Home Grown Gardening

A quick-reference guide to attracting birds and butterflies for gardeners with little experience and time. In the eye of a bird or butterfly, the typical suburban landscape resembles an unfriendly desert. Closely mowed lawns, tightly clipped shrubs, raked-up borders, and deadheaded flowers mean no place to nest, no food to eat, and nowhere to hide. To the humans who live there, this means no bird songs, no colorful butterflies, no dazzling hummingbirds, no night-sparkling fireflies.   Creating a garden that welcomes these creatures may seem like a confusing and complicated task, but the principles involved are relatively simple. Essentially, wildlife needs food, water, and shelter, just like we do, and this lavishly illustrated guide shows which plants attract which creatures, and how to plant and care for them.

A quick-reference guide to roses, herbs, and edible flowers for gardeners with little experience and time. Roses represent love and beauty. Their colors and fragrance create the standard by which many other flowers are measured. Cultivated around the world for perfume, roses have a sweet and unforgettable scent. However, many would-be rose gardeners believe that roses require constant care and lavish doses of sprays and chemicals. Roses do require attention, but their glorious flowers make all your efforts worthwhile, and the roses in this book were chosen because they are tried-and-true, proven performers. Of the many types of plants that grow in our gardens, herbs and edible flowers hold a very special place. People use herbs and edible flowers to heal their bodies, calm their minds, add fragrance to their homes, and flavor and preserve their foods-herbs improve the quality of our lives. This colorful, photo-filled book takes the guesswork out of gardening with the easiest-to-grow and best-performing roses, herbs, and edible flowers. No trial and error-get it right the first time!

A quick-reference guide to planting perennials for gardeners with little experience and time Choosing perennials for a garden can be a daunting task, considering that there are thousands of choices. Yarrow? Columbine? Aster? To make the selection easier, this guide profiles the easiest-to-grow and best-performing perennials for both sunny and shady locations. Each plant is shown in a beautiful color photo for easy identification. The photo is accompanied by information on where and how to grow the featured plant, along with horticultural tips to assist in making the perennial-gardening adventure an enjoyable endeavor. From controlling pesky bugs and deadheading to staking tall plants and taking root cuttings, everything a beginning gardener or new homeowner needs to start a garden is here. This colorful, photo-filled book takes the guesswork out of gardening. No trial and error-get it right the first time!

A quick-reference guide that shows gardeners with little experience and time how to enliven spaces with containers and how to make the most of scented flowers and leaves. One of the greatest delights of a garden is a perfume that draws the visitor to bend down to inhale the fragrance. This delightful and practical book features lovely flowers with intoxicating scents that will create an aromatic garden or an indoor haven of perfumed houseplants.   Growing plants in containers can extend your gardening horizons, allowing you to try plants you don't have the space or climate to grow in the ground, as well as bringing your garden right onto the patio, deck, or windowsill.     In addition to highlighting classic annuals, bulbs, perennials, vines, and woody plants that are fragrant and that do well in containers, this must-have guide offers straightforward garden care advice, including handling different soil types, controlling pests, designing and maintaining container gardens, and how to grow trees and shrubs in pots.