Gardening Basics For Dummies
Overview
Cultivate your passion to grow
In a 1625 essay, Francis Bacon called gardens "the purest of human pleasures," and what was true then is even more so today—gardening can give you a serene refuge from the short-lived (and noisy!) distractions of modern life and a fertile basis for satisfaction that will bear fruit long into the future. To help you get started on your own leafy paradise, the new edition of Gardening Basics For Dummies grounds you thoroughly in the fundamentals of soil, flowers, trees, and lawns—and helps you get to know the names of what you're planting along the way!
In a friendly, straightforward style, professional horticulturist Steven A. Frowine distills 50 years of gardening experience to show you how to start growing your expertise—from planning out your own mini-Eden and planting your first annuals, bulbs, and perennials through to laying the perfect lawn, raising tasty crops, and even introducing fish to your landscape! He also digs into the grubbier side of horticultural life, making sure you're as prepared as any seasoned farmer to deal with pests, weeds, and other challenges the earth will throw up at you.
- Create your ideal garden plan
- Become an expert on common flora with definitions and descriptions
- Know how to look after your soil
- Get creative with butterfly and children's gardens
Whether you're beginning with a tiny garden in a box, or beautifying your property with tree-lined groves and flowery bowers, this is the ideal introduction to the intense pleasure of gardening and will make you happy to reap what you’ve sown!
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About The Author
Steven A. Frowine is a noted professional horticulturist and a longtime avid gardener and communicator.
The National Gardening Association is the leading garden-based educational nonprofit in the USA. Visit http://garden.org.
Sample Chapters
gardening basics for dummies
CHEAT SHEET
To have the garden of your dreams, make sure you pick the right plants for your hardiness zone and select the right fertilizers for your plants. If your garden is shady, this Cheat Sheet offers a list of plants made for the shade. When you're planning and measuring your garden use the handy conversion chart for metric and standard measurements.
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Ask yourself what you want from a vine. Do you have a good spot, or can you create one? Some vines are big, rambling plants; others can fill and remain in their allotted spaces. Some vines offer temporary coverage, and others are long-lasting. Figure out whether you want flowers or fruit and whether you want the vine for part of the growing season or all.
Whether your water garden consists of a barrel or tub with a few plants or a naturalistic in-ground pond, gardeners often cite water features as the element that truly complete a garden.
When deciding on the type of water garden to have, first consider where you'd like your garden to be. Even before you go shopping, you need to evaluate the area where you'd like to put a water garden and determine its basic requirements:
Sunlight: Most water garden plants adore full sun and bloom with gusto as a result — specifically, 6 or more hours per day is great.
The best advice for planning your first vegetable garden is to start small. Just be sure you locate your garden in a sunny spot where expansion is possible. As for actual size, it depends on what you want to grow. Here's what you can put in the following standard-size gardens:
A 6 x 8 foot plot can support a couple tomato plants, maybe some bush beans, and some lettuce.
Fertilizing is an important part of gardening because given at the right time, fertilizers can really give your plants a boost. When you're trying to decide on which fertilizer to use, keep this list handy to make sense of fertilizer terminology:
Complete fertilizers: These fertilizers contain all three macronutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K).
To have the garden of your dreams, make sure you pick the right plants for your hardiness zone and select the right fertilizers for your plants. If your garden is shady, this Cheat Sheet offers a list of plants made for the shade. When you're planning and measuring your garden use the handy conversion chart for metric and standard measurements.
When choosing plants for your garden, select the plants best suited to your climate. Know your USDA hardiness zone and use this chart to determine the time and length of your growing season.
Zone
Minimum Temperature
(°F/°C)
Last Frost Date
First Frost Date
Typical Number of
Frost-Free Days
1
Below –50°F
Below
Don't fret if your garden gets more shade than sun; plenty of plants thrive in the shade. This chart names annuals and perennials that do well in the shade, so keep this list handy and you can decide which plants you want for your shady garden oasis.
