Build Garden Knowledge

Learn, every day! Pick up skills such as new plant propagation, how to prune, tips on how to plant.

As handy as the toolshed out back, it pays to keep track of where you find your most helpful garden information.
…. read more

Online, stored info can be organized anywhere from your rss feeder to a social bookmarks solution like Delicious bookmarks.  I appreciate the hardcover type of garden information, too- and regularly use garden resource books to help decide which plants to plant… or (more likely) where to put a new plant I just couldn’t resist from the plant store!

Apprenticing is just as important, and perhaps the best way to accumulate garden know-how.  If you didn’t have a mom or grandfather who gardened, maybe you have a neighbor whose landscape abilities you admire. There are garden clubs, courses, and master gardener programs! Even garden shows hold a wealth of information and help in designing and growing the garden of your dreams. I think I have benefited from just about all those avenues. In the past, garden magazines were always an inspiration as well as real boons of learning from experts and seeing what products are available.

Propagation is something that soon interests a gardener and can become more of a occupation as one gets intrigued by growing things. Online are many how-to (I have a page of those I found most helpful), and there are a couple really good books on the topic. They are the type of bookshelf purchase that pay for themselves a hundred times over. Two I very much like are:
American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation: The Fully Illustrated Plant-by-Plant Manual of Practical Techniques and Creative Propagation

Building garden knowledge comes in two main ways. The most important is the hands on action of simply starting to put your hands in the soil and plant some seeds. Nothing replaces that part of growing in actual experience. On the other side of it, garden making is an art with skills to learn. That is where good information and reading can come to inspire, even rescue, gardeners in their quest to grow something. The two source of knowledge go hand in hand. You are here… soak up all the ideas you can…but then dig right in and plant. It is exciting and it is rewarding, and only trying it out can prove that to you.

There are many essays and info sheets on design on this site- the connection between making something beautiful and artistic and utilizing the landscape as a canvas has always fascinated me. It might be of strong interest to you, as well. The Design Page begins the process- it indexes all the site resources according to the phase of your project. This year a vegetable garden is gaining importance for growing my own food; maybe it is for you,as well.

Proceed to Plant and Places….
Or Through the Seasons