Beginners

Review of Kiss My Aster by Amanda Thomsen (With Giveaway!)

June 13, 2013 23 comments
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***Giveaway! Leave a comment to win your very own copy of Kiss My Aster!*** Every so often, a book comes along which challenges the limits of the media and shows how much is still possible with old-fashioned paper and ink. Amanda Thomsen’s new book Kiss My Aster: A Graphic Guide to Creating a Fantastic Yard [...]

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The NEW Sunset Western Garden Book

March 22, 2012 65 comments
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16 years ago, when I took my first horticulture class, The Sunset Western Garden Book was the very first book I bought. Its status in the West is such that I owned three copies by the end of my first year: one old edition which had the best basic gardening tips, one new edition with [...]

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Book Review: The Beginner’s Guide to Gardening

February 15, 2012 91 comments
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Katie Elzer-Peters is one of those dynamos of the gardening world who is so busy Getting Things Done that you may not have actually heard of her yet. But she’s been working behind the scenes on so many projects – nursery newsletters, writing articles for sites too numerous to mention, and mentoring authors with Cool [...]

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Workin’ Like a Pro: Gardening Tools I Adore Right Now

October 5, 2011 11 comments
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You all know I’m a bit of a tool evangelist. After having countless employees bust up inferior tools during our 40-hour workweeks in the garden, I do get a bit swoony about the tools that last. But of course, merely surviving the garden isn’t good enough for pros. We do so much pruning, digging and [...]

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Five Books: for Beginning Gardeners

January 4, 2011 2 comments
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Newbie gardeners are greeted to the gardening book section by thick encyclopedias on Crocus, for example, or how to design in specific styles. But when I was a new gardener, I didn’t know what style I wanted to design in. And I was still working my way through the common, easy-to-grow plants – I think [...]

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Fall Leaf Raking: Finding the Middle Ground

November 6, 2010 17 comments
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All gardeners evolve. There is something about being outside and working hard in nature that inspires learning and growth. The issue of fall leaves is one I’ve been struggling with lately. Last year I wrote about why you shouldn’t let your fall leaves stay, and all of those reasons are still true, but… This year [...]

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Low-Maintenance Landscaping: How to Tim Ferriss Your Garden Routine

September 16, 2010 11 comments
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Do you have more garden than time? Even people who love, LOVE to garden sometimes find their landscape a source of guilt rather than joy. So many times when I’m visiting a garden, I’m making enthusiastic exclamations over the abundance and beauty of it all, the owner of the garden is saying things like, “well, [...]

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Coastal Gardening: How to Garden on the Seacoast

April 11, 2010 11 comments
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Coastal gardening presents some big challenges. There is constant strong wind,  sandy soil that doesn’t hold water well and is lean on nutrients, and the salt! Oh, the salt. Of course, it has its benefits too. Nowhere else do you get such a sense of motion in the landscape, between the beauty of the waves [...]

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Gardening Basics: How to Water

June 21, 2009 6 comments
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Watering seems like one of those bonehead tasks that everyone should get right on their first try, right? I wish! The truth is, I see more gardens that are sick and unhealthy due to water stress than any other single issue. Luckily, watering properly isn’t complicated once you know a few simple things.

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Gardening Basics: How to Apply Mulch

June 16, 2009 15 comments
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We’ve talked about why a thick layer of mulch, composty soil, and good watering habits are important if you want to garden more organically; it’s all about giving your plants a foundation of good health so that pest problems will be few and far between. Today we’ll talk specifically about mulch: what it is, what [...]

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