at home with the gardens, photos and advice given.

   In addition, there is a wonderful rejuvenation guide for hedges, shrubs and trees, practical information on scheduling work so as to not be overwhelmed ( what to do first....) suggestions for budgeting, and working with what you have as compared to starting from scratch.




2. Penelope Hobhouse's quote on the front cover of this book says it all - "An amazingly original book, tackling a useful subject in a very practical way."

   The writer sets out to help you, the reader, to tackle a garden that someone else has made, but is new to you. So many garden writers seem to assume that their writers have a new garden that is like a blank sheet of paper - something you can plan for afresh, bringing in your own choice of new plants and starting from scratch. For many of us, this not the reality. We move into a house with an existing garden that may be anywhere on a spectrum from bland to a complete disaster.. This book is for us. It explains where (and when and how) to start, how to assess soil, existing plants and structure, it reminds the reader about possible local restrictions and guides our understanding of personal and gardening needs.

   From there the writer takes the reader step-by-step through all the necessary tasks, from clearing away old hard landscaping to pruning trees, reviving lawns and replanting. It even offers suggestions to help limited finances be used in the most effective ways. There is an extensive directory of plants and resource lists for finding further information.

   The writer, a professional gardener for 20 years, became National Gardens Manager for English Heritage. He brings both breadth and depth of knowledge to this topic and enhances it with a writing style that is enthusiastic, literate and eminently readable.

   If you've ver faced the task of salvaging a neglected or boring garden you'll enjoy this book. Or buy it as a gift for someone who has just moved into a new house.

No comments about The Complete Practical Handbook of Garden Bulbs: How to create a spectacular flowering garden throughout the year with bulbs, corms, tubers and rhizomes (Complete Practical Handbook).

No comments about The Gardener's Guide to Growing Ivies (Gardener's Guide).

No comments about Controlling Weeds (Rodale's Successful Organic Gardening).