I realized I come at this gardening thing with years of experience and a degree under my belt (now where did that diploma go?).  I also try to avoid telling people that I used to be a landscape designer.  Especially my neighbors.  Otherwise I get the constant harassment (from the lady across the street) to tell them what they should put here or there.  Oddly enough it isn’t just that easy.  Sure I can pull the botanical name of a Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) out of the A-file and use them as party tricks, but to tell you what perennial will grow nicely in dry soil with little sunlight is a little tougher.  From my current vantage point answering that question requires me to look up and find the right book out of the over 60 I own on the subject of gardening.

It’s true.  Like any good professional I have resources.  As a graphic artist I have a few books on programs I use and a whole host of web bookmarks.  Can’t live without my bookmarks.  As a horticulturalist I can’t live without my books.  I find the internet to be much less useful when it comes to growing plants.

My arsenal of books is geared mostly toward the Pacific Northwest despite the fact that I started my horticulture career in the midwest.  This is because the majority of my books were school “text books.”  And some of my favorites are truly text book like, but for me the offer the type of information I am looking for.

One such example is Manual of Woody Landscape Plants by Michael A. Dirr.  However I don’t suggest anyone rush out and spend the $61.97 + $400 in shipping it takes to get that book.  It is a monster and not very practical.  But if you really want to know the leaf structure of a Horse Chestnut or the seed viability of a Ginko go right ahead.  A better choice might be a different book by Dirr, Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs.  Also not practical, but oohh look at the pretty pictures.

I thought I would give you a peek at a few of my favorite, and actually useful books.  Some are better for those in the NW, but you get the idea.

#1 all time favorite book on plants, with lists for growing situations, and a useful climate zone map is the Sunset Western Garden Book.  This is a must have if you live anywhere on the West Coast, Alaska or Hawaii.  I have 2 copies (1 old school and another when they did the first color update to it).  I’ve seen the newest version at Costco and must have it.  I just haven’t bought it yet.

Other books I pull of the shelf on a regular basis are The Pacific Northwest Gardener’s Book of Lists, Landscaping with Fruits and Vegetables, and The Green Thumb Garden Handbook.  The last is sadly out of print but you can still purchase it at used book stores or from Amazon used.  It is well worth it.

A few book I recommend to people are a series put out by The American Horticulture Society.  Pruning & Training, Plant Propagation, Pests & Diseases, and The Encyclopedia of Gardening are all fantastic books.  The Encyclopedia is a great one for beginners.  AHS also publishes an Encyclopedia of Garden Plants that is similar to the Western Garden Book, but geared for the entire nation.

I could go on and on with a complete list of the books I own, but that is a lot of linking and you’d get bored with book like Grower Talks on Retailing and Greenhouse Operation and Management.  Even better are books such as Nursery Management and the Handbook of Successful Ecological Lawn Care.  Books so dry and boring that even I wouldn’t read them.

I hope this gives you a few new resources to kick start your garden.  Spend some time in the book store browsing the gardening section.  Look for the books that are tailored to your learning style and geared toward what you want to grow.  A good gardening book should be bookmarked, dog eared and dirty.

Since I declared this week the week of gardening posts I thought I’d fill you in on what’s growing in our side yard. That garden tour didn’t show you the best part of our yard… the back and side.

The trusty husband and I have been married for 11 1/2 years. In that time we’ve moved 12 times. Most of those moves were to apartments. One apartment was without an actual outdoor space. No deck. The majority of those 11 1/2 years I have had some kind of plant or another growing on the deck. The first year was flowers and a wayward mint fiasco. One year we had a fantastic wrap around deck and I had hanging baskets, roses and a few tomato bushes. The last apartment we lived in with an outdoor space was so full of plants you couldn’t see out. That could be because I was finishing up school (with that horticulture degree) and I brought home plants from school and work on a daily basis.

I vowed that when we finally owned our own home I was going to plant a vegetable garden. When that happened we had spent so much money renovating the inside and out there was little left to build raised beds or order the soil needed for such an endeavor. But, not to be defeated, I marked out two little plots in my side yard and started digging. I quickly ran into 4″ of gravel and other archaeological artifacts such as plastic bottles and carpet. Not to be deterred I rigged up a screen and screened out the gravel. I bought a few bags of compost and worked them in.

That first garden was mediocre at best. I grew peas, green beans and lettuce. All tasted fantastic, but the soil was rocky and with little organic matter. However, my friends would come over and devour my peas and said they were the best thing they’d ever tasted. I also planted strawberries and an herb or two throughout other parts of my garden.

Today my garden consists of 2 raised beds 5′x10′ and 2 raised beds 5′x5′. I plant all of my annual herbs in containers and have a plot on the corner with (hopefully) enough room for pumpkins and squash. I still have perennial herbs scattered throughout the garden, and I’ve added more berries (currants and blueberries) to the already growing strawberry patches.

The goal is to expand my garden to a full 1000 square feet or more. With that amount of space I could feed my family fresh vegetables year round relatively easy. We have plans to till up the side yard on the other end of our house and the slope down to the street, but at the moment we run into the money issue again. And then comes a point where you begin to weigh the cost of growing compared to the cost of buying.

In my opinion the cost of growing, although it may be more expensive, is insignificant. The satisfaction you get from walking out to your back yard and picking an ear of corn is beyond any trip to a farmers market or to some guy on the side of the road with a truck full of corn. Because I grew it. Can’t get any better than that.

