Gardening For Dummies

Introduction.

Part I: Getting Going with Gardening.
Chapter 1: Just a Few Ground-Level Questions and Answers.
Chapter 2: Planning Your Garden.
Chapter 3: Planning Your Planting.

Part II: Designing with Plants.
Chapter 4: Trees, Hedges, and Shrubs.
Chapter 5: Lawns and Ground Covers.
Chapter 6: Climbers and Wall Shrubs.

Part III: Colour Your World.
Chapter 7: Annuals.
Chapter 8: Perennials and Ornamental Grasses.
Chapter 9: Bulbs.
Chapter 10: Roses.

Part IV: At Ground Level.
Chapter 11: Understanding and Improving Soil.
Chapter 12: Raising Plants from Seeds.
Chapter 13: Choosing and Putting in Your Plants.

Part V: Caring for Your Plants.
Chapter 14: Watering, Feeding, and Composting.
Chapter 15: Snip, Snip: Pruning and Propagating.
Chapter 16: Fighting Pests, Diseases, and Weeds.
Chapter 17: Tools of the Trade.

Part VI: Special Gardens.
Chapter 18: Food Gardens.
Chapter 19: Container Gardens.
Chapter 20: Gardens for Wildlife.
Chapter 21: Gardening in Small Spaces.
Chapter 22: Gardening for Fragrance.

Part VII: The
Part of Tens.
Chapter 23: Ten Quick Projects.
Chapter 24: Ten Tips for Creating a Wildlife Garden.
Index.

Sue Fisher is a lifelong plant enthusiast whose main aim is to make gardening as user-friendly and approachable as possible. After training at Oaklands College, St Albans, the first ten years of her career were spent in the nursery and garden centre industry, including five years as plant buyer for a group of top garden centres and a landscape company. In 1990 Sue decided to bring her enthusiasm for plants to a wider audience and became a freelance writer and broadcaster. To date she has written ten books, including Garden Colour, Essential Plants for Small Gardens, and Fast Plants, as well as co-authoring Ground Force Garden Handbook and Geoff Hamilton's Gardening Year, and contributed to several of the Reader's Digest gardening books. Her gardening features have been published in many magazines and newspapers, including Gardeners' World, Gardens Monthly, and Garden News. Sue currently gardens in Buckinghamshire where her two young children are fast making her an expert on family gardening.

Michael MacCaskey began his college career as a creative arts student at San Francisco State University in 1969, but in the process became instead a passionate gardener. By 1976 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in ornamental horticulture from California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. Since then, he's had the good fortune to work for and learn from garden editors such as Walter Doty, Richard Dunmire, Joe Williamson, and Bill Marken. A second-generation Los Angeles native (zone 9), he was appointed Editor-in-Chief of Vermont-based National Gardening Magazine (zone 4) in 1994. Since then, he's been learning about gardening in a short-season, coldwinter region. His magazine writing has been honoured by both the Western Magazine Publishers Association and the Garden Writers of America.

Bill Marken is the editor of Rebecca's Garden Magazine, a new publication from Hearst Magazines Enterprises based on the popular television show. A lifelong resident of

"...comprehensive..easy-to-follow..." (Amateur Gardening Magazine, April 2006) " A splendid guide for the absolute Beginner..." ( Gardens Monthly, December 2006) "It's astonishingly comprehensive and really does cover everything the aspiring gardener needs to know..." (Let's Talk, December 2007)