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Reading Your Way to Better Gardens
A few of you are emailing your questions to me, which is great. Some of your questions are great column fodder, and others need a little more in-depth information than what I can give here. In those cases, I’ll give recommendations for particular books, and it occurred to me that I should highlight a few of my favorites:
The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch: I love this book. It really is a primer ?it's as basic a resource as you could hope for, with chapters on what plants need, planning your landscape, gardening gear, and how to buy plants. She also has chapters on the major categories of plants, from annuals, perennials, and vegetables, to lawns, shrubs, trees, even houseplants. Like any resource it won't have all the answers you'll ever need, but it sure has a lot of them. This is a book that I recommend to all my garden coaching clients.
The Truth About Organic Gardening by Jeff Gilman: Dr. Gilman is an associate professor of Horticultural Science at the University of Minnesota, and his books reflect that. I don’t mean that they read like a scientific journal, because they don’t; he’s actually a great writer, with a flowing, accessible style. Rather, you know he’s a scientist, because every chapter is backed up with research. If there wasn’t existing research out there to answer a question, he conducted his own experiments in his lab. I think that The Truth About Organic Gardening is an incredibly important book, because he very plainly explains why organic does not always equal better or safer. An organic fertilizer, used improperly, can burn plants and create runoff issues just as badly as a synthetic fertilizer can. Similarly, a non-selective organic pesticide will kill everything in its path, just like a man-made compound will. If you want to garden organically, and you want to choose the safest and most effective methods, this is an excellent book.
The American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants: While I usually default to either my personal photo library or online sources, I still love having this book around. I can use it as a reference for very basic information on a specific plant and cultivar. I can also use it if, for example, I want to use an iris, but I don’t know which variety I want. With 1,000 pages of wonderful plant photos, this book helps me zero in on the right plant. It’s not cheap, but you can usually find it on sale somewhere.
Mid-Atlantic Gardener’s Guide by Andre and Mark Viette: It certainly isn’t every plant that grows here, nor are they all the right plant for every situation, but if you’re just getting started this is a fantastic resource. My wife and I moved here in 2005 and before we even left Arizona, I was poring over the pages to learn about some of Virginia’s star plants. Almost everything in the book is readily available at local nurseries, and you could certainly do a lot worse than basing your yard’s plant palette around the plants in this guide. Andre Viette is a local plants man, with a beautiful nursery out in Fishersville. If you’re a plant lover you owe it to yourself to go check it out. Mr. Viette’s home is immediately adjacent to the nursery and his private gardens are open to the public. Go take a stroll, and get inspired!
Like most other pursuits, you won’t learn how to be a great gardener just by reading a book or two. It takes getting out there, getting your hands dirty, and learning from your successes and mistakes. The more we understand about how things work, however, the smaller our mistakes can be. All of the books I mention are a fun read, and with winter approaching they make a fine way to pass the time, dreaming of what we’ll do next spring.
David Marciniak is a Landscape Designer and garden enthusiast who resides in Culpeper. He welcomes your comments and questions as they be the basis for a great column. If you’re stumped by something happening in your yard or garden, email him at david@revolutionarygardens.com.
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