Gardening Basics: A Complete Guide to Designing, Planting, and Maintaining Gardens

This is truly a comprehensive introduction to gardening, with basic information on designing and creating family gardens, patio gardens, large gardens, and low-maintenance gardens. The authors explain such tasks as constructing brick, concrete, and stone surfaces; fences; arches; pergolas; and wooden decks. They give details on creating ground covers, lawns, edgings, exits and entrances, hedges, borders, island beds, and ponds. They also discuss container gardening, hanging baskets, and wall displays. A section on care and maintenance focuses on using basic tools and equipment; types of soil; drainage; mulches; compost; fertilizers; watering; weed, pest, and disease control; propagation; transplanting; and pruning. A section listing plants for the garden--60 pages long--covers trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, annuals, biennials, bulbs, roses, ground covers, bamboos, ferns, and grasses. Each entry gives a description of the plant, often with an accompanying color photograph, and its hardiness, eventual height, and cultivation needs. Another section gives cultivation data on more than 100 vegetables, fruit, and herbs. There are 1,200 splendid color photographs to complement the informative text. George Cohen

This book compiles an astonishing amount of information in an easily accessible and well-illustrated manner. Four top British gardener-writers collaborated on this encyclopedic guide to virtually every garden task and problem, from initial design to care and maintenance. They present numerous planting designs for particular situations, and there is an extensive list of plants, both edible and ornamental, with photographs, descriptions, and uses. The more than 1200 specially commissioned photographs are either breathtakingly beautiful and inspirational or informative, as, for instance, when instructions are given for making a lined pond. This is a good complement to Gardening for Beginners (LJ 3/15/99), which is not as comprehensive but which contains excellent information concerning the time required for the tasks and the difficulty of maintaining various garden types. Both books are recommended.Carol Cubberley, Univ. of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.