Book Review: “Gardening Complete”

Gardening Complete: How to Best Grow Vegetables, Flowers, and Other Outdoor Plants (by Authors of Cool Springs Press, 376 pp., $30)

If you are looking for a comprehensive outdoor gardening book on just about every topic you could imagine, then take a look at the newest offering from Cool Springs Press: Gardening Complete.

For this monumental project, they pulled together a team of authors with impressive credentials — Katie Elzer-Peters, Rhonda Fleming Hayes, Charlie Nardozzi, Tara Nolan, Dr. Jacqueline Soule, Lynn Steiner, Jessica Walliser and George Weigel.

Just a sampling of topics includes botany for gardeners, designing your gardens, harvesting vegetables, managing weeds, controlling pests and insects, propagating, and gardening with native plants.

Let’s take a look at a few representative chapters:

In “Understanding Soil,” Katie Elzer-Peters takes the mystery out of what soil does for our plants, discusses soil testing, covers what amendments do for the soil, and explains crop rotation.

In “Designing Your Gardens,” George Weigel shares a straightforward approach to the concepts of landscape design to help you create something that reflects your style.

The “Composting and Mulching” chapter is filled with great tips for creating your own compost, including materials to use and avoid, different methods, and also covers worm composting. The section on mulching looks at good types to use, what they do for plants, and best practices for applying mulch.

I particularly enjoyed George Weigel’s chapter on “Gardening By Seasons.” As he says, “Ask gardeners what’s important to them in the landscape and ‘four-season interest’ usually shows up near the top of the wish list.” This chapter includes plant lists for colorful foliage and a four-season plant guide packed with ideas. The “What Blooms When” section is a month-by-month guide tailored to USDA zone 6 — that’s mighty handy for most gardeners in this region!

The chapter on “Controlling Diseases” contains useful cultural practices we can employ to minimize the chance of disease in our gardens and details how to identify, prevent and control 13 of the most common plant pathogens. All of the information will help you grow a healthy garden.

If you’ve ever puzzled over the ideal time to harvest edible crops, Charlie Nardozzi’s got you covered with plenty of information on this topic so you know what to look for.

This is just a peek into Gardening Complete. It is brimming with attractive, detailed photographs to illustrate the each of the topics. But there’s so much more to be found in this book, making it an ideal resource for any gardener’s library.