Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 What You''re Not to Read 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 How This Book Is Organized 3 Part I: Preparing Yourself (And Your Garden) for Planting 3 Part II: Flowers and Foliage: Growing for Color 4 Part III: Stretching Your Garden Beyond Its Boundaries: The Permanent Landscape 4 Part IV: Producing Your Own Produce 4 Part V: Designing Special and Fun Gardens 5 Part VI: The Part of Tens 5 Icons Used in This Book 5 Where to Go from Here 6 Part I: Preparing Yourself (And Your Garden) for Planting 7 Chapter 1: Getting Ready for Gardening 9 Playing the Name Game 10 "Hello, my name is ": Getting used to plant nomenclature 10 Anatomy 101: Naming plant parts 11 Bringing in Beauty with Flowers (and Foliage) 12 Amazing annuals 13 Perennial plants 17 Bulbs and roses 19 Gardening for Your Dining Pleasure 20 Working with Woody (or Viney) Plants 20 Shrubs 21 Trees 22 Vines 23 The World Is Flat: Caring for Your Lawn 24 Chapter 2: Planning Your Own Eden 25 Taking Stock: Evaluating What You Already Have 25 Identifying problems and restrictions 27 Taking advantage of your yard''s assets 30 Getting Ideas for Your Garden Space 31 Gardening with the kids in mind 32 Establishing a good garden for pets 32 Creating space for entertainment 34 Designing a sanctuary: The quiet garden retreat 35 Cooking up an edible garden: Gardening for your kitchen 36 Zeroing In on Your Ideal Garden Style 37 Gardening around a theme 38 An inspired idea: Perusing books, magazines, and local gardens 41 Making Sure Costs Don''t Outgrow Your Budget 42 Bringing Your Garden Ideas to Reality 43 Sketching out the yard you have now 44 Making your drawing match your dream garden 44 Defining key areas so you know where to start 45 Getting Professional Help for Your Garden Plans 47 Landscape architects, landscape designers, and garden designers 48 Landscape or general contractors 49 Master gardeners 49 Chapter 3: Getting into the Zone -- Your Garden''s Zone 51 Different Hardiness Zone Maps for Different Folks 51 Taking a look at the world''s plant hardiness zone maps 52 Warming up to the heat-zone map 53 Savoring the Sunset zones 54 Reading plant hardiness zone maps 54 Fathoming Frost Zones and Growing Seasons 56 Zoning Out: Breaking the Zone and Growing Season Rules 57 Managing your microclimates 58 Cheating the system: Creating microclimates 60 Stretching your growing season 61 Chapter 4: Live Long and Prosper: Giving Plants What They Need 63 Let There Be Light! 64 Facing the Fertilizer Facts 65 What to feed: The great natural versus chemical debate 67 When to feed your garden 68 Compost: More than Just a Fertilizer 69 Demystifying Soil pH 71 Finding out your soil''s pH 72 Adjusting your soil''s pH 72 Much Ado about Mulch 73 Knowing your mulches 73 How to apply mulch -- and how much 75 Water, Water Everywhere: Tackling Watering Issues 76 Providing plants with the right amount of moisture 76 Determining which watering system to use 77 Cutting back on watering 79 Dealing with drainage problems 80 Air! Air! Plants Need Air! 81 Chapter 5: Gathering Your Gardening Gear 83 Digging Those, Er, Digging Tools 83 Getting down with shovels and spades 84 Trowels: More than just little shovels 86 Garden forks: Not for dining! 87 Dabbling in dibbles (or dibbers) for poking holes 88 Clues to Quality Cultivating Tools 89 Ho, ho, hoes 89 Weeding out poor weeders to get to the best 90 Making the Right Cut with Cutting Tools 92 Getting a handle on hand pruners 92 Hedging your bets on hedge shears 93 Branching out with loppers 94 Moving up to pruning saws 95 Putting Power Tools to Use 96 Safety first: Controlling your power tools (so they don''t control you) 96 Chewing through chores with chainsaws 97 Working with weed trimmers and weed whackers 97 Tilling soil with rototillers 98 Wading through Wondrous Watering Tools 99 Hoses 99 Nozzles 101 Hose-end sprinklers 102 Water timers 103 Part II: Flowers and Foliage: Growing for Color 105 Chapter 6: Growing Annuals: Adding Yearly Variety to Your Garden 107 Finding Flowers that Fit Your Garden 107 Some like it hot: Warm weather annuals 108 Some annuals