Introduction
Aren’t you lucky! You’re entering or are already part of the most popular and rewarding lifelong hobby that exists — worldwide. Gardening is a common language that knows no national, socioeconomic, or age boundaries. It’s a common thread that binds all of us together. Whether you’re discussing your outrageous zucchini harvest of the previous year or sharing your secret tips for prizewinning roses, you’ve probably found that gardeners have an instant bond, no matter what their level of experience.
Because gardening is a huge topic that encompasses a wide field of cultivation interests and disciplines, it’s impossible for any one book to cover everything there is to know about gardening. However, when you’re armed with the gardening basics, like those presented in this book, you’re ready for just about anything that the art of gardening can throw at you.
Sure, gardening requires some exertion. But it’s healthy exercise. It makes you feel a great sense of accomplishment when the flowerbeds are weeded, the bulbs are planted, and the seeds are sown. It’s primal. And reaping the rewards of your labor — by cutting flowers for your dinner party or fresh herbs for your salad — is a special joy that makes the noisy, electronic stimulation that surrounds us (cars, phones, MP3 players, and the like) seem trivial. Gardening fosters a deep satisfaction that nurtures your body and soul. That’s why this book, Gardening Basics For Dummies, exists. In addition to giving you basic pointers on how to make your gardening as successful and rewarding as possible, it’s a celebration of the art and sheer joy of gardening.
About This Book
In this book, I’ve tried to distill my over-40-years of gardening experience as well as the knowledge of some of my other gardening friends, because we all learn from each other.
I hope this book is fun reading: Sometimes gardeners can get way too serious about this pursuit. I’ve always felt that gardening is supposed to relieve anxiety, not add to it. After all, this is gardening, not brain surgery! Making a mistake (and you will) is not a big deal. Gardens can recover quickly from our bumbling efforts to care for them. My main mission in this book is to bring you gardening success and the inimitable pleasure that comes from it. It’s no fun if all your efforts end up in the compost pile.
Following the classic For Dummies format, this book gives you the most basic gardening information you need, organized and presented in an easy-to-follow, modular manner. Although you can read from cover-to-cover, you don’t have to. This book can function as a reference work, so you can jump in, find what you need, and get back to your stand of birch trees or the koi pond or the garden center or wherever else you’d like to be.
After reading this book, you may not be an expert, but you should be well on your way to taking on most gardening tasks with new confidence. Gardening is part science and part art, and how you mix them up is a very personal thing. After getting a handle on the basics presented here, you can move on to develop your own style and techniques that work best for you.
Conventions Used in This Book
As you advance in gardening, you find that in certain branches of horticulture (like perennials, some trees and shrubs, and orchids), you’re confronted with dreaded scientific names (usually Latin, sometimes Greek). People use such names in these plant categories for very legitimate reasons, and you can choose to follow the path to those reasons later. For now, I spare you that step by mostly using common names for the plants throughout this book. When I do provide the scientific name, I give common plant names first, followed by the botanical name.
As is typical of all For Dummies books, I also shy away from as much jargon as possible, and I explain any terms used right away (often in parentheses following the term). New, defined terms may also appear in italics. Horticulture and gardening can be as technical as any other science, but this is not a textbook for Horticulture 101!
The Internet is part of life now and can provide oodles of great gardening information, so I include various Web references. Web addresses appear in monofont. When this book was printed, some Web addresses may have needed to break across two lines of text. If that happened, rest assured that I haven’t put in any extra characters (such as hyphens) to indicate the break. When using one of these Web addresses, just type in exactly what you see in this book, pretending as though the line break weren’t there.
What You’re Not to Read
If you’re short on time and just want to get down to the nitty-gritty, you can skip the stuff in the gray boxes. I include this sidebar information for those of you who want to know the whys of everything or who just want to dig deeper.
Foolish Assumptions
Because you’re reading this book, I assume that, like me, you really love gardening. Here are some other things I assume regarding your possible background and interest in gardening:
You’ve seen other folks’ gardens that have inspired you, so now you want to bring your own gardening skill to the next level.
You’re concerned about a healthy diet and want to grow some of your own herbs, fruits, and vegetables.
Your lawn is looking on the tattered side, so you want to spruce it up a bit.
