My gardening book for beginners: Basic Gardening

My garden book: basic gardening

My gardening book had a cover makeover and a name change to Basic Gardening, but the content is identical to the original version, Clueless in the Garden: A Guide for the Horticulturally Helpless.

Basic Gardening is a reprint for Chapters and Indigo bookstores in Canada, and is available there.

I wrote the book for novices who are feeling overwhelmed and need guidance and basic tips to get a good start on their first gardens.

What reviewers said:

An excellent starting point for new gardeners

I really like Yvonne’s writing style — right to the point and willing to share her experiences, techniques, joys and mistakes in creating a new garden herself over the past six years or so.

Although aimed at the beginner, this gardening book also has words of wisdom that any gardener will appreciate.

I love what Yvonne has to say about suspect shrubs, for instance:

“If you have to prune a shrub three or four times a season, it is in the wrong place – stop pruning this instant and remove it or transplant to a spot where it can get as high and wide as it’s supposed to. In its place, plant a shrub that’s a better fit.”

Bravo, Yvonne!! I’m going to get out the spade as soon as the ground thaws.

Chapters are arranged in a simple style for easy reference, so you can quickly find information about soils, light conditions, how to buy plants, lawn care, shade gardening, growing vegetables and much, much more.

I especially like the chapter called “To Everything There is a Season: What to Do When”. This simple garden calendar will help you to focus your energy where it’s most effective at various points in the season.

—John Valleau, Corporate Horticulturalist, Valleybrook Perennials

A gardening book that helps novice gardeners
find their “inner green thumbs”

Have you ever stood, spade in hand, ready to begin your adventures in gardening only to find your enthusiasm waning as you scan your empty yard and realize you haven’t a clue where to begin. I have.

Now, thanks to Yvonne’s gardening book, even the most novice of gardeners can find their “inner green thumbs” and take comfort in the author’s assurance that “basically plants are programmed to grow, and as long as you don’t do anything too bizarre, they will oblige you…”

Written with careful attention to the needs and fears of the true beginner, chapters range from an introduction to planting zones, soil and weeds to demystifying Latin plant names.

The book also contains helpful web sites for new gardeners, and even a season-by-season guide of what to do and when.

In no time at all, you will be able to stride into your garden and dig away, confident that the plant you’re decimating is nasty weed.

—Sandra MacGregor, Canadian Gardening magazine