OK, so you have a design for your property and either arranged for installation or decided to do it yourself.
So now what? Well, what you need is this great new volume by Daryl Beyers, an author and the gardening coordinator at the New York Botanical Garden. In The New Gardener's Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Grow a Beautiful and Bountiful Garden
After some basics about plant structure and soil, Beyers delves into plant selection and he offers some great lists of "10 favorites," such as small trees, trees for multi-season interest, evergreens for hedging and screening, flowering shrubs, perennials, annuals, and more.
You'll also learn the proper way to establish a plant, how to water, feed, and even read a fertilizer label. He also shows you how to propagate and lists which perennials to divide in early spring and late summer. One of my favorite chapters is the one on pruning. I have several pruning books, and this chapter is the best explanation I've ever read, illustrated with photos and drawings. He lists which shrubs respond to rejuvenation pruning and which shrubs and perennials you should deadhead. Finally there's a chapter on diseases & insects & what to do about them.
If you want to keep your garden looking good, you should definitely have this book in your library.
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