You’ve moved into a new place, and the landscaping is nonexistent or dreadful, so you want to change it.
You love outdoor living and you want to improve the space around you.
You like the idea of gardening but don’t know where to start.
How This Book Is Organized
The basic goal of every chapter is to give you the information you need to go out and create a garden, or at least plant something, no matter what your level of experience. You may already know a lot about roses, for example, but perhaps you want information on how to start an annual flowerbed; the chapters in this book can help out in that regard. Even if your primary interest is in growing roses or daylilies, or in setting up a basic vegetable garden, you can find useful information in every chapter that you can probably apply to your planting project.
This book includes six parts, which are further divided into chapters. Check out the following sections for an overview of what you can find in each part.
Part I: Preparing Yourself (And Your Garden) for Planting
Sometimes just getting started can be the hardest part. In this section, your wheels begin turning. Chapter 1 introduces you to the main garden players — annuals, perennials, trees, shrubs, vines, and groundcovers — and explains their roles. Chapter 2 helps you put together your grand plan and gives you some ideas of types of gardens to consider and questions to ask yourself. I explain what hardiness zones are and why should you care about them in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 puts your spade in the ground with the basics of garden preparation and your plants’ basic needs. And the right garden tools make a big difference, so Chapter 5 takes all the mystery out of tool selection and use.
Part II: Flowers and Foliage: Growing for Color
Foliage is nice, but most people are in gardening for color. Chapter 6 deals with the almost ever-blooming, frequently dazzling colors of annuals — which ones to choose and how to use them best. Recently, perennials have been the hottest category of plant, probably because of their immense variety and year-after-year performance. These repeat-performers are detailed in Chapter 7. Nothing can perk up your spirits after a long winter better than spring-flowering bulbs or give late color like the summer-flowering types; that’s what Chapter 8 is all about. Chapter 9 introduces you to America’s favorite flower: the rose. There, I give you tips on which roses are easiest to grow and tell you which are most fragrant.
Part III: Stretching Your Garden Beyond Its Boundaries: The Permanent Landscape
The lawn frames everything in the garden and is the family playground during the summer. Chapter 10 can help you grow a lawn you can be proud of. Trees and shrubs are considered the “bones” of the garden because they define its shape and are present for many years. I introduce you to the foundational plants that best suit your needs in Chapter 11. And don’t forget vines and groundcovers — they can serve as the icing on your garden cake; I profile them in Chapter 12.
Part IV: Producing Your Own Produce
What can possibly match the flavor of your own warm vine-ripened tomatoes? Or fresh ripe strawberries and raspberries? That’s what Part IV is about: home-grown produce. It’s healthy and delicious. Veggies start off this part in Chapter 13, followed by Chapter 14 on the pleasures of how to grow and enjoy herbs. Chapter 15 shows you how you can have all the fruits and berries you want.
Part V: Designing Special and Fun Gardens
This part covers what gardening is really all about — fun! Chapter 16 covers the extremely popular form of gardening that even those space-challenged gardeners can enjoy: container gardening. Water gardens have become the rage because of not only the exotic plants they display but also the wildlife (including fish and frogs) that they provide a home for. Skip to Chapter 17 for details on water gardening.
Part VI: The Part of Tens
Of course, this wouldn’t be a real For Dummies book without a Part of Tens. This part is where you go when you want information fast. Chapter 18 gives you answers to the ten most commonly asked garden questions. If you’re handy and like gardening projects, see Chapter 19. Getting the kids involved in gardening early in life is a great idea, so check out the fun projects for them to do in Chapter 20.
Icons Used in This Book
Icons are the cute little pictures that show up in the margins of the book, right next to certain blocks of text. Here’s what those icons stand for:
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Where to Go from Here
A great thing about For Dummies books is that you can start anywhere you want — one part or chapter doesn’t depend on any other. For example, if you’re interested in growing your own fruit, head right to Chapter 15. No need to start anywhere else!
That said, if you feel more comfortable getting a basic grounding (so to speak) in gardening before plunging right in, start with Part I, Chapter 1. If you’re re-evaluating or starting your garden from scratch, then any of the other chapters in Part I are good places to begin. After that, where you go is really up to you, based on your most pressing gardening needs or pleasures.