Landscaping For Dummies
2nd Edition
Published on 26. January 2022
432 pages
978-1-119-85349-7 (ISBN)
Description
Create an eye-catching outdoor oasis with this no-nonsense guide to landscaping
As families spend more time at home, they're expanding their living space to their yards, decks, and patios. When you're ready to upgrade the look of your landscape, Landscaping For Dummies offers advice on installing fences and walkways, choosing hardy plants and trees, and enhancing natural habitats for the critters and creatures lurking in your neighborhood. You'll find out how to make your backyard a relaxing retreat space and discover the enjoyment and satisfaction that comes from working in your yard.
Landscaping For Dummies includes:
* Lists of recommended plants and varieties, including the best ones for privacy plantings, low-maintenance groundcovers, and small gardens
* Advice on how to deal with special landscaping concerns, including fire-prone areas, bee and butterfly gardens, and drought-tolerant and native landscapes
* Instructions on installing permanent features like decks, patios, fences, and more
* Pointers on how to water more efficiently, including the latest tools and technologies that can save you time
With a little bit of planning and some digging, trimming, or planting, you'll be set to enjoy your yard whenever the mood strikes. Let Landscaping For Dummies be your guide to making the most of your outdoor space.
As families spend more time at home, they're expanding their living space to their yards, decks, and patios. When you're ready to upgrade the look of your landscape, Landscaping For Dummies offers advice on installing fences and walkways, choosing hardy plants and trees, and enhancing natural habitats for the critters and creatures lurking in your neighborhood. You'll find out how to make your backyard a relaxing retreat space and discover the enjoyment and satisfaction that comes from working in your yard.
Landscaping For Dummies includes:
* Lists of recommended plants and varieties, including the best ones for privacy plantings, low-maintenance groundcovers, and small gardens
* Advice on how to deal with special landscaping concerns, including fire-prone areas, bee and butterfly gardens, and drought-tolerant and native landscapes
* Instructions on installing permanent features like decks, patios, fences, and more
* Pointers on how to water more efficiently, including the latest tools and technologies that can save you time
With a little bit of planning and some digging, trimming, or planting, you'll be set to enjoy your yard whenever the mood strikes. Let Landscaping For Dummies be your guide to making the most of your outdoor space.
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Teri Chace | National Gardening Association
Landscaping For Dummies
Book
04/2022
Wiley
€24.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Persons
The National Gardening Association is the leading garden-based educational organization in the USA. Visit http://garden.org.
Teri Dunn Chace has more than 35 books in publication, including the 2016 AHS award-winner Seeing Seeds. She's also written and edited extensively for major consumer gardening/outdoor-living publications (Horticulture, North American Gardener, Backyard Living, Birds and Blooms) and is presently the garden-and-nature columnist for the award-winning "Bottom Line Personal" newsletter.
Teri Dunn Chace has more than 35 books in publication, including the 2016 AHS award-winner Seeing Seeds. She's also written and edited extensively for major consumer gardening/outdoor-living publications (Horticulture, North American Gardener, Backyard Living, Birds and Blooms) and is presently the garden-and-nature columnist for the award-winning "Bottom Line Personal" newsletter.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Table of Contents
- Introduction
- About This Book
- Foolish Assumptions
- Icons Used in This Book
- Beyond This Book
- Where to Go from Here
- Part 1 Getting Started with Landscaping
- Chapter 1 Designing Your Landscape: The Birth of Your Design
- Starting with Dreams - Create Your Wish List
- Gathering good ideas
- Drawing within the Lines: Living with Practical Issues
- Making sure you know where your property lines are
- Verifying whether you need permits
- Considering children and pets' safety
- Addressing water issues
- Designating storage areas
- Site Analysis - Understanding What You Have
- Drawing your site analysis
- Knowing how much of your yard you can use
- Walking through the space
- Focusing on privacy
- Knowing when you'll use your landscape
- Designing a Low-Maintenance Landscape
- Chapter 2 Thinking like a Designer
- Achieving Unity, Blessed Unity, in Your Landscaping Design
- Focusing on Repetition in Your Design
- Playing with Color
- Getting Some Rhythm
- Adding Décor to Your Design: How Many Pink Flamingos Are Enough?
