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Gardening by the book: What you really need to know by Toni Leland Muskingum County Master Gardeners
Rule of thumb would be: always buy from reputable sources, whether local or mail-order. Garden centers that have been around awhile will be more than helpful with your questions. Most have a guarantee on anything they sell, but be sure to determine if your purchase falls under that guarantee. Some centers donÕt guarantee potted annuals, or will only take returns within 60-90 days. Others have one-year guarantees, but you might have to return the dead or dying specimen to get the refund. A little difficult if itÕs a tree or large shrub. Mail-order companies can be a bit trickier, but the larger companies will always stand behind their products with either a guarantee of replacement or refund. In my experience, they do not require return of the merchandise. Okay, we all love a bargain, and the discount department stores truck in thousands of plants for the two month window in which they operate their garden departments. But of necessity, these places donÕt have enough knowledgeable staff to maintain the health and vigor of the inventory, and soon after the beginning of the season, youÕll see the effects of stress on both the plants and the staff. I once saw an outdoor display with African violets sitting in the July sun under the sprinkler. You get my drift. When purchasing plants, be sure the identification tag is still on the pot. Nurseries use generic pots for various types of annuals, and the instructions might be as vague as Òsun, moistÓ. This can be deceiving, so knowing exactly what youÕre planting will save you the disappointment of having it die because the instructions should have been Òsun, but protect from afternoon sun; moist, but doesnÕt like wet feetÓ. Tracking Down Information Other excellent sources of Òneed to knowÓ information include our Ohio State University Extension office, which offers hundreds of fact sheets on every aspect of gardening. From May through October, you can visit the Master Gardener booth at the Muskingum County Farmers Market and pick up whatever you need. Our wonderful Muskingum County Library System is the first place you should look for gardening books. A recent search in the catalog for ÒgardeningÓ returned over 250 titles. Find the ones you like, then if you want to buy books, check the local bookstore, or get on Amazon.com to find the latest publications, or locate some the great out-of-print classics. As a book-lover, I tend to use my own hefty reference shelf when IÕm looking for answers, but one need not invest a lot of money in more than one or two good general gardening books. These are titles I own and use constantly. Encyclopedia of Natural Insect & Disease Control published by Rodale Press (publishers of Organic Gardening magazine); 490 pages, illustrated, some color plates. An excellent resource for non-chemical ways to combat garden pests and plant diseases. TaylorÕs Guide to Houseplants published by Houghton Mifflin; 464 pages with full color plates of each specimen. I love this book. ItÕs easy to use and has saved many of my houseplants from my black thumb. Perennials for Ohio by Debra Knapke & Alison Beck; 352 pages, full color throughout with full details for every specimen included. A wonderful resource for identifying plants, as well--the photographs are excellent. The Gardening Book for Ohio by Denny McKeown; 446 pages of sound advice and humor focused on our Ohio soils and climates. Covers annuals, bulbs, ground covers, ornamental grasses, perennials, roses, shrubs, trees, turf grasses, and vines. Some color plates. Illustrated Encyclopedia of Perennials by Ellen Phillips & C. Colston Burrell; another tremendous resource for perennial care nationwide. 534 pages, full color (also published by Rodale Press). GardenerÕs Guide to Growing Daylilies by Diana Grenfell; 160 pages, all in glorious color, detailed information on cultivating these beauties. The Organic Gardeners Handbook by Michael Littlewood; 192 pages of information about truly working with Nature in your gardening strategies. To keep me focused and moving forward through the seasons, nothing is more energizing than receiving a monthly burst of information through my magazine subscriptions. These are my favorites: Garden Gate magazine (August Home Publishing); bimonthly, glorious color, filled with great ideas and the most up-to-date information on new products and plants. Organic Gardening (Rodale Press); a monthly dose of new practices and reports on organic gardeners around the world. Fine Gardening (Taunton Press); bimonthly upscale publication covering all aspects of landscape design and serious gardening. Prefer to Research Online? Planning and dreaming take time, a precious commodity these days. Online garden resources abound, but not all of them are good. Some free websites have tons of annoying pop-ups and flashing advertisementsÐa sure way to get me to click to the next link. Some websites are only available through membership, while others have a public section, but all the best stuff is for members only. Space doesnÕt permit listing all the websites out there, but a search on ÒgardenÓ will take you to a starting point. For now, here are my favorites: OSU Ohioline at http://ohioline.osu.edu/ Hundreds of detailed fact sheets covering trees, shrubs, groundcovers, flowers, fruit, vegetables, lawns, insects & pests, landscaping, specialty gardens, weed control, and soil management, plus a nursery, landscape and turf image library. OSU PlantFacts at http://plantfacts.osu.edu/ Search over 260,000 web pages pertaining to plants and horticulture from every land-grant university in the country; a searchable database of images and information on ornamental plants, turf, plant diseases, and insects; 200 short how-to videos on a wide variety of subjects, hosted by Tom McNutt of NBC4 in Columbus, Ohio; a glossary and FAQs. DaveÕs Garden at http://www.davesgarden.com/ A gardening community in itself! DG has over 350,000 members, according to their homepage information. Hi Guys. Of great value are the Plant Files compiled by gardeners from around the world. Over 36,000 specimens have entries, with close to 140,000 photosÐa treasure trove of information thatÕs just a click away. Another good resource is the Bug File with 4,500+ entries and over 3,000 photos of insects. Wonderful gardening articles cover every subject you can imagine and, for a paid subscription to the site, you can participate in more than 200 forums with gardeners from every walk of life. This article appeared in the Zanesville Times-Recorder on December 10, 2007. ©Toni Leland |
Considering the amount of time,
effort, and expense that goes into planting and maintaining a garden landscape,
making a mistake is disappointing, to say the least. Early in my gardening
avocation, I discovered that information about plant care could be found many
places, but often with conflicting data. Knowing where to look for solid,
proven horticultural information is the first step in successfully designing
that special place in your landscape.