Tips for Carefree Landscapes: Over 500 Sure-Fire Ways to Beautify Your Yard and Garden

This was my first, and easily the best gardening book I have ever purchased (and I own about 20). I had just purchased my first home, and was new to gardening. Up to that point practically anything I put into the ground withered and died. I picked this book up at a rummage sale (the title really pulled me in), and have never regretted it. The book is chock full of great gardening tips, such as how to improve your soil, what plants to choose for what sites, and easy watering and pest control tips. It lists for you all the best easy-care plants to choose (and divides it into categories such as shrubs, perennials, annuals, roses, etc.) and tells you what plants to avoid. Each chapter also has a question and answer section that adds additional info. Ms. Binetti has a great writing style which is easy to understand, and very encouraging to the reader. For a novice gardener, this book will almost guarantee success (it did for me), and instill gardening confidence to encourage you to expand your knowledge and skills by going out there and gardening! I cannot recommend this book enough.

This is quite possibly the best gardening book I've ever read. I have discovered that, while I love gardens, I don't especially like gardening. Thanks to Marianne Binetti and her very practical advice, I can have an attractive, low-maintenance garden in no time. Especially helpful are her picks for the best bulbs, perennials, and shrubs for lazy gardeners, including sturdy species of roses for those of us who thought roses were too fussy to grow. Marianne's style is easy to read, funny, and makes me feel so much better about myself and my less-than-meticulous gardening skills. I highly recommend this book.

If you're a gardener or a would-be gardener, and you like books that make you grin, books that include lots of easily understood information, and books that are short and succinct, Marianne Binetti's Tips for Carefree Landscapes is the book for you. And, Marianne's tips are perfect for those of you who don't have hours and hours to spend gardening and "lawning." The last chapter, "Gardening Horror Stories" with sub-titles such as The Footprints of Death, lets readers know that they're not the only ones who have had or will have fluky garden experiences! And each story has a "gardening moral." Read. Learn. Grin and enjoy! I did.

I love buying books and this book is the best book I have ever bought for gardening. This is a book for the weekend gardener. I only spent may be 1 hour a week for the yard. It is fun to read. This book is really good for beginner too. Marianne told a lot of not to do stories. It also contains what are the best plants to use for a carefree garden. I remembered I found this book too plain the first time I read it, but over the past 4 years of gardening I can only said that what are in this book really make sense. If I have followed it's advises from the start I would save myself lot of troubles I am having now