THE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO Starting a Garden THE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO Star ting a Garden 326 Fast, Easy, Affordable Ways to Transform Your Yard One Project at a Time Sally Roth Timber Press Portland, Oregon Frontispiece: ‘Red Ribbons’ daylily, by Elizabeth McWilliams Copyright © 2017 by Sally Roth. All rights reserved. Photography credits appear on page 260. Illustrations by Karla Beatty and Anna Eshelman Published in 2017 by Timber Press, Inc. The Haseltine Building 133 S.W. Second Avenue, Suite 450 Portland, Oregon 97204-3527 timberpress.com Printed in China Text design by Julianna Johnson and Kate Giambrone Cover design by Benjamin Shaykin and Patrick Barber Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Roth, Sally, author. Title: The beginner’s guide to starting a garden: 326 fast, easy, affordable ways to transform your yard one project at a time/ Sally Roth. Description: Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016017920 | ISBN 9781604696745 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: Gardens—Design. Classification: LCC SB473 .R647 2017 | DDC 635—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016017920 IN LOVING MEMORY my mother OF CONTENTS A LIFETIME OF LEARNING ......................................................................8 A BUILDING BLOCK GARDEN PRIMER ...........................................17 TWELVE EASY, FIRST IMPRESSIONS SMALL GARDENS At the Lamppost. .................................................................................................56 A WELCOME GARDEN At the Entrance ...................................................................................................72 A PRETTY FRAME At the Corners ....................................................................................................86 DRESS UP A TREE Shady Spots .....................................................................................................102 BETWEEN NEIGHBORS Private or Pretty? .............................................................................................118 CHEERFUL COLOR In the Lawn......................................................................................................132 AN EVER-EXPANDING GARDEN Extending the Edges ........................................................................................146 A BECKONING BENCH Gathering Places and Sitting Spots ...................................................................159 SIDEWALK STRIP Creating Curb Appeal ......................................................................................176 LOTS OF POTS A Can’t-Miss Container Garden .......................................................................192 ARTIST’S CANVAS Gardening on Slopes ........................................................................................209 NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON’T Dealing with Eyesores ......................................................................................224 GARDENING SECRETS Top Ten Ways to Save Time and Money .............................................................236 Resources ........................................................................................................255 Further Reading ..............................................................................................258 Photography Credits ........................................................................................260 Index ...............................................................................................................261 A Lifetime of Learning The author in her garden in the high Rockies of Colorado, where a combination of frigid winters, lack of water, and about two and a half months between spring thaw and first snow makes her grateful for all the gardening tricks that she’s learned over the years— and the new ones she’s still learning. I learned how to garden at my mother’s knee—literally. “I’m going outside for a while,” she’d announce, and I’d follow along, hurrying to get my little red wagon, so I could help haul plants or weeds or rocks. Her gardens were gorgeous. And ever changing, as she transplanted things a few inches left or right, or all the way across the yard. I can still see her standing back, squinting, to check the look of what she was creating. “Needs more yellow, right there,” she’d say, pointing. Then she’d reach for the shovel to move a blooming clump of coreopsis daisies then and there. Every year, her flower beds got bigger, and the lawn got smaller. Meanwhile, I absorbed the art of gardening, and the how-tos of transplanting, My mother could dividing, and otherwise making more of a good thing. usually be found outside, Garden centers were almost unheard of back then, so Mom got most of in her “natural habitat,” as we joked—her gardens. her plants from friends and neighbors. Oh, you could send away for plants A LIFETIME OF LEARNING || 9