Home & Garden

183

Too busy to have your own little plot of heaven? Not so, says the author of this book. If you follow the guidelines in its pages you'll discover ways to have a beautiful backyard garden that practically takes care of itself!

Please note: This is an e-book. You can download it instantly upon purchase.

Get your Signed copy today!

Buy your copy!
The Creators Bookshelf
Creative Pops!

IntroductionToo many demands, too little time for the joy of gardening? One of the hard facts of modern life is that crammed schedules, crushing workloads seem to conspire to make gardening a threatened pastime.But everyone wants a lovely garden, a place where the landscape sparkles with refreshment and the beauty of nature. A place where the dirt gets under your fingers; the earth a partner and friend. A setting where you can spend a few restful hours soaking up its beauty and letting it lift your spirit.Planting your own flowers, developing your own lawn, designing your own garden; these are the joys of gardening that can still be made available today. When you get to pick your own fresh fruits and vegetables you experience why gardening is irresistible to so many lovers of life.Yet, the long commute to and from work, the few hours we are allotted in our drive to lead successful lives, both financially and socially, seem to lead to the remarkable conclusion: "A garden?— No chance!"Most people content themselves with hiring out a landscaping firm to develop and shape a desirable lawn, and perhaps, a trip to the local ‘farmers market', once or twice a season, for fresh vegetables.But even these compromises are alternatives that turn out to be prohibitive. Landscaping firms can charge thousands of dollars to re-carpet a lawn, hundreds just to maintain it. Prices at the farmers' market, though usually less than found in your grocery store, are still relatively high and require ‘special trips' which eat further into your valuable time.Beyond this, as a weekend gardener you must have a garden plan that won't nag at you like a child in distress. The last thing you need, once you've decided to join the ranks of the great gardening class, is to have your precious time further eroded by time consuming garden activities and new projects that seem to spring up like a monster clown at an amusement parks' haunted house. No, a garden is a place of joy, and its daily development should be joyful too.Choosing the right plants, the right garden spaces, and employing the right techniques in taking care of them will turn your weekend adventure into gardening a delight.; a garden that will practically take care of itself.On the other hand, a high-maintenance garden has you sweating bullets, brandishing hedge clippers, pruning lawn mowers, yanking weeds, tilling and fertilizing— all eating up every available hour each Saturday and Sunday. If done wrongly, a garden is a nightmarish ritual of whacking away at bushes, trimming grass, chores upon chores— until you think your work will never end.Many times this occurs because ill conceived plans for a particular location are made, haphazardly, all of which later come back to haunt you in your efforts to add to the loveliness of your particular piece of real estate.Your goal may have been to eventually beam with pride and enjoy the reactions and kudos from neighbors and friends; only to discover you've ended up with an unruly, temperamental cluster of shrubs, bushes, flowers, plants, trees, lawn and flagstones— all overgrown and requiring continual surgery.This book intends to take you away from that nightmare and point you directly toward the garden of your dreams. So, if you want to join Mother Nature hand-in-hand and develop a plan that really works for you in a time friendly way— read on! The key is making a garden you can take pride and great pleasure in, and do it with the time that's reasonably available to you.This starts with evaluating your gardens maintenance needs and finding solutions to common high-maintenance problems. From there you need to make choices and develop realistic wish lists.All of this early planning, covered in this book, will make your garden work, both its maintenance and development,— a pleasure. You will systematically create a place of respite, and peace.In chapter one I'll explain exactly what a weekend garden is, how it can be properly developed, and how you can start using your time effectively.We'll move on to the lawn, the single largest piece of landscape for most homeowners. We'll learn secrets that great gardeners have used to make the lawn a friend to your weekend efforts instead of a time draining bore. Then we will create those fast flower gardens you'll simply fall in love with, learn to plant a succulent vegetable garden, have some fun with fruits and develop natural landscapes. Our adventure continues with the best easy-care ways to choose plants to match your time constraints and local environment. I'll even give you an overview of the plants to use; the tools to employ.The Appendix to this edition of "The Weekend Gardener"- The Busy Person's Guide To A Beautiful Backyard Garden includes a step-by-step annual calendar of gardening activities and a USDA zone map to help you choose the plants that match your climate.All in all this is an ambitious book that wants to deliver you from the drudgery and time intensive garden into the bright, sun-splashed, happy weekend garden of your very own.Victor K. Pryles