Don’t forget to submit your gardening questions for the end of the week.  Post them in the comments or email me at elle @ lifeofelle . com

It’s gardening season again. Some of you are going Woo Hoo! Others are wishing I’d go back to talking about food. However, Mother’s Day was the opening of gardening season in the Pacific Northwest. As a nursery worker we dread Mother’s Day weekend. It’s like a florist on Valentine’s Day. Biggest holiday of the year. By the end if you hear, “Do you have any Pink Dogwoods?” again you may go out back and shoot yourself because you sold out 3 weeks ago. That kind of busy.

Last year we had the great petunia experiment. Only I fell down on the job and didn’t help you along nor did I check back in. If you would like to repeat the petunia experiment read the linked post and have at it. This year I won’t be so bold as to make you go out and plant a petunia. We’ll start smaller this year. A tour of my garden. You got a tour of my house, why not my garden too. (please note that the trusty husband edited this video down from 12 minutes to 6 minutes. It also does not include my back yard)

(This video was taped the week before last)

To follow, a week full of gardening help. On Friday I will answer your gardening questions. So if you have a question post it in the comments or email me at elle @ lifeofelle . com. (for the new readers… why am I so big on gardening? My degree is in horticulture and I am a former landscape designer and greenhouse manager)

I know I skipped Gardening 101 last week so I will get back to it this week. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see photos of the trusty husband teaching the boy how to skip rocks. This week I want to talk about the timing of pruning.

Next to technique this is the most misunderstood concept in pruning. I always had people come to me in the nursery and ask why their tree/shrub hadn’t bloomed. The first question I asked was, “did you prune it?” Most of the time they said yes.

There are a few plants out there that timing depends on the variety. Clematis is one. There are 3 groups of Clematis and you prune them differently on the group. But you can look at Clematis as an example. As far as blooming plants go they do one of two things. They bloom on old wood or new wood. In this case wood can refer to branches or stems.

Case in point: Hydrangeas bloom on old wood. Butterfly bush blooms on new wood.

Many think that Hydrangea blooms on new wood. The bloom at the end of the summer (in our area) yet if you prune them in the spring they don’t bloom at all. This is because they set their flower buds immediately after blooming. So they have a short window in which you can prune them. Best bet is to do so just after their flowers fade.

Butterfly Bush blooms on new wood. You can whack it back to the ground in the fall and it will still bloom the next year.

To get a sense of what your plant does, watch it for a year. Don’t prune it at all in that year. If you see buds on the stems all winter long it blooms on old wood. If you see none it is likely that it blooms on new wood. The safest bet when pruning is to do it right after the blooms fade. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule. In that case ask a nursery professional or consult a book such as Pruning and Training put out by the American Horticulture Society.

Then there is the last of the rules. How many times have you gone out and pruned something in the fall to have it sprout new shoots and have those new shoots nipped by the first frost? It happens to the best of us. As a rule of thumb it is best not to prune after the 4th of July. Exceptions would be if you do summer pruning on fruit trees (whole different topic) or Hydrangeas. If you do prune after the 4th of July make sure you don’t do it until well into the fall/winter when the plant is dormant.

Like I’ve said, pruning is a difficult subject. It is over done and done wrong in most cases. My goal here isn’t explain every last detail of pruning, but rather to outline a few helpful hints. For more information refer to the above mentioned book.

I cannot tell you how many times I have sat down to write this article. Pruning is one of the things I am most passionate about as a horticulturalist. It ranks above organic gardening. Really. Pruning is one of the most abused art forms in the horticulture industry. Many a winter day I cringe as I drive down the street looking at the poor helpless butchered trees. One year I had the idea to go around town and hang signs on all the maimed trees saying, “Someone cut my head off.” But being the non-activist I am I thought better of it.

I considered going into a specialty and becoming an arborist, but they make you take tests on what to spray trees with and that goes against the whole killing things and organic stuff. So I decided against it.

The problem, when deciding to write about pruning, is that the topic takes volumes to explain. I can’t sit down and plunk out a quick note on how to prune. It doesn’t work like that. Pruning really is an art form. There are rules that make you a good pruner.

So over the next few weeks we will focus on pruning. We will take one week to revisit that petunia you planted. (How’s it doing by the way?) The topics in pruning I want to cover are tool, timing, technique, and what not to do. This week we’ll talk about pruning.

Let’s start by saying that THESE are not a proper pruning tool. Please note the name: Hedge Shears. They are for that specific purpose. Trimming hedges. Nothing more. They are not to “prune” your front bushes. You may use them to cut your lawn, but other than that they are for hedges. If you own a pair please put them away and buy a proper pair of pruners.

That brings me to the next subject. What does a pair of proper pruners look like? There are two types of pruners on the market. By-pass and anvil. By-pass are the kind you want. The anvil pruners get dull quickly and they end up just mashing the branch instead of cutting it.

An excellent brand for pruners is Felco. They are a Swiss company and make some of the best pruners on the market. They also cost a tidy sum. If you ask me the price you pay is worth every cent. However, that is coming from a woman who does not own a single pair of Felco pruners. I just can’t afford them.

There are other tools of the trade when it comes to pruning. There are loppers and saws. The tool you will use depends on the size of the material you are cutting. It it is a simple rose stem then you would pick a hand pruner. If it is a larger tree branch you would pick a lopper. If neither of those is appropriate a saw is the tool of choice. One should not have to exert too much force to cut a branch. Keep that in mind.

Last, maintenance. It is so important to keep you tools clean and sharp. Please don’t judge me on the cleanliness of my tools. I tend to be a lazy gardener. I have left pruners out in the garden and they’ve rusted closed. In a perfect world I would clean and dry my tools after each use. Another important step is to disinfect your tools. A quick wipe with some rubbing alcohol kills any diseases and prevents spread. Make sure to regularly sharpen your pruners. It’s like trying to cut a tomato with a dull knife. It doesn’t quite work. If you keep your tools sharp your plants will thank you.