Taken by my boyfriend, this photo shows beautiful (but destructive) aphids making his rose bushes their home. He crushed hundreds of them by hand to rid his rose bushes of the aphids.
I admit it. I don’t have a green thumb. I’ve got a brown thumb. One on each hand, lol. I did not inherit the wonderful gardening skills of my mother. She always had the prettiest garden and flower baskets, and she could grow some pretty mean tomatoes and rhubarb. When she ventured “outside the box” for a couple of summers, she grew strawberries and lettuce – and she even grew those well.
When I left my family home, one of the first things I bought for my new apartment was a house plant. I was determined to be like my mum and eventually fill my living space with greenery. Let’s just say, it was a great idea…if only I had actually remembered to water the plant! The “difficult” task of filling a watering can with water, and walking it over to the parched potted plant, proved to be problem for me. Yes, call me lazy. For some strange reason, my lush house plants, no matter the variety, all turned to brown sticks while in my care. Good thing I never owned a dog back then!
These days I consider myself very lucky. You see, I have a boyfriend who loves to garden. Not only does he love it – he’s good at it!
So recently when I was contacted by DK Canada about reviewing some gardening books, it was my boyfriend who was anxiously awaiting their arrival. As always, DK Canada was quick to deliver the goods. Mother Nature? Not so much. Like many parts of Canada, we’ve had a cold and crazy spring here in the Nation’s Capital. There was no early spring planting where I live, in fact, we just got around to planting some flowers last week.
Shhh…don’t tell my boyfriend but, with the DK Canada gardening books I was sent, I think I could master the gardening all by myself, lol (kidding of course!). I received three DK Canada books and each one of them is so full of great information and wonderful step-by-step illustrations, I think anyone could become an expert gardener by reading and following these books:
CANADIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GARDENING
This monster of a book contains, what I think is, everything you need to know about gardening in Canada. This 760-page book illustrates a map of plant hardiness zones, soil prep and planning, detailed information on planting flowers, shrubs, fruits, vegetables and more. Need pruning tips? Information about pests and diseases? Need to know what tools to use and how to use them? This gorgeous book covers all of that and so much more!
GARDEN DESIGN
This is another gardening book filled with spectacular images and is a fantastic guide for planning just about any type of garden. It covers formal gardens, family gardens, urban gardens, planning your garden, what plants and flowers to use in your type of garden, and so much more. This is a DK Canada gardening book that is jam-packed with all kinds of tips and tricks appropriate to many types of gardens.
GROW VEGETABLES
While I’ve never attempted to grown any vegetables myself (yet), except for tomatoes, I will definitely be getting my hands dirty and into some vegetable planting now that we own this book. What I love about this book (besides the great photos, information and tips) is the fact that it explains how you can grow vegetables in gardens, yards, balconies, and roof terraces. This book covers all kinds of fruits and vegetables, even ones I have never heard of. Cardoons anyone?
We planted begonias, geraniums and other flowers in two planters on the deck.
We are loving our DK Canada gardening books and we have barely scratched the surface of all the great information contained in their pages. I’m sure we will both learn a lot from these books.
Be sure to check out the great selection of gardening books that DK Canada has to offer. Right now you can even get 30% off for a limited time.
Now to the best part! The wonderful folks at DK Canada have very generously offered up all 3 books to one lucky Canadian Blog House winner! The winner of this great prize pack shall be crowned “Canada’s Next Gardening Expert”…at least by me! Here’s how you can enter to win these 3 great DK Canada Books:
Disclosure: Canadian Blog House received these books from DK Canada in exchange for a review. All opinons are my own.