- Paying Attention to Hardscape
- Keeping an Eye on the Details
- The Goldilocks Theory: Choosing Plants That Fit
- Layering Plants to Add Interest
- Chapter 3 Forming a Working Plan: Getting Serious about Your Design
- Knowing What's Already There - Making a Base Map
- Ensuring you have the supplies to draw
- Drawing your own base map
- Overlaying Your Ideas
- Putting Your Ideas on the Ground
- Big deals: Designating space for large elements
- Filling in the rest
- Creating a Final Plan
- Making a Shopping List
- Step 1: List plants and determine their cost
- Step 2: List and calculate the supplies
- Step 3: Get hardscape estimates
- Step 4: Make an itemized checklist
- Step 5: Consider tools you may need to buy
- Step 6: Take a breath
- Getting Ready
- Cutting your project into bite-sized pieces
- Taking action before you break ground
- Preparing your property
- Doing It Yourself or Calling in the Big Guns
- Part 2 Building Hardscape into Your Yard
- Chapter 4 Taming Your Site
- Focusing on Construction Basics
- Looking at site challenges
- Ramping up - a checklist
- Understanding wood and its alternatives
- Identifying tools and supplies
- Keeping safety front and center
- Grading Your Property
- Laying Out Straight Lines and Shapes
- Stringing lines - The hub and tack method
- Stringing out the rest of a shape
- Working with Slopes
- Understanding challenges unique to installing retaining walls
- Positioning a retaining wall
- Installing a retaining wall
- Chapter 5 Dealing with Water
- Routing Water and Improving Drainage
- Focusing on surface drainage
- Installing subsurface drainage
- Returning water to the land - rain gardens
- Recognizing the Different Options of Watering Systems
- Watering cans
- Rain barrels
- Hoses of all kinds
- Irrigation systems
- Chapter 6 All Things Fences, Walls, and Gates
- Fabricating Fences
- Knowing what to consider before beginning
- Choosing fence materials
- Building a basic fence
- Working with Walls
- Building a stacked stone wall
- Building a mortared stone wall
- Building a brick wall
- Building a concrete block wall
- Going for Gates
- Chapter 7 Creating Paths and Walkways
- Getting Started
- Considering design and use
- Deciding on materials and dimensions
- Building Paths
- Creating a gravel or crushed stone path
- Making a walkway with bricks or pavers
- Installing a concrete walk
- Building a flagstone path
- Stepping in Style
- Calculating step dimensions
- Planning your steps
- Building steps
- Installing a ramp
- Chapter 8 Constructing Decks
- Understanding a Deck's Components
- Starting with Building a Deck
- Developing a good deck plan
- Choosing decking material
- Getting the Site Ready
- Preparing to attach the ledger board
- Installing the ledger board
- Prepping footings and piers
- Completing footings and piers
- Installing posts and beams
- Installing the joists
- Laying decking boards
- Adding deck stairs
- Adding deck railings
- Finishing Your Deck
- Sides and undersides
- Protective finishes
- Chapter 9 Building Patios
- Selecting Materials
- Recognizing factors to evaluate
- Considering your choices
- Calculating how much material you'll need
- Building the Base
- Installing the Surface
- Installing brick, pavers, or flagstones
- Installing a concrete slab patio
- Chapter 10 Enhancing Your Landscape
- Adding a Raised Bed to Your Landscape
- Recognizing the details
- Building the raised bed
- Making a Built-in Bench
- An elegant, low bench
- Masonry benches
- Building (or Buying) a Planter
- Going with a wooden planter
- Going with a masonry planter
- Considering Hot Ideas
- Installing a chimenea or fire pit
- Installing an outdoor brick or stone oven
- Planning a cooking center
- Installing Lighting
- Illuminating your landscape
- Incorporating decorative lighting
- Adding Wooden Support Structures
- Growing up: Trellises
- Putting arbors in their place
- Installing a pergola or overhead
