A GOOD READ: Books offer fresh ideas for growing your garden
A GOOD READ by Susan Clark
Now that spring is in the air, it’s time to get a start on the gardening season. Imagination and ideas can combine to create attractive garden settings. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out some of the following books at your local Library.
Get back to basics with Ecological Gardening: Your Safe Path to a Healthy, Beautiful Garden by Marjorie Harris. Dive into this book and dig up useful tips, get back to basics and create a lush and beautiful garden. This is a classic guide to gardening with the environment in mind.
If you dream of having an outdoor haven but don’t have the time to do all the work, it’s time to cheat! You’ll find simple, inexpensive, time-saving tricks in How to Cheat at Gardening and Yard Work: Shameless Tricks for Growing Radically Simple Flowers, Veggies, Lawns, Landscaping and More by Jeff Bredenberg. This book will give you time to sit back in your lawn chair with a cup of tea and one of these great gardening books.
Most people like the idea of an easy-care garden. Potted gardens generate pleasure and make any space more appealing. Container gardens offer a great alternative for either experienced or beginner gardeners. Better Homes and Gardens Complete Guide to Container Gardening features breathtaking garden projects with colour photographs and helpful advice on how to create mini-gardens.
You may have a bit less to spend at the nursery this season but don’t let a tight budget stand between you and a beautiful garden. With a bit of patience and planning, you can get results. All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! by Mel Bartholomew explains how to save time, money and aggravation with a square foot garden. Children, adults with limited mobility and even complete novices can achieve success with this type of garden.
For a closer look at garden programs that bring neighbours together and grow healthy food, Community Gardening by Ellen Kirby and Elizabeth Peters provides a richly illustrated guide that shows how to develop and maintain a community garden.
Herbs add fragrance and beauty to your garden and they are easy to grow just about anywhere in Canada. Herb Gardening for Canada by Laura Peters provides information on 64 of the best herbs for Canadian gardens. You’ll find information on each herb and great ideas on how to create potpourris, perfumes, lotions and lip balms.
Have you ever thought of growing all the food that you need yourself? You may find yourself dreaming of chickens and tomato plants when you read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. This light-hearted account of the author’s family and their quest to rely on their own and locally grown food is filled with insights into food production, health and diet.
For younger readers, The Gardening Book by Jane Bull provides an introduction to gardening and some related activities for kids.
And for a quick garden fix, it’s always fun to browse through the wide variety of gardening magazines available at your local library. Also, check out local library programs for free workshops on gardening.
A Good Read is a column by Tri-City librarians that is published every Wednesday. Susan Clark is library services assistant at Port Coquitlam's Terry Fox Library.
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