The Garden Primer

My daughter is getting into farming during a break in active duty with the Army and we are having a blast. We are looking at the different ways to garden.

This work is very helpful; it is very imaginatively written and assists even those with long experience and a lot of knowledge. The author's enthusiasm for her subject matter could not be any more obvious.

Twenty years ago I remember discovering Barbara Damrosch's The Garden Primer at the local library. It was full of practical advice dispensed in such an engaging manner and I ended up buying myself a copy. The Garden Primer is a rare exception of a gardening book that can benefit gardeners no matter where they live. It is especially helpful to novice gardeners who want to start a garden but are not exactly sure where to begin. The first chapters deal with the basics - what plants need in order to grow properly, how to prepare your soil, starting your own seeds, proper planting methods and how to deal with insects and diseases. A chapter on gardening gear covers tools, what to wear and how to organize it all. Damrosch then goes into plant specifics with chapters on Annuals, Perennials, Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, Bulbs, Roses, Lawns, Ground Covers, Vines, Shrubs, Tree, Wildflowers and Houseplants. Each section discusses how to buy plants, how to plan your site (with some planting scheme plans included), how to grow the plants and maintain them. She then includes an encyclopedia of specific plants with descriptions and basic growing advice. The vegetable section is even more extensive with details on growing and harvesting. If plants are more suited to certain areas of the country, it is mentioned. Another element of this book that I enjoy are the wonderful illustrations. They are black-and-white, simple and yet so effective. And I'm so glad they kept the illustration of the garden shed on the endsheets. I've always admired that and maybe this year I will finally get my own tools organized like it! The second edition, which has just been published (March 2008), has been updated to include new varieties of plants, more efficient methods and techniques and more up-to-date trends. More plants have been included, especially native plants which are so popular today. The book is "100% Organic"! Damrosch claims in her forward that she set out to write a "simple" book on gardening. Her engaging writing style and clear instructions do just that but this 820 page book is so much more than that. It provides a wealth of information for beginning gardeners and has proven to be a book that I return to again and again. I highly recommend it.

Barbara Damrosch and her husband, Eliot Coleman, are the type of teachers that I find the most helpful. They stand in your shoes and ask what would I want to know on this subject, then proceed to tell you precisely and in plain language, not only what you want to know but what you didn't even know to ask.I've taped all their television shows on gardening and have a number of the books both of them have written, but when I walk out in the garden and see a problem, whether it be disease or bug, it is this book that is my guide. I also grab it whenever I'm planting, fertilizing or harvesting most anything.I just put in grapes, blueberries, blackberries, honeysuckle, clematis and the only book I referred to was this one. Never intimidating, always helpful, if I could only have one gardening book, this would be it.

My copy of "The Garden Primer" is worn, tattered, and never on the shelf with the rest of my gardening books. I refer to Barbara's sage advice for everything. It's has allowed me to try new plants, techniques, and garden designs - all without feeling I don't know what I'm doing. It's like having a master gardener watching over you. Be forewarned though - she writes most (if not all) of her gardening experience from a Connecticut/zone 5 background. Those in the desert regions of Arizona may find most her advice useless. Buy it - you'll never need another gardening book again.

As a novice gardener, this is the first book I've found that covers all my questions - from staking raspberries to planning a shade garden - in detailed but not tecnical lanquage. If I could only have one gardening book (my husband wishes) this would be it.