The New Gardener's Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Grow a Beautiful and Bountiful Garden

If you are a gardener (new or experienced) read this book. Most “experienced” gardeners (as well as new gardeners) really need to learn what is between these pages. The only thing that seems analogous to me is becoming a competent construction contractor. For that, and for competent gardening, you need to learn a lot of specialized areas and then put them all together. For construction, it would be plumbing, electrical, carpentry, etc. In the case of gardening, you also need to learn specialized areas: some botany, pruning, propagation, choosing healthy plants to buy, soil conditioning, etc. In gardening (like construction) you also must work hands-on. As you garden over the years, keep coming back again and again to this book. I know people that spend a lot of time, and a lot of years, gardening poorly. I see people that have gardened for 20 years are still killing shrubs through poor planting methods, buying expensive plants at garden centers and then planting them too close and wondering why they don’t thrive and produce flowers, or have no idea how to prune (just chop off the top and sides with hedge trimmers), etc. Some destroy their soil with lots of synthetic fertilizers. Most of them don’t know how to water properly. If you want to garden seriously, and you have not gathered the somewhat technical knowledge you need, then you will stunt or kill a lot of plants. If you are serious about gardening, then this book (along with a lot of hands-on), is the starting point. If you are still gardening seriously in ten years, you will still keep coming back to this book even though you will probably build a library. There are plenty of books on focused areas—pruning, propagation, etc.—but start here (and keep coming back to this book). Reread chapters when you tackle one specific gardening task, then go to your specialized books or the Internet. Once you get your basic skills down, you can then move on to very specific areas such as pruning fruit trees for the best yield, espalier, or fancy grafting. But learn all the basics in this book first. This is the only (single) book that covers the whole subject well. Plus the writing and illustrations are excellent.

I can't rate this book highly enough. I have a bad habit of not finishing books, but I could not put this one down; I actually read it front to back over the weekend- which is extra stunning considering the vast amount of information it contains!This book is written in such a way that it will be beneficial to someone new to gardening as well as the most seasoned gardener. It feels to me as if a lifetime worth of gardening knowledge has been refined down and presented in an easy to digest format, complete with useful visual aids and photos.I will recommend this book to friends and family for years to come, and will continue to come back to it as a quick reference on a number of topics (especially identifying plant ailments, propagation techniques, soil amendments, and pruning how-to).I first heard about this book on Joe Lamp'l's podcast; Daryl was the guest and I enjoyed the discussion so I thought I would give the book a shot. I am so glad that I did. As cliche as it sounds, if you only ever buy one gardening book- this should be it.

Got if for my husband who loves to work on his garden.He enjyoed the book.

I am learning a lot from this book.

The most in depth and comprehensive book I've read so far on gardening! Daryl Beyers teaches you anything and everything you need to know when it comes to gardening. I encourage you to buy this book whether you are a beginner or a seasoned gardener...you won't be disappointed.

Great book, well suitable for beginner gardeners and above. I also like the quality of the book, it’s very pleasant to the touch, I’m bot sure it’s important for others, but it is important for me :)

This is a terrific book with very useful information. It’s presented in a clear and easy format with lots of diagrams and pics.

I've bought many gardening books and most are not but not helpful or too remedial or too complex. This one fits the bill and most anyone of any ability should find it helpful and the first go to for questions.

Loved the clear drawings and bullet point format for detailed explanations