One of the more difficult activities about gardening, even for the most seasoned, is keeping up with the amount of knowledge and ferreting out what will truly be useful to grow plants. Gardening advice like the planting bed itself is always evolving, as even the most scientific information changes over time. It can be frustrating for people new to growing plants.
Horticulture professor and garden journalist, Jeff Gillman and Meleah Maynard wrote Decoding Gardening Advice as a guide to weeding through the mangle of common, but still very prolific, garden helps out in the ethos. The writing, without pictures, in this garden book makes an excellent resource tool for plant growers of all skill levels.
Good Bad and Maybes of Growing Plants
The layout in Decoding Gardening Advice: The Science Behind the 100 Most Common Recommendations was wisely devised. The facts have been partitioned among “good advice,” “advice that’s debatable” and “advice that’s just wrong.” The authors added their reasoned explanations and backed it up with the research.
Within each section are explanations of what happens if the gardener follows the advice, how to do it better and a short blurb summarizing the advice, called real dirt. This garden guide covers the serious gardening basics; soil, water, pests and diseases and weed control.
Advice Answered for Outdoor Plants
Decoding Gardening Advice goes on to cover outdoor plants through several chapters including detailed answers on lawn care. Only plant lovers would care:
- What is and why exactly should one deadhead?
- What does balled and burlapped mean and what does one do about it?
- Why eggshells among your tomatoes make a good companion?
- How borax matters in your sod?
- Is hand weeding a better way?
In the Trees and Shrubs chapter, pruning advice covers when, whether and how to cut a woody plant. Throughout the book, Gillman and Maynard write in standard horticultural language easily recognized by the average gardener.
Horticultural Professor and Garden Journalist Answer Questions
Jeff Gillman, horticultural associate professor, and Meleah Maynard, garden journalist, have each previously published works on the world of gardening.
Meleah Maynard is an editor and University of Minnesota-Extension Master Gardener. Her published pieces have appeared in regional and national magazines such as Gardening How-to, Northern Gardener and Midwest Home. Maynard writes Everyday Gardener and is co-writer of Slow Dog.
Jeff Gillman is an associate professor in the Department of Horticultural Science at the University of Minnesota. Gillman is the author of The Truth About Garden Remedies and The Truth About Organic Gardening. The projects section on his website is a window into Gillman's current research and fun experiments, a link to his team’s findings is provided.
Science Behind the 100 Most Common Recommendations
Jeff Gillman and Meleah Maynard wrote Decoding Gardening Advice: The Science Behind the 100 Most Common Recommendations, it was published by Timber Press, January, 2012.
The paperback guide may be found with ISBN 978-1-60469-220-4. Among the 224 pages, the book contains a conversion chart, long bibliographer list and a thorough index of garden terms and subject matter. Each corner page of advice is faintly stamped with the words; good, debatable or wrong, for easy identification.
Permission received for all photos used in this article.
Chris Eirschele - Chris writes on plants grown and gardens explored; she is a member of the Garden Writers Association.
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