Annuals
Perennials
Wax begonia (Begonia semperflorens-cultorum)
Bear's breech (Acanthus mollis)
Amethyst flower (Browallia)
Beebalm (Monarda didyma)
Canterbury bells (Campanula medium)
Bellflower (Campanula portenschlagiana)
Coleus (Coleus spp.
General Gardening
Typically, the vegetable-gardening season is summer, bookended by late spring and early fall. Gardeners mark the start by the last spring frost date and the finish by the first fall frost date (although some crops, like parsnips and kale, can stay out in the cold a bit longer and even gain improved flavor).
Your local weather forecaster may announce the frost date each spring (last frost) and fall (first frost), or you can call your local garden center or the nearest Cooperative Extension Office and ask.
Every plant needs light to grow and flourish, but the right amount of sunlight varies. When choosing plants for your garden, look at the plant label to check its light requirements. No matter what light conditions your garden has to offer, at least something should be able to grow there.
Defining light, from dense shade to full sun
You'll often see terms like part shade, light shade or deep shade to describe a plant's light requirements.
General Gardening
How do you make sure your flower garden has the right amount of moisture? Relying on natural rainfall would be nice, but natural rainfall is hard to count on. Gardeners always seem to have to supplement the moisture, a little or a lot. You just need to keep an eye on things and pay attention to your plants.
If you know what to look for, you can figure out your plants' watering needs.
Feeding (fertilizing) flowers keeps plants healthy and rewards you with great color and blossoms. But too much fertilizer can be bad for your plants, and applying the wrong type can be counterproductive.
Plants have complex systems in need of chemicals to help them produce their own foods. The three primary plant-growth elements, or nutrients, are as follows:
N (nitrogen): Enhances stem and leaf growth (for most plants, nitrogen ends up being the most important nutrient)
P (phosphorus): Contributes to flower production, fruit production, seed production, and root growth
K (potassium): Ensures general vigor; helps plants resist disease
An all-purpose, balanced formulation contributes to overall plant health.
General Gardening
The method you use to apply fertilizer to your vegetable garden depends on the fertilizer you've chosen, whether it's liquid or granular. If your vegetable garden has fertile soil enhanced by compost and other organic materials, fertilizing may not be necessary. Still, vegetables are a hungry group, and feeding them can certainly speed growth and improve your harvest.
Taking proper care of garden annuals isn't difficult. For the most part, annuals are easygoing because they're bred to be quite tough and durable. Grooming your flower garden on a regular basis will reward you with a lush, colorful display. Develop a routine — walk around your garden in the morning or early evening to see what needs your attention, do some light maintenance, or just cut a few blossoms to enjoy indoors.
With a little tender, loving care, bulbs can do their thing and be wonderfully reliable. Bulbs come as a package of life — that is, with the embryonic plant and flower within, plus stored food to fuel the growth — they demand little from you, the gardener.
Watering your bulbs: Bulbs rot with too much moisture.
Caring for herbs isn't much different from watching out for your other annuals and perennials, but herbs may have a few special requests. Although each type of herb has its own growing requirements, most herbs are unfussy plants. Most prefer full sun. Most prosper in good, moderately fertile soil. And most require that the soil be well-drained so they get the moisture they need to grow but don't suffer from wet feet.
General Gardening
Mulching flower beds is a good gardening habit. Mulch inhibits weed growth, holds in soil moisture, and moderates soil-temperature fluctuations. In cold-winter areas, mulching protects plant roots from winter cold and helps prevent frost-heaving, in which plants are literally pushed out of the ground by the natural expansion and contraction of the soil as it cools off and heats up.
The best, longest lasting garden hose is one that's composed of layers. The inner layer of a garden hose needs to be a smooth, flexible rubber or synthetic tube. To protect it and give it toughness, the inner layer is covered or coated with at least one outer layer of nylon fabric or mesh. The outer skin beyond that, the part you touch and see, needs to be of a material that doesn't break down after prolonged exposure to sun and weather.
