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Book Excerpt: Garden Rules – The Snappy Synopsis for the Modern Gardener
***Giveaway! Win a copy of Garden Rules by commenting below. *** Holly is the winner – congrats! Jayme Jenkins and Billie Brownell dish the dirt to new gardeners in their book, Garden Rules. I remember being a new gardener and feeling like I’d stepped into a new world, complete with a whole new language as…
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Book Excerpt: Sustainable Landscaping for Dummies by Owen Dell
A couple weeks back, I reviewed this deliciously funny and extremely useful guide to sustainable landscaping by Owen Dell. You can check out my video and written review here. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to share an excerpt with you, so you could get a feel for Owen’s writing style, which is…
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Book Excerpt: Designing With Succulents by Debra Lee Baldwin
Two weeks ago, I reviewed the popular, and deservedly so, Succulent Container Gardens by Debra Lee Baldwin. I think of Debra as a real advocate for these plants, because she shows such elegant ways of designing with them that we all want to grow these colorful, varied plants ourselves. And so we should! They’re low-water,…
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Book Excerpt: Yes, You Can! And Freeze and Dry It, Too
***Giveaway below! Comment to win your own copy of Yes, You Can!*** EDIT: Nicole won! Congrats, Nicole. Daniel Gasteiger charmed me recently when I asked him to tell me about his new book, Yes, You Can! And Freeze and Dry It, Too: The Modern Step-By-Step Guide to Preserving Food. Daniel said: The most mind-bending moment…
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Seed-Starting Success Will Be Mine! SonnyLight LED Kitchen Garden
***SonnyLight LED Kitchen Garden giveaway below; a $299 value!*** EDIT: Tropaeolum won! Congrats, and enjoy your new SonnyLight LED! I haven’t had the best of luck with seed-starting in the past. Actually, let me rephrase that. I am a seed-starting loser. Before now, every attempt at seed-starting has resulted in most of my seeds not…
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Book Review: The Revolutionary Yardscape
If you often see odd materials at hardware stores, rummage sales, and friends’ garages and have flashes of insight that they could be repurposed for a totally new use, then you are going to love The Revolutionary Yardscape. It’s subtitled: Ideas for repurposing local materials to create containers, pathways, lighting, and more, and it’s all…
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Book Review: Understanding Garden Design
Understanding Garden Design by Vanessa Gardner Nagel is billed as the “complete handbook for aspiring designers”, and that’s pretty accurate. Whether you’re a homeowner with a passion for gardening, or an aspiring pro, this book clarifies a number of professional tricks that Nagel uses to great success in her own landscape design business. So many professionals…
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Book Review: Succulent Container Gardens
Debra Lee Baldwin’s become the leading advocate for these gorgeous, easy-to-grow plants, and it’s easy to see why. Her photographs are crisp, colorful and modern, and her writing is just infused with enthusiasm and love for her topic. I confess that until a few years ago, I thought of succulents as kind of old-fashioned, because…
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Book Review: Sustainable Landscaping for Dummies
Owen Dell is my new landscaping hero. Not only does he have a funny, off-the-cuff writing style, but his landscaping experience goes back to 1971 when he first began his own landscape business. He’s a licensed landscape architect and contractor, and his actual hands-on experience in the field means that his techniques actually function, and…
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Monday Miscellany: Book Review Madness
Well, it’s book review week here at North Coast Gardening, which means I’ll have some reviews and excerpts of books that I’ve enjoyed recently. But before you read about my favorites, here’s some book excitement from some of my Twitter friends: Fern Richardson from Life on the Balcony shares her favorite tips from Garden Up!:…
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Celebrating Vertical Gardening with Garden Up!
Two of my favorite bloggers, Rebecca Sweet and Susan Morrison, have just released a book on vertical gardening called Garden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small and Large Spaces. When I heard they were writing it I was so excited, because gaining height without adding width is a design challenge that is present in so…