American Horticultural Society Essential Guide to Perennial Gardening: Techniques and Know-How for Planning, Planting, and Tending Low-Maintenance … (American Horticultural Society Guides)
The second book in the American Horticultural Society’s series of growing guides, AHS Essential Guide to Perennial Gardening is a comprehensive and modern guide to cultivating and caring for perennial plants, including many perennials native to North America. Whether you grow in full sun or a shady corner, in a small space or a large landscape, the insight and guidance offered by the experts at AHS ensure you’ll have a thriving, bloom-filled garden. Included inside:
Strategies for designing the perennial garden of your dreams or incorporating perennials into an existing garden Advice on selecting the best perennials for your climate and design style Techniques for fostering a robust and adaptable garden that requires lower maintenance Eco-friendly approaches to managing pests and diseases Information on routine perennial plant-care tasks such as dividing, pruning, pinching, staking, and fertilizing Insight on garden maintenance methods that do not negatively impact pollinators and other wildlife Over 150 perennial plant profiles with photographs and specific care advice
This complete and contemporary manual contains all the information you need to grow perennials successfully in the face of today’s many gardening challenges, including weather extremes, invasive pests, water-use restrictions, and other such trials. Its modern approach to perennial gardening focuses on treating the garden as an ecosystem that depends less on human interference and more on natural resiliency.
Also included in this series is AHS Essential Guide to Organic Vegetable Gardening.
From the Publisher
Why Perennials?
Perennials are the backbone of nearly every ornamental garden and for very good reasons. These long-lived plants are at once durable workhorses and flashy drama queens, combining reliability and ease of maintenance with beautiful flare in a way that makes them hard to replace. One of the biggest reasons gardeners choose perennials over annuals in the garden is to reduce the time and effort required to create a beautiful display. Annuals, which have to be replaced each year, can be a huge amount of work. A bed of perennials is about as much work to plant as a bed of annuals, but that one planting can then give many years of flowers, foliage, and joy without the back break of annual replanting. This is not to say that perennials don’t require
maintenance, but reading on, you will learn that a well designed perennial garden can require very little input from the gardener to keep it thriving and looking good.
Putting Plants in the Ground
Tilling using a mechanical tiller is one way to start a new garden, but it disrupts soil structure and is a lot of work. It can also bring up a lot of dormant weed seeds from beneath the soil’s surface, creating a lasting weed issue.
Double digging is a traditional way to create a new planting bed, but it is a lot of work for very little reward.
Sod stripping using a shovel or mechanical sod stripper is a great way to create a new planting bed in places where lawn exists. However, it does require a lot of
effort, though it is only a one-time effort.
Solarization involves placing a sheet of clear plastic over the future garden site and waiting for the sun’s heat to kill all the plants beneath it.
A GARDEN IS A LIVING, dynamic thing that requires care. A well-designed perennial garden doesn’t require the daily attention that a pet cat or dog does, but the garden still needs tending and maintaining over the season to keep it healthy and looking good.
Publisher : Cool Springs Press (February 4, 2025)
Language : English
Paperback : 272 pages
ISBN-10 : 0760392838
ISBN-13 : 978-0760392836
Item Weight : 2.09 pounds
Dimensions : 8.03 x 0.78 x 9.89 inches
Price: $27.88
(as of Mar 03, 2025 01:58:56 UTC – Details)
Learn how to build an enduring, resilient, and biodiverse landscape prized by pollinators and people alike from the foremost authority on gardening in North America.
The second book in the American Horticultural Society’s series of growing guides, AHS Essential Guide to Perennial Gardening is a comprehensive and modern guide to cultivating and caring for perennial plants, including many perennials native to North America. Whether you grow in full sun or a shady corner, in a small space or a large landscape, the insight and guidance offered by the experts at AHS ensure you’ll have a thriving, bloom-filled garden. Included inside:
Strategies for designing the perennial garden of your dreams or incorporating perennials into an existing garden
Advice on selecting the best perennials for your climate and design style
Techniques for fostering a robust and adaptable garden that requires lower maintenance
Eco-friendly approaches to managing pests and diseases
Information on routine perennial plant-care tasks such as dividing, pruning, pinching, staking, and fertilizing
Insight on garden maintenance methods that do not negatively impact pollinators and other wildlife
Over 150 perennial plant profiles with photographs and specific care advice
This complete and contemporary manual contains all the information you need to grow perennials successfully in the face of today’s many gardening challenges, including weather extremes, invasive pests, water-use restrictions, and other such trials. Its modern approach to perennial gardening focuses on treating the garden as an ecosystem that depends less on human interference and more on natural resiliency.
Also included in this series is AHS Essential Guide to Organic Vegetable Gardening.
From the Publisher
Why Perennials?
Perennials are the backbone of nearly every ornamental garden and for very good reasons. These long-lived plants are at once durable workhorses and flashy drama queens, combining reliability and ease of maintenance with beautiful flare in a way that makes them hard to replace. One of the biggest reasons gardeners choose perennials over annuals in the garden is to reduce the time and effort required to create a beautiful display. Annuals, which have to be replaced each year, can be a huge amount of work. A bed of perennials is about as much work to plant as a bed of annuals, but that one planting can then give many years of flowers, foliage, and joy without the back break of annual replanting. This is not to say that perennials don’t require
maintenance, but reading on, you will learn that a well designed perennial garden can require very little input from the gardener to keep it thriving and looking good.
Putting Plants in the Ground
Tilling using a mechanical tiller is one way to start a new garden, but it disrupts soil structure and is a lot of work. It can also bring up a lot of dormant weed seeds from beneath the soil’s surface, creating a lasting weed issue.
Double digging is a traditional way to create a new planting bed, but it is a lot of work for very little reward.
Sod stripping using a shovel or mechanical sod stripper is a great way to create a new planting bed in places where lawn exists. However, it does require a lot of
effort, though it is only a one-time effort.
Solarization involves placing a sheet of clear plastic over the future garden site and waiting for the sun’s heat to kill all the plants beneath it.
A GARDEN IS A LIVING, dynamic thing that requires care. A well-designed perennial garden doesn’t require the daily attention that a pet cat or dog does, but the garden still needs tending and maintaining over the season to keep it healthy and looking good.
Publisher : Cool Springs Press (February 4, 2025)
Language : English
Paperback : 272 pages
ISBN-10 : 0760392838
ISBN-13 : 978-0760392836
Item Weight : 2.09 pounds
Dimensions : 8.03 x 0.78 x 9.89 inches
