The Pitiful Gardener's Handbook: Successful Gardening Inspite of Yourself

by Eden, Connie; Cheney, Tracy

• ISBN13: 9781881409236
• ISBN10: 1881409236
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-03-01
• Publisher: Johnston Assocs Intl

Summary

Offers advice on every aspect of gardening such as buying plants, soil, compost, fertilizing, pruning, pest control, and much more

Table of Contents

Introduction It's Not a Garden Without You	11	(4)
PART ONE WHAT IS A GARDEN?	15	(10)
Why You'd Never Want Mother Nature as Your Gardener	16	(1)
Mother Nature's Three Principles	17	(2)
Anatomy of a Garden	19	(6)
PART TWO TAILORING YOUR GARDEN TO SUIT YOU	25	(90)
Filter First, Plant Later	28	(28)
What Do You Have? Build Your Site Filter	29	(8)
What Kind of Gardener Are You? Putting Your Personal Filter Together	37	(16)
What Kind of Garden Do You Want? Compiling Your Plant Filter	53	(3)
Getting Garden Smarts	56	(33)
Plant Tag Gardening	56	(3)
Develop Your Sources---But Beware the Garden Evangelist	59	(1)
Find One Good Gardening Book	59	(2)
Knowledge Creates Options	61	(2)
The Plant Categories	63	(22)
Look Before You Leap	85	(1)
Putting Filters to Work for You	86	(3)
Shopping Savvy	89	(19)
Does It Matter Where I Buy Plants?	89	(7)
Economically Adding to Your Collection	96	(2)
Does It Matter What Kind of Packaging the Plant Comes In?	98	(2)
How Do I Pick Out the Healthiest Plants?	100	(2)
Deciphering ``Gardenese''	102	(6)
Getting Down and Dirty	108	(7)
Planting Your Garden	108	(7)
PART THREE GARDEN MANAGEMENT	115	(38)
Interacting With Mother Nature	117	(4)
How Gardeners Enhance the Work Mother Nature Already Does	117	(2)
How Gardeners Thwart Natural Processes to Their Advantage	119	(2)
Tools Make It A Garden	121	(4)
Soil---Miore Than The Dirt You Walk On	125	(8)
Enhancing the Soil You've Been Dealt	126	(7)
Here A Snip, There A Snip, Everywhere A Snip, Snip	133	(13)
When Subtraction Means More---Pruning to Stimulate Growth	134	(1)
Whipping Your Plants Into Shape---Pruning to Keep Plants Healthy	134	(5)
The Gardener as Sculptor---Pruning to Alter Natural Forms	139	(2)
When Timing is Everything---Pruning to Stimulate Flower Production	141	(5)
Controlling Critters Your Way	146	(7)
Open Gardens Tolerate Pests	148	(2)
Closed Gardens Banish Pests	150	(3)
EPILOG PITIFUL NO MORE	153	(2)
APPENDICES	155	(18)
A. One Good Garden Book List	155	(3)
B. Compost Happens	158	(6)
The Basic Ingredients	158	(2)
Some Like It Hot, Some Like it Cold	160	(2)
A Worm Utopia	162	(2)
C. Success With Seeds	164	(3)
Eliminate Nature's Randomness to Get What You Want	164	(3)
D. Fertilizer	167	(6)
Let's Start with the Numbers	167	(1)
Delivering the Goods to Your Plants Chemicals	168	(2)
Delivering the Goods to Your Plants Organically	170	(3)
Index	173