Gardening for Beginners

Katie Elzer-Peters new gardening guide is like a cookbook for beginning gardeners.

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People who have been gardening for years forget what it was like to be a beginning gardener . They leave how many questions a beginner has about what to do , when to do it and how to get start .

But beginning gardener have a booster in Katie Elzer - Peters .

Her new book is called“Beginner ’s Illustrated Guide to horticulture : Techniques to Help You Get Started”(Cool Springs Press , 2012 , $ 21.99 ) . She wrote her book to give first gardeners the sureness they require to plant and get beautiful gardens .

This is a complete , well-heeled - to - economic consumption templet for growing . The full - colour effigy show exactly how to do dozens of garden - related tasks from navigating a garden center to improving garden soil ; from constitute a tree to plant acontainer vegetable garden .

The book is divided into seven parts that admit horticulture fundamentals , lawn care , tree and bush , flowers , veggie and finishing touch .

I think “ Part One : Gardening Information Decoded ” will be peculiarly helpful to start gardeners . Some of the how - to instructions in this part include “ How to Read a Plant Tag ” and “ How to register a Fertilizer Label . ” Those are two of import subjects that can often be confusing .

Katie help beginners learn “ the lingo ” of gardening , too . By translating the cant , she clear up the mystery of what a polarity says at the garden center and what it mean to a gardener . For exercise , when the sign pronounce , “ drouth - tolerant ” it means “ plant that do n’t need extra water once they ’ve been in the garden for a year . ”

For each how - to , Katie includes a checklist of what beginner involve for that gardening task . She also provide crown for success and additional entropy style “ Just Grow With It ! ”

Every gardener will appreciate the secrets she unwrap in another peculiar feature film call “ Instant Green Thumb . ” In the “ How to manage for Vegetables ” instruction , she writes , “ The secret to successful vegetable gardening is in the flowers . That ’s right : implant flowers with your veggie will lure pollinator , deter pests , and encourage visit from beneficial louse . ”

Even though her book is loaded with whole gardening information , I think the serious part is that it sound like Katie ’s standing in the garden , ready to lend a bridge player . And in a way , she is .

( Cool Springs Press provide me with a free review article copy of “ Beginner ’s Illustrated Guide to Gardening . ” )

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The “Beginner’s Illustrated Guide to Gardening” is everything you wanted to know about gardening in one easy-to-use resource.Photo/Illustration: Jodi Torpey

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