- Utilizing a Shed
- Storage sheds
- She sheds
- Potting sheds
- Pondering Water Features
- Part 3 The Planting o' the Green
- Chapter 11 Barking Up the Right Tree
- Choosing the Perfect Tree
- Considering important details before making the purchase
- Finding a healthy tree at the nursery
- Making the case for native trees
- Discovering Some Favorite Trees
- Naming our shade tree faves
- Listing our favorite flowering trees
- Tagging top trees for small spaces
- Planting some fruit trees
- Looking at evergreen trees
- Steering clear of these trees
- Demystifying Tree Planting
- Shopping for trees - pro tips
- Planting a tree in five easy steps
- Chapter 12 Bulking Up with Shrubs and Vines
- Finding Out about Shrubs
- Looking at design considerations
- Making the case for native shrubs
- Discovering Some Favorite Shrubs
- Considering Characteristics
- Colorful shrubs
- Drought-tolerant shrubs
- Evergreen shrubs
- Fruiting shrubs
- Shopping: Finding High-Quality Shrubs
- Planting Shrubs and Hedges
- Getting new shrubs into the ground
- Betting on hedges
- Using Vines in Your Landscape
- Selecting a vine with a spot in mind
- Choosing a vine with a purpose in mind
- Selecting some fine vines
- Considering some annual vines
- Shopping for Vines
- Planting Vines
- Providing sturdy support
- Pruning and training your vines
- Chapter 13 Adding Color and Texture This Season with Annuals
- Knowing What An Annual Is
- Cool dudes
- When it's hot, they're hot
- Understanding Your Options When Buying and Planting Annuals
- Transplanting your annual seedlings
- Creating splashy flowerbeds
- Foodscaping: Vegetables are the new annuals
- Chapter 14 Striving For Long-Lasting Beauty with Perennials and Bulbs
- Creating a Perennial Border
- Listing Perennials by Season
- Spring bloomers
- Summer stars
- Autumn stalwarts
- The best long-bloomers
- Growing native perennials
- Discovering ornamental grasses
- Shopping For Perennials
- Buying locally
- Purchasing through a mail-order supplier
- Planting and Pampering Your Perennials
- Packing Beauty into Bulbs
- Discovering Some Great Bulbs
- Buying and Taking Care of Your Bulbs
- Planting bulbs
- Giving your bulbs some TLC
- Fertilizing bulbs
- Chapter 15 Including Succulents and Containers for More Color and Texture
- Including Super Succulents
- Eyeing the many plusses that make succulents so easy to love
- Discovering favorite low-growing succulents
- Creating fun and fabulous vignettes
- Displaying in containers
- Shopping and planting tips
- Caring for succulents
- Examining the Containerized Landscape
- Tapping into the joys of container gardening
- Picking pots
- Potting plants in containers
- Working with thrillers, fillers, and spillers
- Caring for potted plants
- Chapter 16 Covering Lots of Ground
- Getting a Fresh Start: Clearing the Way
- Calling Groundcovers to the Rescue
- Top groundcover choices for sun
- Top groundcover choices for shade
- Top groundcover choices for slopes
- Top groundcover choices for wet areas
- Top choices between paving stones
- Shrubby plants to cover the ground
- Planting groundcovers
- Considering How Much Lawn You Need
- Recognizing what having a lawn means
- Choosing a lower-maintenance, lower-impact lawn
- Putting In a New Lawn
- Choosing grass types
- Seeding your lawn
- Installing sod
- Watering efficiently
- Buffering the borders
- Part 4 Outside Factors You Can and Can't Control
- Chapter 17 Maintaining Your Landscape
- Bettering Your Soil
- Cultivating living soil
- Putting your soil to the test
- Adjusting soil pH
- Incorporating amendments
- Gardening with no-till methods
- Composting 101: Making Black Gold
- Step 1: Locate a suitable spot
- Step 2: Get a bin
- Step 3: Set up your compost pile
- Step 4: Start making deposits
- Step 5: Layer
- Step 6: Stir it up
- Step 7: Harvest from below
- Feeding Your Plants - Which Type of Fertilizer to Use?
