Clausen Ruth Rogers - The Proven Winners Garden Book: Simple Plans, Picture-Perfect Plants, and Expert Advice for Creating a Gorgeous Garden

This colorful gardens mixture of annuals (verbenas, dwarf morning glories, gerbera daisies, strawflowers) and perennials (summersweet, hydrangeas, and switch grasses) is hardy enough to tolerate the climatic challenges of coastal locations and the Southwest.

RUTH ROGERS CLAUSEN & THOMAS CHRISTOPHER

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KERRY MICHAELS & DAVID SPARKS

TIMBER PRESS
PORTLAND, OREGON

THIS BOOK HOPES TO PROVIDE ENCOURAGEMENT
TO THOSE STARTING ON THE GARDENING PATH.

The inky black foliage of Sweet Caroline Bewitched After Midnight sweet potato vine.

Foliage plants such as Prairie Winds Cheyenne Sky red switch grass and Black Pearl coral bells provide an artistic backbone to designs when flowers fade.

This garden attracts the eye but not four-legged pests, with its flush of vibrant deer-resistant annuals: Luscious Berry Blend lantana, Diamond Frost euphorbia, and Supertunia Sangria Charm.

With this book, beautifying your home landscape has never been easieror more economical and fun. Forget all the complications of gardening rules and jargon; weve simplified this process to a series of straightforward recipes, like your favorite cookbook. Follow the step-by-step instructions and youll find that success comes just as surely outdoors as in the kitchen, as you quickly transform the ordinary into something truly special.

As with cooking, the success of your garden depends on the quality of the ingredients you use. Proven Winners has devoted years to collecting and testing plants, seeking varieties that not only produce the most attractive flowers and foliage, but which are also the most reliable and durable performers. All are outstandingly vigorous, disease-free, and the best of their kind in coping with stresses such as extreme heat and drought. The plants in these recipes are also easy to grow: most are compact, and so can stand on their own without troublesome staking and with a minimum of pruning.

Youll find detailed introductions to creating both in-ground gardens and gardens in containers. Part one starts with the basicsselecting a spot, designing a garden, shopping for plantsthat apply to any type of garden and any type of gardener. The second part is dedicated to landscape gardening. Before delving into the twelve recipes, with themes such as fragrant combinations and shady retreats, read up on everything from preparing the soil to keeping your garden healthy down the road. Next, the container section: a trove of twenty-five enticing designs along with the container-specific know-how for getting your plants happily situated in their pots (or urns, baskets, bowls, and more). Simple planting schematics and plentiful photos combine to present a full picture of how to do it and what beauty the end result will offer.

Interwoven throughout the book are tips for saving money and techniques that make the job easiertricks of the trade that we learned from the pros. We understand that your time and money are both precious. With this book, youll economize on both, almost certainly earning back the cost of this book and more with the first landscape project you undertake. To that point, a variety of studies have found that good landscaping can add 10 percent or more to the value of your home. So while enhancing your own satisfaction and pleasure in your home, you can at the same time boost its curb appeal.

Coordinated containers can transform an outdoor space instantly. And when it comes to attracting butterfliesas this combination of verbenas, bidens, and lantanas is designed to dotwo containers are more effective than one.

Everyones situation is different and so are their tastes. Thats why weve made these recipes easy to adapt. Its your choice: you can use the recipes in this book as a blueprint for your plantingplug them right into your landscapeor as a starting point for developing your own plans. Maybe youll need to adjust a recipe to better suit your local climate, or maybe you want it to better reflect your plant preferences. In either case, these recipes are calculated to encourage creativity; weve recommended substitutions for the various ingredients to help you customize each recipe, if that is your desire.

Keep in mind that the plants in each of the thirty-seven recipes, including the recommended substitutes, have been selected for their compatibility. That is, all plants in a given recipe thrive in the same degree of sun, in a similar climate, and with a comparable degree of moisture. They are also aesthetically compatiblewithin the same recipe the plants work together in color, texture, and fragrance to create a whole that is greater than, and more beautiful than, the parts. If, for any reason, you cannot find the recommended plants or substitutes at your local garden center, you can use another Proven Winners plant of the same type. So, for example, if you cannot find Infinity Pink New Guinea impatiens, you can substitute Infinity Pink Frost or even Infinity Dark Pink or Infinity Salmon Bisque. Lastly, if you choose to include or substitute plants beyond the ones recommended in the book, just be sure that they are compatible with the other elements of the recipe.

Above all, this process is about trusting yourself and your instincts. If youve ever decorated a house or even just a room, you already have many of the skills you need to make your homescape attractive, comfortable, and colorful. This book will help you harness those skills and provide the technical support youll need to express yourself in greenery and flowers. Its your garden after all, and should reflect your taste and please you, fitting your lifestyle and the needs of your family.

A hot and sunny spot is both challenge and boon. But with appropriately tough plants and proper care, your garden will thrive. Here, dark-leaved Mystic Illusion dahlias are balanced with Rockin Playin the Blues salvias, Goldilocks Rocks bidens, and Supertunia Vista Fuchsia petunias.

Choosing an appropriate site for your planting is the essential first step. This decision depends partly on aestheticsyoull want to locate your planting in a prominent and visible spot where it will have maximum impact. Youll also want to make sure that the site provides optimum conditions for the growth of the plants.