Practical Gardening tips you can really use!

I find myself referring to the New Garden Book numerous times each year for advice on how to prune trees and shrubs, recommendations for the types of plants best suited to a specific location in my yard, or when I see a plant, shrub, or tree that I don't recognize. I bought the 384-page hardcover version of this book at a Better Homes and Gardens Book Store outlet many years ago. It is filled with color photos of trees, shrubs, flowers and other plants. I love to just thumb through the book looking at the pictures. It cost me about $20 and it has proven to be a very worthwhile investment.

The book is arranged in chapters. It lightly covers all aspects of gardening, from the basics of gardening, such as figuring out your climate and your soil type, to a discussion of fertilizers and mulches, as well as how to select the proper tools for your gardening job. There is a chapter on landscaping that shows you how to lay out your landscape design, choosing the proper plants and a number of different deck, patio and privacy ideas are discussed in this chapter.

There are chapters on lawns and ground covers, trees, shrubs, vines, perennials and biennials, annuals, bulbs and roses. Each chapter provides planting and care tips as well as color photos and details such as the required exposure, size of the mature plant, descriptions and other information for the various types of plants covered in each chapter.

There is also a very interesting chapter on "special" gardens. The book discusses and provides pictures of wildflower gardens, herb gardens, rock, shade, desert, water, container and wildlife gardens. There are also chapters about vegetable gardens, fruits and nuts and houseplants with photos, descriptions and care tips for each.

The New Garden Book does not provide a real in-depth look at any one particular gardening subject, rather it provides you with great general information on practically anything to do with gardening. The pictures in this book alone are worth the price of the book! Use this book as a beginning gardener to give you the wide exposure to all aspects of gardening which will in turn allow you to determine what your specific gardening passion is. Then you will have a better idea of the specialty book to look for that will provide you with the in-depth information you really want.