Time-Saving Gardener: Tips and Essential Tasks, Season by Season - Softcover

Carolyn Hutchinson is a gardening writer and the co-author of four gardening books. She is a frequent contributor to horticultural publications, with articles that range from practical projects to in-depth plant profiles.

Introduction

Gardening can be both immensely pleasurable and rewarding, but for busy people -- with demanding jobs or young families, perhaps -- keeping the garden in shape can seem an awesome chore. However, this need not be the case. Whatever your aims -- whether you enjoy gardening for its own sake, or just want to create an agreeable space for relaxing and entertaining -- with the help of this book, you will find that gardening is much easier, and a good deal less time-consuming, than you think.

All the projects in the book are basic and apply to gardens of all sizes, shapes and styles. They are arranged by season, so that you can tell at a glance what you should be doing at any particular time of the year.

The number of tasks in a specific season may seem daunting, but do not feel you have to undertake them all at once. The grading system of exclamation marks at the start of each project indicates how important it is: you should simply check the gradings as each season begins, and prioritize the tasks to suit you and your garden. For the absolutely essential jobs, there is always an explanation as to why they are so vital -- the time-saving gardener, pushed for time, deserves a justification for the effort expended on any particular task.

Approximate timings for each project are given so that you can plan your time, and encourage you to get started. Most gardening work is intimidating in prospect, but it is surprising how much can be achieved quite quickly.

Many of the step-by-step projects exhibit extremely useful time-saving tips and techniques. However, some tasks are inevitably painstaking and cannot be hurried. Remember that by doing things thoroughly in the first place, you will usually save a lot of time in the long term -- preparing the ground for sodding, for instance, is heavy work, but it is an insurance against future problems that may well take hours to fix later. Similarly, following the correct planting method guarantees the best start for your plants, while a rushed session can lead to an inordinate amount of trouble as you try to revive struggling, sickly specimens.

The plant directory at the back of the book contains those plants that will grow beautifully with minimal effort. If you follow the siting and soil recommendations given, this will give your plants a huge head start, again saving you time, trouble and expense later. A sun-loving plant such as ceanothus, for instance, will be miserable in a shady position, but other equally lovely shrubs, such as philadelphus and mahonia, will thrive. Similarly, an attempt to grow rhododendrons in anything but acid soil is a thankless task. Working with your soil type, rather than against it, and setting plants in the right position, really does make all the difference.

There is no real mystery to gardening -- each task is simply a series of steps. If you follow the steps through, you will be amazed by how much easier the garden is to look after in the long run. The plants will be happier and healthier, and they will do the growing for you -- just what is needed for those gardeners with busy lives.