Ready set grow: quick and easy gardening projects

82 Pages·2010·4.22 MB·English

READY SET
GROW!
Quick and easy gardening projects

Ready Set Grow!
Contents
LONDON, NEW YORK,
MELBOURNE, MUNICH, and DELHI 4-5 Ready and set
Senior designer Sonia Whillock-Moore
Senior editor Deborah Lock
6-7 Help them grow!
Project designer Gemma Fletcher
Designers Hedi Hunter, Sadie Thomas, Pamela Shiels,
Mary Sandberg, Gabriela Rosecka, Lauren Rosier 8-9 Top 10: Tips for green gardening
Additional editing by Lorrie Mack, Elinor Greenwood
US editor Margaret Parrish
Photography Will Heap 10-11 Water, weed... and wait
Picture researcher Karen VanRoss
RHS consultant Simon Maughan

12-13 Creative containers
Category publisher Mary Ling
Production editor Clare McLean
1
Production controller Claire Pearson 14-15 Dazzling decorations
Jacket copywriter Adam Powley hour
First published in the United States in 2010 by 3
DK Publishing 16-17 Enchanted path
375 Hudson Street days
New York, New York 10014
1
Copyright © 2010 Dorling Kindersley Limited 18-19 Garden buddy
day
10 11 12 13 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
176268—12/09
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be Section 1: 20-21 Flowers and unusual plants
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, Top
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission
10 22-23 Top 10: Quick-to-grow plants
of the copyright owner. Published in Great Britain by
Dorling Kindersley Limited.
7
A catalog record for this book is 24-25 Marigold fish
available from the Library of Congress weeks
ISBN 978-0-7566-5887-8
Color reproduction by MDP, UK 10
26-27 Flowerpot people
Printed and bound by weeks
Toppan, China
12
Discover more at 28-29 Poppy power
www.dk.com weeks
1 Top
30-31 Fairy ring 10 56-57 Top 10: Microgreens
day
12 9
32-33 Floral tepee 58-59 Crazy kohl rabi
weeks weeks
Top 4
10 34-35 Top 10: Cool plants to grow weeks 60-61 Taste of Asia
8 12
36-37 Nasturtium nibbles 62-63 Carrot companions
weeks weeks
2 5
38-39 Window-box wildlife 64-65 Pizza garden
hours weeks
1 12
40-41 Wild-West cacti 66-67 Colorful kebabs
hour weeks
4 10
42-43 Pets’ corner 68-69 Magic beans
weeks weeks
1
70-71 Herbal sun tea
day
Section 2: 44-45 Vegetables, herbs, and fruits
12
72-73 Strawberry boot
6 weeks
46-47 One-week sprouters
days 2
74-75 Red currant refreshments
Top hours
10 48-49 Top 10: Sprouting seeds
4
50-51 Windowsill watercress 76-77 The finish line
weeks
4
52-53 Radish racers 78-79 Glossary and Index
weeks
4
54-55 Salad relay 80 Acknowledgments
weeks
Find out more
For more information and to join, contact:
The American Horticultural Society is one of the nation’s oldest
American Horticultural Society
gardening societies. Its mission is to educate and inspire people to
7931 East Boulevard Drive
become successful, environmentally responsible gardeners. It’s never Alexandria, VA 22308
too early to start: Check out the youth gardening section, and find out Tel. [phone]
about local gardening organizations and activities. Now start digging! www.ahs.org
Ready and set
The key to having fun in the garden is
choosing plants you not only like, but can
also grow quickly and successfully. Here
are a few things to think about when
you’re getting started and planning all the
different things you want to cultivate.
How big is
your space?
Plants come in all shapes and
sizes, so even small spaces are
useful. When you’re making
your choices, check to see
how tall and wide each plant
will grow so you know which
plants suit your space.
How much sunlight is there?
Different plants need different amounts of
sunlight to grow, so check out how much Symbol guide
light different parts of your gardening What the lighting terms mean:
area get in a day. This information will be
very useful for choosing suitable plants.
Full sun Partial sun Shade
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4
How much time do you have?
Checklist
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Why not keep a diary?
Part of the fun of gardening (or any other
sport or hobby) is seeing the results and
learning what works and what doesn’t.
Try keeping a diary so you can record
what you did and what you achieved.
Name of plant: Sunflower
w eeks
Location (including the 3 w eeks
color or design of label or 1 0
decoration used to mark
the place): By the fence
Soil used:
Potting soil
Add photographs
Date planted:
of progress
April 12,
labeled with the
2010
