Customer Reviews

Gardening 101: Learn How to Plan, Plant, and Maintain a Garden

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This publication is the ideal resource for gardeners, from the weekend gardener to the avid green-thumb. There are many tips which despite your level of expertise in gardening undoubtedly you will find helpful. I have maintained my own vegetable and flower gardens for years now, and have discovered many secrets to success and even so after reading this book and implementing some suggestions regarding, placement, light exposure, fertilizing and transplanting have the best garden I've ever had. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wanted to learn about gardening or improve the garden(s) they have. Beyond that it is simply enjoyable reading for anyone with a botanical interest. Well written, beautifully illustrated - this will prove to be one of the most referred to books in your library.

The photos truly are lovely, but I'm so glad I didn't buy based on reviews - I read a library copy first.

It does start out with some good advice. The Preface talks about choosing your gardening style and doing a bit of planning before digging. The Introduction talks about matching the plant to the site, and urges readers to ask local extension services or nurseries for advice. Invaluable info for a novice gardener, but I don't believe it was ever repeated later in the book.

Alas, the book then takes a nasty turn and descends into the pit of Martha's garden and Martha's terms. Rock powders - perhaps that's the New England name for soil amendments, but you'll have trouble if you ask for them in nurseries around here (unless they've read the book). Her lists of vegetables, perennials, and annuals must be the ones she favors growing in her zone; quite a few of them wouldn't do well in other parts of the country. You'll have to get ideas for your zone from some other book, because they're not in 101.

A lot of basic info is touched upon but not explained very well; for instance, one page is devoted to watering, yet three pages give instructions for casting your very own garden trough.

I didn't much care for her sources at the back of the book, either.

I just love this book. Look, if you've never gardened before, this is a great book to get you started. And, if you have acres of gardens, this book can help you trouble shoot as well. I actually took the raised bed garden idea and made my own this spring with my husband. Our book is covered with dirt and grease spots from all of our referencing!!! We run to it if we are unsure of where to plant a certain veggie or how long it takes to grow a certain seed. This is a good investment.

If you are truely a beginner at gardening, this book would be ok but it seems to only scratch the surface. I've read other gardening books and have discovered and benefited more from them than this one. I know it's tempting to buy a book because it says that its for the beginner but in this case, I'd advise beginners to seek more comprehensive books on the topic. They may sound intimidating but in the end, they will make you a better gardener and work for you long after you've moved on from the beginner stage. I abandoned this book after I learned more.

Bought this book based on the reviews only. It has good photos, but beyond that, I thought is was fluff. Guess I should have known from the title Gardening 101. Maybe it should have been Garden - SQUARE 1. Your results my vary - just my opinion.

The book is easy to read, and has a lot of useful information for a first-time gardener as well as for a more experienced one.

This is essentially a crash course in gardening and garden design. It evenly provides instruction on the how-tos of growing as well as providing advice on planning an attractive garden or landscape. An awful lot of it didn't apply to me because of my growing situation. For instance I live in a very hot arid climate making all the info on cold weather gardening superfluous to me and I'm an apartment dweller which removes any possibility of gardening beyond what I can do on my patio.

Despite all the information not of immediate use to me I thought this was an excellent book for beginning gardeners. It covered every aspect of gardening you could think of from raising seedlings, drip irrigation, how to check soil pH and countless other things making it a good introductory source for most any information an aspiring gardener could want. The best part is that it provided step by step instructions so neophytes like me weren't just left with the principles of say preparing a bed or composting but clueless about how to go about employing those principles.

On the whole the book emphasizes gardening for your geography and goes a long ways to facilitate putting together a garden that will thrive with the natural conditions rather than struggle against them.

In true MS form, the book is lovely to look at and has some helpful ideas about gardening. Not a big book, but a valuable one for me.

Don't be fooled by the size of this book. An abundance of information is inside. It is essentially a step by step guide to creating your first garden. If you are more experienced this is probably not the book for you. But for the novice (like me), there aren't many better.