Gardening Complete

Gardening Complete: How to Best Grow Vegetables, Flowers, and Other Outdoor Plants by Authors of Cool Springs Press is a Beautifully written and well illustrated Book. This book has the Thumbs up from me. It's a complete gardening book - a Garden Bible.
Its filled with wonderful bright photo's and so much information for everyone who enjoys gardening. This book could be for a new gardener or someone who just loves gardening or an expert in this field, which will help you broaden your gardening skills. This book helps you design your garden whether you have a small garden, a large garden or even a small yard etc.

Gardening Complete is a brilliant book and it will help you plan and demonstrate how to start a something in your garden etc, doesn't matter how big your garden is. How to start to grow a plant from seed or a bulb etc and how to care for them. How to plant your plants and watch them grow. How to manage your weeds. When to prune your trees etc. There's even a chapter about gardening for the birds and bee's and everyone loves these in their garden. I know I do. There's so much in this book about soil have you got the right soil ph for the plants/vegetables you would like to grow.
It will take you through all the seasons, what plants to plant and when. How to harvest your Vegetables and Fruits and store them. It will help you to deal with pests and disease's you may find and have on your precious plants etc. Is there drainage in the area you are planting?. There's information on edible plants and how to landscape them in to your garden. They cover everything you will need to start you off and carry on garden in years to come.

This book has so much information and it felt it was written with Love and so much passion by the authors: gardening experts.

Its a must for for any gardener or gardener to be.

This is an American book but will cover all your planting needs etc where ever you live.

Big 5 fat stars from me.

Very thorough. Great intro to new gardeners or reference piece for seasoned gardeners. The topics covered were also great especially when the author addressed the more scientific side of them - like the soil type!

The comment in the introduction to this book that it is a “ practical book to help you determine your focus and identify authors you’d like to explore more” is an excellent description.
The book reads like a series of 19 instructive essays, covering a range of topics on gardening including, for example, propagation, watering, dealing with pests and diseases to choice of plants, making compost and vertical gardening. The eight authors have extensive experience and each brings their subject across in an easy to read yet informative way.
Of all the chapters, “Botany for Gardeners” was my favourite. I am a veteran gardener, but I really enjoyed this chapter for its clear explanation of Carolus Linnaeus’ plant classification and information on species and cultivars. The table of “what those Latin and Greek names mean “ is superb.
Whilst each chapter can be read as a separate essay, there are useful cross-references to other chapters within each one. I liked the general theme of a common sense as well as scientific approach to gardening that runs through the entire book.
One or two of the chapters were not detailed enough, such as the one on pruning; but this is such a vast subject and the intent of the book is whet the readers appetite to read further. To this end, the final chapter references other publications by the authors.
European readers must note that this book is aimed at North American readers;
so, for example, a good list of insect identification books all cover insects of North America, and the same with the suggested websites. The chapter, Gardening with Native Plants, covers plants native to that region, however concepts and ideas can be translated into any country.

I'm not an advanced gardener, more a the stage of learning. I picked up this book thinking it would be an informative one that could be useful. I wasn't wrong.
I was looking for a book to guide me through what would be my 'style' and where to go for other guides. I read the description and it's so true. It's a very straightforward, sharp book telling you where to go, what to do to explore what you like.
It has different sections on different parts of gardening, like watering, pests, vertical gardening, which plants to choose, etc. I found this very informative and enlightening. It's written by different experts in that area.
All in all, I found it really useful and a 'go to' place when it comes to gardening. I would definitely recommend.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for granting a copy for an honest review.

Any book with the title Gardening Complete should immediately arouse suspicion. Is it really complete? Will it be helpful for the novice, or is it too complicated? Well, this book comes very close to hitting the mark of "complete." It has 19 chapters that I dare say cover everything that's important to gardening. Unlike a lot of beginning garden books, it does NOT have a huge encyclopedia of plants, but many of the chapters have lists of recommended plants which are adequate for the beginner. The best part of this book is the care taken to providing relevant and helpful illustrations. While there are lots of beautiful photos of plants and landscapes, I'm even more impressed by the technique photos and diagrams. They truly show a novice exactly how to do something without being too detailed.
The one issue I have with this book is that some of the information is not accurate. For example, the term species is defined and used incorrectly . And, the instructions for planting shrubs could be updated to include use of root crown as a guide for planting depth. And, I'd suggest screening the photos to avoid showing invasive plants like St. John's wort. But, those can all be fixed, hopefully before publication.
I have a graduate degree in botany and teach a horticulture class. I'd seriously consider recommending this book to my students. It has the potential to be a classic!

I really enjoyed paging through this gardening guide. I was pleased to see all the different aspects of gardening it touched on. I was especially interested in the vertical gardening section! This book would be a great addition to any gardener's collection.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this , I voluntarily chose to review.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It has taught me how to start a garden and covers everything you need to know to about soil, managing weeds, planting, etc. I learned different ways to fertilize as well as how to water and harvest successfully!

I mentioned this book to a friend who is also going to start reading for her community garden she manages.

I love gardening, whether its fruits and vegetables or plants and flowers. This book was so helpful in giving me tips to make my plants grow bigger and better. I have been around plants my whole life and still learned tons from this book. There are lots of pictures, tips, tricks, and just plain great information on each type of plant listed in the book. The wording is very easy to understand you do not have to have a PHD to figure out what the book is talking abut, gotta love that.



I received this book from the Author or Publisher via Netgalley.com to read and review.

The thing that drew me into this book at first was the expanse of flowers and vegetable plants. I already grow a vegetable garden but can always learn new tricks of the trade with it. There are things that I face every year that have me rejoicing or looking to find a fix. So this is a great go-to for me. It tells me about diseases, pest control, and even helps with finding the right amount of water. In the winter, I can look through and dream up what next summer will/can look like. Also, the added information on the flower side is a great inspiration that can get me moving in planting more and more beautiful flowers around my house. I can always learn more and more about fertilizer and I found the pruning to be very helpful. A recommended resource for your garden library.
I received a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book is very comprehensive, It will be extraordinarily helpful to a new gardener, even if they have sone knowledge already.

Colourful and with bold clear photo's, this book will help you compliment the best plants and vegetables to get the most out of your garden in both productivity and looks.