number of days
and weeks old.
If there’s a seed
Include notes on care given:
packet or a plant
Water twice a week during
label, paste it in.
the summer.
5
Help them grow!
Your job as a gardener will change as the
plants in your garden grow, flower, fruit, and
sometimes die back for the winter. Through its
life, a plant needs to be cared for in different
ways, from its early stages as a seedling to the time
it fruits and makes seeds when it is grown.
START
1 Seed stage 2 Germination 3 Sprouting 4 Seedling stage
A seed contains a stage stage A gardener makes
new plant and a store A gardener provides A gardener makes sure sure the plant can make
of food to get it started. warmth and moisture the sprouting seed gets its own food by getting
A gardener sows the to help the seed get plenty of light so that it the right amount of
seed at the correct started. A propagator grows evenly and does sunlight and water.
planting depth and (see below) keeps the not get too thin or Protect the young plants
spacing. seed in a constant moist, spindly. Turn the pot from diseases and pests,
humid condition. every few days. such as slugs and snails.
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plastic bottle in the lid on the top bottle part.
YAo lua wrgilel npelaedst: ic bottle hscailsfs uosrsin, ga ntdh e
with lid make a slit in
SAcA is sstsmroiaprll s opfla csottict on the lid.
container
6
Did you know?
An annual plant lives
for just one season,
while a perennial plant
grows back year
after year.
FINISH
5 Vegetative stage 6 Flowering stage 7 Fruiting stage
A gardener makes sure A gardener waters, puts in A gardener can feed a
the plant has enough water, light, a plant stake to support a tall or plant with nutrients (fertilizer) to
soil, and food (fertilizer) so it climbing plant, and removes the encourage fruiting. Seeds can be
can grow healthily. An unhealthy dead flowers from an annual flower collected and sown again the
plant is more likely to get pests to lengthen the flowering period. following year, or left to fall on
and diseases. Transfer the plant Pinch out the growing tips of a the ground, where they may
to a larger container if not directly flowering vegetable to encourage germinate on their own. Some
sown outside. the plant to form large fruits. fruits are picked when ripe.
3 4 5
Add Fill the After
some top sowing
water into the bottle part with the seeds,
base part, then soil. You are cover with a
put the top now ready to small container
bottle part sow the seeds. that has holes
upside down (See page 66 punched in.
into it, making for using this Put the
sure the water propagator for propagator in
level covers the germinating a warm and
lid and the zucchini sunny place.
cotton wick. seeds.)
Top
Tips for green gardening
10
In the world of gardening, there’s an ever-increasing
trend to use natural methods to keep plants healthy
and control pests, to recycle garden waste, and to
reuse everyday things. Why not give some of these
top 10 tips a try?
1 2
A welcoming garden A bird-friendly garden
Welcome friendly bugs that feed Welcome bug-eating birds, since they
on insect pests. Ladybugs and eat slugs, snails, grubs, caterpillars,
lacewings eat aphids such as and other pests that destroy plants.
blackfly that destroy crops, so Put up birdfeeders and nesting boxes
plant bright flowers such as (including those you have made) to
candytuft, sunflowers, and marigolds encourage more to visit.
and create places where these bugs
can shelter and lay their eggs.
6 7

Use a
wooden box
with holes and a
lid for a worm
We worms are fantastic compost bin.
compost makers. Garden
waste and vegetable
peelings are delicious for
Homemade compost Worm composting
us to eat. After digesting,
Set up a compost bin in a warm, partly If you have only a little space, set up a
we leave casts (poop) that
sunny site on top of some soil. A mix of home for some small, red tiger worms,
you can use as nutritious
vegetable peelings, garden waste, and which you can buy. Add a layer of moist,
compost for your plants.
fibrous woody brown material like shredded newspaper and soil for their
paper or cardboard provide the right bedding, and then feed them once a
conditions for encouraging compost- week with vegetable peelings wrapped
making bugs. The rich, nutritious in newspaper or paper towels. Every
compost will be ready to use after six two or three months, the rich, fine
to nine months. compost will be ready to use.
8