The Grumpy Gardener

Definitive gardening advice - along with a story or two - for the novice or expert from one of the nation's most-trusted, and Grumpy, sources. Gardeners from across the country have turned to Southern Living Senior Garden Editor Steven Bender - known affectionately as "The Grumpy Gardener" - for his keen knowledge and gardening know-how with equal doses sarcasm and sidesplitting humor for nearly 35 years. Finally, the collected wit and wisdom of the magazine's most irreverent and beloved columnist can be found in a single A - Z volume, providing gardeners from coast-to-coast with his valuable tips for planting, troubleshooting, and growing flowers, vegetables, shrubs, trees and more, all delivered in his signature cantankerous style. Sidebars throughout the book - "Ask Grumpy" - help readers tackle common garden problems ("How do I get ride of little house ants?"), and readers from the past 35 years take part in the book when Grumpy shares his favorite reader's responses to some of his advice, his favorite rules for gardening, and Q & A's covering your favorite plants and flowers are all inside. Additionally, beautiful line-drawings and illustrations throughout make the book as beautiful to look at as well as entertaining to read. The Grumpy Gardener is sure to become the most trusted tool in your gardening shed!

Adventure story for children aged 8 and over. The Grumpy Gardener and her peculiar squire, the Self-Satisfied Squirrel, must confront a powerful monster, the Climate Change, to save life on Earth.

Following in the curmudgeonly footsteps of The Grumpy Driver’s and Golfer's Handbooks, this is a compilation of all things frustrating about maintaining the average domestic garden. Grump’s attempts to improve his “extra room outdoors” are thwarted at every turn. His lawn develops alopecia, his fruit trees are shunned by all pollinating insects, his veg is a big hit with slugs and his Indian sandstone patio becomes an ingenious sunken garden. Chapters include Pruning, Weeding, Compost (Ivor is convinced that cryogenics fan Walt Disney could be happily accommodated in his non-decomposing compost bins), Sheds, Pond Life, "Oh, I Simply Adore Lobelia"; (people who talk too loudly in show gardens), TV Gardening, Pests and Living With Leaf Lady, a woman hell-bent on identifying every foreign leaf that is swept into their garden - and returning it... There is a Grumpy Calendar of seasonal jobs in the garden and how best to avoid them, plus advice on how to impress people with a Slacker's Veg Patch (vegetables that look after themselves more or less).

'I have quite fallen for Adam -- his stylish waistcoat, encyclopaedic knowledge and use for everything -- and constantly find myself thinking "What Would Adam Do?" as I go about my daily gardening business.' Alys Fowler In the 1940s, Adam the Gardener was a national treasure. Each week in the Sunday Express he advised gardeners exactly what to plant and how - from carrots in the fourth week of May (but 'do this after sunset, when there is less chance of trouble from the carrot fly') to lily of the valley in the fourth week of November. Accompanied by wonderful illustrations, Adam's charm and expertise won over thousands. Here, the weekly world of Adam the Gardener has been brought back to life for today's gardener, who will be just as readily captivated by his quiet reliability and peerless knowledge. As well as techniques - pruning and potting, forcing and grafting - and planting instructions for an impressive range of flowers, fruits and vegetables, also learn how to plan a new garden, what gadgets you will need (including an earwig trap) and all about colour harmony in the garden. This is a period gem that will delight and inform enthusiasts of all kinds.

When the Queen is grumpy, everyone is grumpy, and when she doesn’t get what she wants, everyone needs to watch out. But one curly-haired boy helps show her the way to a better day. Filled with bright, fairy tale–inspired art, this charming picture book shows that one's attitude can have a big impact on others.

“Be forewarned that this book honors people like the woman in my hometown who paints the numbers of her favorite NASCAR drivers on her elephant ears, and a Tokyo gardener with over a hundred bonsai plants.” So says renowned garden journalist Felder Rushing in his new book Maverick Gardeners: Dr. Dirt and Other Determined Independent Gardeners. In this book, Felder delves deeply into the psychology of what motivates and sustains the Keepers of the Garden Flame. For thousands of years, a loosely connected web of unique, nontraditional gardeners has bonded people across race, culture, language, and other social conventions through sharing unique plants and stories. Found in nearly every neighborhood worldwide, these “determined independent gardeners” (DIGrs) are typically nonjoiners who garden simply and exuberantly, eschewing customary horticultural standards in their amateur pursuits of personal bliss. Included in Maverick Gardeners are classic “passalong plant” lists, a dollop of how-to, numerous color photographs, and thought-provoking essays on quintessential tools, sharing with others, getting away with wildflowers in suburbia, and organizing a plant swap. The centerpiece of this unique gardening journey is the no-holds-barred story of a ten-year cross-cultural collaboration between the horticulturist author and a flamboyant rebellious gardener who called himself Dirt. Through swapping plants and garden lore—and rubbing shoulders with fellow DIGrs—they unraveled their shared humanity. From the practical to the inspiring, Maverick Gardeners is the perfect book for those nonconformist souls who see no sense in trying to fit in and follow the footpaths of others.

Presents a guide to selecting trees, berries, perennials, and vines for the garden, and offers more than five thousand plant listings with information on varieties, cultivation, and maintenance.

From the bestselling author of The Invention of Nature, a fascinating look at the Founding Fathers like none you've seen before. “Illuminating and engrossing.... The reader relives the first decades of the Republic ... through the words of the statesmen themselves.” —The New York Times Book Review For the Founding Fathers, gardening, agriculture, and botany were elemental passions: a conjoined interest as deeply ingrained in their characters as the battle for liberty and a belief in the greatness of their new nation. Founding Gardeners is an exploration of that obsession, telling the story of the revolutionary generation from the unique perspective of their lives as gardeners, plant hobbyists, and farmers. Acclaimed historian Andrea Wulf describes how George Washington wrote letters to his estate manager even as British warships gathered off Staten Island; how a tour of English gardens renewed Thomas Jefferson’s and John Adams’s faith in their fledgling nation; and why James Madison is the forgotten father of environmentalism. Through these and other stories, Wulf reveals a fresh, nuanced portrait of the men who created our nation.