Perennial flowers (or flowering perennials) bloom every year; you don't need to buy new plants each year as you do with annuals. The flowers on perennials don't last all season; most bloom for two to four weeks, but the foliage can remain into late fall.
Some perennials eventually do run out of steam. Their growth gets crowded, and they don't seem to flower as well.
General Gardening
Roses come in a huge array of sizes and forms. If you like roses, you can find a rose to grow no matter what kind of environment you live in. The trick is to choose the right rose for the look you have in mind.
Hybrid teas: Hybrid teas come in medium-to-tall bushes and have a vase-shaped profile. Elegant pointed buds precede big, gorgeous flowers that are usually one to a stem.
General Gardening
Gardening encourages creativity. You can design annual beds in eye-catching color combinations or grow fragrant blossoms to enjoy. Annuals are great for colorful or scented bouquets for the house or for giving.
Color combinations that impress
Annuals come in every color of the rainbow, and the only limit is your imagination.
General Gardening
You know you have a drainage problem in your garden when heavy or even moderate rain leaves puddles that take forever to drain. Or you may find out, to your dismay that under a few inches of okay soil in your yard is a stubborn layer of packed clay.
In really damp areas (especially in humid periods or in shady spots) water, whether from rain or from your sprinkler, can be slow to evaporate.
Believe it or not, many herbs are pest-free, which is one of the reasons gardeners find these plants so easy and fun to grow. Some herbs even repel pests from themselves as well as adjacent plants. However, you may meet a handful of pests in your herb garden. If you do, act quickly to rescue your harvest, either by treating the plant or by tearing it out and getting rid of it before the problem can spread.
Planting herbs in your vegetable and flower beds works quite well, as long as you plant your herbs in sunny location with well-drained soil. But you can also design a garden bed devoted entirely to herbs.
When to plant your herbs depends on the plant, but you can't go wrong planting herbs the same way you plant vegetable seedlings; that is, plant them out in the garden after all danger of frost is past.
To keep your perennial gardens healthy you need to divide several kinds of perennials periodically. You know when yours need to be divided because the plants are growing in ever-denser clumps and the flower show isn’t as prolific as it was in previous years. The interior of the clump, in particular, may become disappointingly unproductive.
Hardiness zone maps help you determine which garden plants will thrive where you live. The various hardiness zone maps indicate minimum and maximum temperatures that plants can tolerate, or growing seasons with climate variations. Every part of the world has its own hardiness zones, and most maps are set up the same way.
Forcing bulbs merely means encouraging the plants to bloom early by treating them in a special way. Some of the easiest and most popular bulbs to force are 'Paperwhite' narcissus, while hyacinths are fragrant, and tulips and daffodils are cheery.
You can force potted bulbs into early bloom, but they still need 8 to 16 weeks to chill (generally the larger the bulb, the longer the chilling time).
Herbs are perfect plants for container gardens. The pots contain their growth and make it easy to bring them indoors when nights are cool. Creating a container herb garden is a terrific way to raise edible herbs that you use often in your kitchen.
The most important thing to do for potted herbs is keep them watered; potted plants dry out notoriously fast, and cycles of soaking and drying out aren't good for a plant's health, even a tough little herb plant.
Deciding where to plant your bareroot rose is easy. Pick a spot where you roses can get at least six hours of full sunlight every day. Bareroot roses come partially or fully bagged or boxed. When you look inside, you see plain stems and roots, perhaps along with some wood shavings or other slightly moisture-retaining material.
Planting bulbs is simple. But before you start the planting process, be sure the chosen spot has good, well-draining soil. Bulbs rot in soggy ground and struggle in sandy soil; although adding some organic matter can ease these problems considerably, it is still in your best interest to select a location that resembles an ideal environment for your bulbs.
Although you can plant some perennials in your flower garden in the fall, springtime is preferable. All the conditions that perennials relish and respond to are in place: warming soil, warm sunshine, longer days, moist ground, and regular rainfall. Roots quest into the ground, taking up water and nutrients to fuel growth, and top growth — foliage, stems, and flowers — surges forth.
