Green Gardener's Guide: Simple, Significant Actions to Protect & Preserve Our Planet [Paperback]

Joe Lamp'l (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2008

The first Green book from Cool Springs Press, written by popular television personality, Joe Lampl, known as Joe Gardener. With a platform that encourages earth-friendly gardening, Joe will offer tips that will save water, conserve resources, promote healthy and safe plant growth, and eliminate damage to the earth.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

The first Green book from Cool Springs Press, written by popular television personality, Joe Lampl, known as Joe Gardener. With a platform that encourages earth-friendly gardening, Joe will offer tips that will save water, conserve resources, promote healthy and safe plant growth, and eliminate damage to the earth.

From the Author

Why I wrote "The Green Gardener's Guide"

Up to now, there has been much said and written about this global crisis we are all in the midst of. And, let's face it, it hasn't been terribly positive. Yet, what has been provided in the way of actions which really have an effect is scattered at best. As a passionate gardener committed to environmental stewardship, I wanted to take a positive stance and provide solutions in a comprehensive resource; not just for gardeners but for anyone who cares about our environment. I wanted to offer useful, yet practical ways for each of us to collectively make an impact.

Ironically, as we gardeners and weekend warriors create beautiful gardens and landscapes, in the process we often waste water, use products and chemicals that have the potential to runoff into waterways, indiscriminately kill beneficial insects and emit greenhouse gasses into the air. And we are a large group--over 90 million strong!

Yet as I speak to audiences around the country and field questions from my own website they are all asking for simple, significant actions they can take to be a better environmental steward and help heal our planet. The Green Gardener's Guide is my answer to them and to everyone; that together we really can make a difference!

Joe Lamp'l

Product Details

• Paperback: 363 pages
• Publisher: Cool Springs Press (February 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591864267
• ISBN-13: 978-1591864264
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #860,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive Guide to Green Gardening, March 12, 2008

By 

Norma Lehmeierhartie (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Green Gardener's Guide: Simple, Significant Actions to Protect & Preserve Our Planet (Paperback)

This book covers all aspects of green gardening. Joe Lamp'l explains why eco-friendly gardening is crucial in making a difference for the environment and that your actions count. For example, Lamp'l discusses how our water drinking supply gets contaminated with the use of pesticides in the garden.

He details ways in which to conserve water in the garden.

The book will teach you how to compost and make "liquid gold" to fertilize your plants naturally. Composting is not only fun to do (it's cool to watch coffee grinds and vegetable scraps mixed with leaves turn into dirt), it's good for the environment and for the health of your plants.

The book instructs how to use trees and shrubs to naturally minimize the use of heat or air conditioning in the home.

My favorite section was gardening to protect the ecosystem, as Lamp'l describes ways in which to increase the beneficial wildlife and safely minimize pests. For example, he encourages the home owner to leave standing dead trees, as they are a host to a variety of wildlife.

Remember bug zappers? My family had them and I hated them--the constant snapping of insects. Turns out, bug zappers kill mostly useful insects!

The book is just loaded with useful information and I highly recommend it.

Author of the award winning book, Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify and Energize Your Life, Your Home and Your Planet

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joe Lamp'l Makes It Easy To Make a Difference, February 3, 2009

By 

Shawna Coronado "Shawna" (Warrenville, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Green Gardener's Guide: Simple, Significant Actions to Protect & Preserve Our Planet (Paperback)

Life for homeowners has become complicated. It seems it is so much easier for most of us to do things the way we always have instead of performing simple acts of greening for the planet. Yet Joe Lamp'l, host of the PBS series GardenSmart and DIY Network's Fresh from the Garden, proves with his book, The Green Gardener's Guide, that performing simple acts to help keep our planet clean and healthy are easy to do.

While the book focuses on greening most specifically in the garden, I find it a must for every homeowner who has even the smallest of properties. Millions of people own homes and all should know the basics of maintaining their property. Joe discusses easy ways homeowners can conserve water, recycle plastic, reuse products, compost food material, reduce chemical usage, and build a greener community.

Joe's awesome guide points out ways for the consumer to save money as well. These tips include ideas to increase your home's cool factor in the summer and how to increase your home's warmth factor in the winter simply by planting trees and shrubs appropriately on your property. From grasscycling to rain gardening to planting drought tolerant plants; Joe has it all down to a simple and easy to understand science.

Greening your landscape can go a long way towards making a difference for our larger environment. Joe understands that it takes small steps to get there and is setting a remarkable example himself by showing the world how easy it is to do.

I loved this book and highly recommend it as an excellent greening guide for any gardener or homeowner.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enthusiastically recommended to gardeners everywhere, August 11, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Green Gardener's Guide: Simple, Significant Actions to Protect & Preserve Our Planet (Paperback)

Nationally syndicated gardening writer and host of the PBS series "GardenSmart" Joe Lamp'l (a.k.a. Joe Gardener) presents The Green Gardener's Guide: Simple, Significant Actions to Protect & Preserve Our Planet, a straightforward how-to guide that lives up to its title. Written in plain terms for gardeners of all skill and experience levels, The Green Gardener's Guide covers how to reduce water usage (even fixing leaky faucets and collecting roof runoff in rain barrels can make a sizeable difference), minimize the use of chemicals and pesticides, reduce waste through recycling and composting, and much more. Of especial interest is the warning that relying too heavily upon cultivating a single species rather than promoting biodiversity can promote disaster when a parasite that preys upon that one species inevitably appears, as in the great Irish Potato Famine and many other situations. The Green Gardener's Guide is enthusiastically recommended to gardeners everywhere not only for its promotion of social responsibility, but also for its straight-talk and practical advice. "Research conducted by universities, laboratories, and even commercial airports has shown that [Japanese Beetle traps] attract many more beetles than are actually caught. Consequently, susceptible plants along the flight path of the beetles and in the vicinity of traps are likely to suffer much more damage than if no traps are used at all. In most landscape situations, use of Japanese Beetle traps will likely do more harm than good."