like it cool 109 Mixing and Matching Annuals 109 Good habits: Taking advantage of shape, height, and structure 110 Combining colors 113 Buying Annuals 114 Starting with seed packets 114 Starting with nursery, well, starts 114 An Annual Event: The Whens, Wheres, and Hows of Planting 115 Filling in the garden after the last frost 116 Deciding where to plant annuals 117 Getting annuals in the ground 117 Feeding the Flower Power: Taking Care of Annuals 118 Watering 118 Fertilizing 118 Mulching 119 Grooming 119 Dealing with annual pests 119 Chapter 7: Growing Perennials: Plants That Make a Comeback 121 Looking at Perennials, the Repeat Performers 122 Hardy perennials 122 Tender perennials 122 Planning Long-Term Strategy for Your Perennial Garden 123 Choreography: Timing perennial blooming 124 The living palette: Keeping colors in mind 125 Designing perennial beds and borders 125 Finding and Buying Perennials 128 To the market: Getting perennials in containers 128 Buying perennials through mail-order 129 Acquiring free divisions from other gardeners 130 Planting Perennials 131 Figuring out where to plant perennials 131 Deciding when to plant perennials 134 Preparing for the actual planting 137 Show the Love: Taking Care of Your Perennials 138 Supporting with stakes or rings 138 Practicing good grooming habits 139 Dividing perennials 141 Preparing perennials for winter 142 Dealing with perennial pests and diseases 142 Chapter 8: Brightening Up the Garden with Bulbs 145 Shedding Light on Bulbs 145 Defining terms: Bulbs aren''t always, well, bulbs 146 The time of the season: Looking at early and late bloomers 149 Getting acquainted with the most popular bulbs 150 Social Mixers: Choosing to Combine Your Bulbs 151 Combining various types of tulips 151 Mixing up your daffodils 152 Combining different kinds of bulbs 153 The Search: Where to Get Your Bulbs 155 Buying bulbs from home stores and nurseries 156 Purchasing bulbs through mail-order 157 Getting Down and Dirty: Planting Bulbs 158 When to plant bulbs 158 Where to plant bulbs 160 How to plant bulbs 161 Taking Care of Bulbs 163 Watering your bulbs 164 Fertilizing bulbs 164 Mulching 165 Fighting bulb pests 165 Chapter 9: Coming Up Roses 167 What Makes a Rose Be a Rose Be a Rose 167 Checking out blooming habits 168 Looking at hardiness 169 Identifying the various rose types 169 Deciding Where to Put Your Roses 173 Planning your beds and borders 173 Using roses as groundcovers 175 Screening with roses 176 Using roses as vines 177 Buying the Best Roses 178 Getting a potted rose 178 Purchasing a bareroot rose 179 Planting Your Roses 182 Putting containerized roses in the ground 182 Planting bareroot roses 183 Taking Care of Your Roses 185 Watering 185 Fertilizing 185 Keeping roses in shape 186 Maximizing winter hardiness 188 War of the roses: Tackling rose pests 189 Part III: Stretching Your Garden Beyond Its Boundaries: The Permanent Landscape 191 Chapter 10: Growing a Perfect Lawn 193 In the Beginning: Getting Ready to Make a Lawn from Scratch 193 Preparing your yard for a lawn 194 Designing the lawn 195 Seeding and Sodding: Adding the Grass 196 Determining the kind of grass you want or need 196 Cool-season and warm-season grasses 197 Growing lawns from seed 201 Your own turf: Growing lawns from sod 204 Watering a Thirsty Lawn 207 Getting the water balance right 207 Boosting watering efficiency 208 Feeding and Fertilizing 209 What''s your type? Deciding on the kind of fertilizer 209 Knowing your serving sizes: How much fertilizer is enough 211 Checking out the feeding schedule 211 Mowing the Lawn, Cutting the Grass, and Otherwise Giving the Yard a Shave 212 Warring with Weeds 214 Preventing lawn weeds 215 Treating already-weedy lawns 215 Chapter 11: Reaching New Heights with Trees and Shrubs 217 Knowing Your Trees 218 Exploring evergreen trees 218 Falling for deciduous trees 220 Choosing the Right Tree for Where You Live 222 Getting Treed! Planting Trees 223 Not just for Arbor Day: Deciding when to plant your tree 223 Finding a suitable location 224 Planting your tree 226 Taking Care of Your Tree 229 Giving trees a tall drink of water 229 Fertilizing trees 231