Plant a potted rose early in the growing season (late spring or early summer) — about the time you generally find them for sale. If your climate is cold, wait until after the last frost. But don't wait too long, simply because hot summer weather stresses a freshly transplanted rose plant.
Good soil is also very important.
General Gardening
Because some perennials are tall, or tall and broad, you can support them with stakes or rings. Using stakes and rings keep perennials manageable, and prevents them from falling under their own weight. Using a stouter or larger support than you think you need never hurts; if your perennials are healthy and happy, they're probably going to need it.
Roses have a reputation for being difficult to care for, but actually learning how to take care of roses is somewhat simple. The main components involved with caring for roses that you need to understand are: planting, watering, fertilizing, pruning, and winterizing. Simply put, with the correct amount of water and sunlight and a little bit of grooming, your roses should thrive.
General Gardening
Although some perennials bloom all summer long, just like your favorite annuals, others don't. They have a period of glory that peaks for a week or several weeks, and then the show subsides. With proper planning you can time your perennial blooms to provide color from early spring through late fall.
Gardeners have lots of ways to find out in advance when a perennial will bloom and for approximately how long.
Annuals are great for gardeners who want instant color and big impact. You can plant colorful annuals in the ground, in containers of all sizes, or fill small spaces that just need a touch of "something." Annuals are versatile in your garden design, as well: You can fill large areas with blocks of color and texture, or change color themes each year.
Surprisingly, a great deal of measuring goes into garden planning. If you need to change between metric and English (U.S. standard) units, use this basic conversion chart to make sense of it all when planning your garden.
Type of Measurement
Metric to English
English to Metric
Distance
1 centimeter = 0.4 inch
1 inch = 2.
General Gardening
Perennials aren't especially pest- or disease prone if there's good air circulation and regular watering. But some pests and diseases can become perennial problems. Read on for their descriptions and some ways to control them.
Plant pests
Aphids: These small whitish critters congregate on stems and nodes, sucking the life out of your plants.
General Gardening
Perennials return each year to provide splashes of color and texture to garden beds and borders. Here are some basic garden layout tips and techniques used by professional garden designers that you can easily apply in your own garden:
The most common way to display perennials is together, in a large flowerbed or, space permitting, a long border of either meandering form or with firm boundaries.
General Gardening
Using mulch is a good gardening habit but not mandatory; the benefits, however, make it worth the effort. A really good job of mulching your garden usually offers these benefits:
Inhibits weed germination and growth. (Weeds are not only unsightly, but they also steal resources from desirable garden plants!)
Holds in soil moisture, protecting your plants from drying out quickly
Moderates soil-temperature fluctuations (This benefit is especially valuable during that turbulent-weather period in spring when you don't want your plants to be stressed.
Unusual containers for your plants can be a lot of fun and add unexpected pleasure or whimsy to your garden displays. If the container is not entirely suitable (an odd shape, or not conducive to providing good drainage), simply nest a plastic pot inside it and let developing plants hide the actual container from view over time.
Some bulbs need to be planted in the spring; others do best when you plant them in the fall. When to plant bulbs depends a lot on when your bulbs will bloom.
Bulbs aren't instant-gratification plants. They need some time in the ground before they send forth stem, foliage, and flowers. But they're not inert when they're in the ground, of course.
General Gardening
The last frost is the date when you're free to plant vegetable seedlings or direct-sow vegetable seeds into the garden. The last frost date is in late spring, but the date varies from year to year and from location to location. You can find the correct date at the local garden center or from the nearest office of the Cooperative Extension Service.
Autumn is the time to put your water garden to bed and decide what to do with your fish. As the water temperature in your garden pond cools down, you'll cease fertilizing, and the plants will begin to go dormant. Lower the water level a few inches, and float a ball or block of wood on the surface to prevent a total freeze-over.
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