WWQP Bulletin Board

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Not a Quilting Question

I read that many of you garden along with quilting. Can you give me a good resource book on beginning gardening? My mother died this past Spring, and there are some very pretty gardens I've been weeding. I need to learn when to thin, what to thin, what blooms when. This year, the garden looks great with the maintenance, but I'm worried about next year. If anyone can help, that would be wonderful.

5 Comments:

  • At July 8, 2007 at 7:39 AM , Blogger Judy in Ohio said...

    Beth, your first issue with an inherited garden is identifying the plants. If they have been labeled then your maintenance job will be much easier. If they are not then you can spend the winter trying to recall what blossoms you saw, etc. and working on identifying what you have. One good online source of help can be found at the forums at http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/ where men and women with years of experience and practical knowledge are ready to help beginners from all areas of the country. (I think Syracuse might be in USDA Zone 5 but you can look that up online as well.)

    Any good local garden center (not Lowe's or Home Depot but a locally owned kind of place) will have gardening books specific to your area. I have two long shelves of gardening books and can't think of one specific one that would be good for beginners because mine are so old ... they might be out of print. But I'll be there's a "Gardening for Dummies" book out there. :-)

    Judy

     
  • At July 8, 2007 at 9:31 AM , Blogger Beth in Syracuse said...

    Thanks, this does help. I've been taking digital pictures at various stages to help me, because something new and colorful is always popping up. Luckily, I'm enjoying the relaxation of weeding.

    We do have a very nice local gardening place that helped me as I was doing the annuals. Glancing through various books at Borders and Barnes and Nobles, I was wondering if folks had some favorites. What's yours? it may be on amazon used.

    And, of course, gardening helps me with my quilt designs. I remember one quilt book that said "look to nature. Analyze, see which color combinations you like."

     
  • At July 8, 2007 at 10:12 AM , Blogger Judy in Ohio said...

    I love books of gardening essays which are full of scattered nuggets of wisdom so they are not exactly organized reference books. Henry Mitchell died sometime in the 1990s but for decades he was the garden columnist for the Washington Post newspaper (which might tell you that he was a knowledgable gardener and a superb writer). I love his books of collected garden columns because he grumbles, gripes, admits mistakes and curses over the weather, the soil and the plants that will not cooperate. Many garden books are tra-la-la happy books; Henry described gardening as it really is with moments of defeat and aggravation and success all mixed together. "The Essential Earthman" is a book of his that I take off the shelf and read about every seven or eight years. It refreshes my memory about why gardening is a never-say-die "sport".

    There used to be a PBS series called "Crockett's Victory Garden" hosted by Boston's PBS TV station. Books were written to go along with this series hosted by James Underwood Crockett; I have two books "Crockett's Victory Garden" and another one on perennial gardening. I'm pretty sure they are out of print. Try searching for the author.

    Judy

     
  • At July 9, 2007 at 6:07 PM , Blogger Jill from Portland said...

    The library would be a great resource.
    I love gardenweb too.
    Jill

     
  • At July 10, 2007 at 12:40 PM , Blogger Beth in Syracuse said...

    Yes, the library will be a great source. I'm trying to find out folk's favorites because there a bizzillion books out there. After I collect some titles, I'll search them out. Thanks!

     

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