Gardening Tips

Sanyat Sattar

It's winter and the perfect time for gardening. Those who are interested in gardening or doing some roof-top planting can get some help from these books.

Gardening Magic
Joey Green
Rodale Press; September 2003

Whether gardeners are going toe-to-toe with Mother Nature or head-to-head with roving raccoons, it seems they're forever facing frustration. Though garden centres abound with gadgets and potions promising to eradicate even the most obstinate pest or problem, resourceful gardeners who enjoy relying on their own craftiness will welcome Green's shrewd solutions to common garden complaints using garden-variety products. Entertainingly written, Green's fun yet factual, peculiar yet practical guide, covers the gamut of garden and garden-related vexations, from ants to zucchini, barbecues to boots. Green appeals to the cunning side of every intrepid gardener who has ever had to shoo a squirrel or stymie a slug.

The Passion for Gardening
Ken Druse
Clarkson Potter; October 2003

With The Passion for Gardening, Druse writes about this inspiration; the underlying spirit that is shared by all gardeners. This is not a simple how-to book, but a why-to one. Why do we garden? And how are our lives immeasurably enriched by the process? As the world around us grows more chaotic each day, Druse, in rich and thoughtful prose, reminds us to slow down, put a trowel to the earth, and consider the wonders and healing powers of tending a garden. Druse visits ten remarkable gardens, including a Michigan landscaper's 60-acre natural habitat, a West Coast garden inspired by Japanese aesthetic, and Chanticleer, a delightful public estate on Philadelphia's Main Line that Druse dubs 'a paradise in progress'. With more than 250 dazzling colour photographs, as well as practical advice on replanting shrubs and trees, creating garden paths and sculptures, and controlling pests naturally, The Passion for Gardening is an inspirational and intimate look at gardening for a lifetime.

1000 Gardening Questions and Answers
Leslie Land
Workman Publishing Company; April 2003

Authoritative, accessible, and engaging, here is a new reference from The New York Times, a comprehensive, nearly 700-page bible of all the garden news that's fit to print. It is like a passionate conversation between gardeners and gardening experts on everything from how to divide perennials, prune raspberry canes and grow basil that really tastes like basil, to getting rid of earwigs, finding long-lost varieties of flowers and keeping honeysuckle under control. Carefully selected, updated, and expanded by Leslie Land, here are 1,000 Q&As that add up to an informal encyclopedia of gardening knowledge.