- Finding out what they need
- Figuring out the finer points of fertilizer
- Deciding which choice is best: Going natural
- Giving Your Plants a Trim - Pruning 101
- Editing Your Landscape
- Improving rather than replacing a plant
- Knowing when take out a plant
- Taking out a plant
- Calling in a professional
- Chapter 18 Dealing with Critters, Weeds, and Other Common Problems
- Discovering Natural Pest Control
- Avoid using pesticides
- Know thy enemy
- Be aware of the enemies of your enemy
- Combat with care
- Coping with Small Rodents
- Dealing with Doe, a Deer
- Choosing plants to deter deer
- Trying home remedies
- Considering anti-deer products
- Fencing them out
- Grappling with Weeds
- Avoiding the biggest mistake
- Patrolling, inspecting, and suspecting
- Considering alternatives to spraying - Try natural weed control
- Considering other ways to fight weeds
- Handling Disease Problems
- Preventing common diseases
- Taking care of sick plants
- Chapter 19 Coping with Mother Nature and Weather
- Peeking at Zone Maps
- Surviving Hot Summers
- Surviving Cold Winters
- Maximizing winter hardiness for plants
- Identifying and mitigating winter plant injuries
- Being proactive with other winter-protection tactics
- Gardening in a Warmer World
- Firescaping
- Anticipating and recovering from flooding
- Preparing for new plant choices and challenges
- Part 5 Time to Add Flair to Your Landscape
- Chapter 20 Contemplating Plans for Special Situations
- Planting for Privacy
- Deciduous plants for screening
- Evergreen plants for screening
- Adding a Low-Water Garden
- Trees that require less water
- Shrubby plants that require less water
- Drought-tolerant flowers
- Getting Ready for a Dip - around a Pool
- Designing a Hillside Rock Garden
- Small trees for a rock garden
- Dwarf shrubs for a rock garden
- Small perennials for a rock garden
- Considering Shade When Gardening
- Shade-loving plants
- Chapter 21 Considering Theme Landscapes
- Attracting and Nurturing Wild Creatures
- Providing a Garden Space for Kids
- Putting in a Kitchen Garden
- Incorporating an Herb Garden
- Establishing a Meadow Garden
- Composing a Cottage Garden
- Finding Your Meditation Area with a Retreat Garden
- Making an Enchanting Evening Garden
- Part 6 The Part of Tens
- Chapter 22 Ten Ways to Make Your Surroundings Unique
- Work on Your Front Yard
- Reflect the Architecture of Your Home
- Go Native
- Coordinate with Neighbors
- Design a Secret Garden
- Bring the Inside Out
- Have Fun with Accessories
- Pick a Color Theme and Go For It!
- Mix Ornamentals and Edibles
- Add the Element of Sound
- Chapter 23 Tens Ways to a Greener Landscape
- Plant Trees for Shade
- Compost
- Wean from Garden Pesticides and Herbicides
- Use Solar Lighting
- Conserve Water
- Match Plant Choices to Climate and Soil
- Welcome/Tolerate Wildlife
- Reduce or Eliminate Your Lawn
- Use Tools That Don't Require Fossil Fuel
- Stay Away from Sphagnum Moss
- Appendix A Landscaping Resources
- Reading for Ideas and Knowledge
- Finding Specific Help
- Exploring Learning Opportunities
- Classes, lectures, presentations
- Going to school for landscaping
- Blogs, podcasts, websites
- Viewing Other Gardens and Landscapes
- Garden tours, near and far
- Flower and garden shows
- Appendix B English-Metric Conversion Tables
- Index
- Supplemental Images
- EULA
