Friday, February 1, 2013

Introducing a Guide to help with maintenance in your garden

Do you have trouble deciding when to prune your salvia greggii? Not sure how to plant the perennials you want to get started this fall? Wondering why the leaves on your happy green plants turned yellow this summer? 

I have compiled A Guide to Landscape Maintenance for Central Texas Gardens to help you know when and how to do what in your landscape. My Guide is available to you from Apple’s iTunes iBookstore. 







After years of teaching in the GoNativeU program; The Art School at The Austin Museum of Art; operating my own design and maintenance business; and years of volunteering in the Native Plant Society of Texas, I put all the information together in an easy to understand publication. A Guide to Landscape Maintenance for Central Texas Gardens is formatted for the iPad. Over 100 pages packed with descriptions, techniques, references and photos to help you create a beautiful landscape to be admired by all your neighbors. 

The book begins by defining maintenance and why it is important to your landscape and community. Tips are given to help you gain access to your landscape, invite yourself in to observe and cultivate. An entire chapter is dedicated to the basic set of tools to have in your shed, what they do and how to pick good ones. 



Everyone knows central Texas has two basic seasons: hot and not-so-hot! Gardening is a challenge in our area, yet I have broken the year down into groups of months and what garden tasks can be done based on the weather. The bulk of the book is the Season by Season Maintenance tasks and check lists. This chapter is full of photographic examples of challenges in the garden such as sunburn, sooty mold, under-watered plants, caterpillars, weeds and more. 



Probably the most important aspect of a gardening book here in Texas, the next chapter is all about Techniques! Step-by-step instructions on how to do the tasks listed in the Seasonal chapter. Transplanting, planting, watering, spraying, weeding and more. 

Lastly there are resources, further reading and websites for plant choices, wildlife garden, and non-profit groups where you can continue your education.

A Guide to Landscape Maintenance for Central Texas Gardens is an interactive book. Not only is there written descriptions, the book includes slide shows, interactive photos, and galleries of situational examples. There is a free preview available for download with real page examples, not just the book intro! Look at the preview and see for yourself what a great resource this new publication is for central Texas gardeners!