GARDENING


Web Sites | Local Resources | Circulating Books | Reference Books
Children's Books | Videotapes | Periodicals

Web Sites

American Community Gardening Association
http://www.communitygarden.org/
The American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) was founded in 1979 to help gardening programs share their limited resources, and benefit from each other's experience and expertise. ACGA Board members answer hundreds of requests for information each year about community gardening and greening. They offer support, coach fledgling groups, and wherever possible, connect programs with specific challenges to programs which have already worked through similar situations.

Community Supported Agriculture in Michigan
www.csafarms.org
The site contains information about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), recipes, and a list of CSA farms.

Duh, Plants: Getting Started with Gardening for the Black Thumbed
http://www.gardenerspath.com/articles/blackthumb/
A humorous yet informative site for the beginning gardener. The site claims that they “… won't mention any plants by name, or assume you know much of anything. This is for the botanically-challenged.”

The Garden Helper
http://www.thegardenhelper.com
This site contains advice on starting a garden and growing, maintaining, and cultivating flowers, trees, fruits, vegetables, grasses, and shrubs. It also includes information on the care and culture of various types of plants and growing environments, and it offers solutions to problems like drainage, moving plants and repelling pests and weeds. Other useful articles include composting, fertilizing, garden tools, gardening with children, and planting a new lawn. A great resource for the beginning gardener.

Gardenweb.com
http://www.gardenweb.com
Contains gardening advice and FAQs, a database of "plant images and data as well as links to information sources," a glossary of botanical terms, discussion forums, mail order sources, a nationwide calendar of gardening events, a list of plant societies and clubs, and more.

Green Landscaping With Native Plants
http://www.epa.gov/greenacres/
Includes tips on how to fill your yard, garden, or other open space with plants that grow wild in your area, which saves on fertilizer and benefits the environment. From the Environmental Protection Agency.

Growing Hope
http://www.growinghope.net/
A community gardening organization in Michigan dedicated to helping people improve their lives and communities through gardening. Growing Hope fosters learning, improves nutrition, encourages self-reliance, and promotes positive community futures.

Michigan Organic Food and Farm Alliance
www.moffa.org
The Michigan Organic Food and Farm Alliance (MOFFA) teaches and advocates that local organic food systems create the necessary connections between healthy people, communities and the earth. Our members include organic and other farmers, food coops, educators, environmentalists, food businesses, food and farm activists and concerned citizens throughout Michigan and elsewhere.

National Gardening Association
http://www.garden.org/
This site contains a library of articles from NG Magazine; a 35,000 searchable Q & A library; a horticultural dictionary which covers more than 15,000 terms; GoGarden, an events calendar, searchable by date and state/province; and their buyers' guide to mail-order gardening companies. They also have a Seed Swap forum, useful information for teaching gardening in the classroom, online courses, and links to other sites.

Web Garden
http://webgarden.osu.edu
Features PlantFacts, a searchable database of over 20,000 fact sheets from universities and cooperative extensions in the United States and Canada. The page also includes a large number of plant images and descriptions and links to other Internet gardening resources. They also offer the free Pocket Gardner to download for your handheld device.

You Grow Girl
http://www.yougrowgirl.com
This site "promotes exploration, excitement and a DIY approach to growing plants without the restrictions of traditional ideas about gardening." Features discussion forums, gardeners' journals, instructional articles, project ideas, commentary, garden tips, and art.

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Local resources and organizations

Flint Urban Gardening and Land Use Committee
http://studentsbc.umflint.edu/
c/o Salem Housing
3216 M.L. King Ave.
Flint, MI 48505
(810) 785-5340

Michigan State University Extension - Genesee County Branch
http://www.msue.msu.edu/genesee
G-4215 W. Pasadena Ave.
Flint, MI 48504-2376
(810) 244-8547
(810) 244-8548 - Plant/Pest Hotline

Open Gate Garden Club
http://dir.gardenweb.com/directory/oggcm
703 S. Oak St.
Fenton, MI 48430
(810) 629-4933

Wild Ones - Flint Chapter
http://www.for-wild.org/chapters/flint/

Yard and Garden Club of Flint
c/o Asbury United Methodist Church
1653 Davison Rd.
Flint, MI 48504
(810) 743-1347

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Circulating Books

General Titles | Michigan Gardening | beginning gardening | kitchen gardens

General Titles

Annuals for Every Purpose: Choose the Right Plants for Your Conditions, Your Garden, and Your Taste
by Larry Hodgson [716.2 Ho]
Includes encyclopedic listings of annuals suited to every imaginable whim, whether gardeners want their flowers to bloom in the shade, attract birds and butterflies, hang in baskets or make pleasing dried arrangements. The entries include growing tips for each plant, potential problems and quirks, and suggestions for "good neighbors" to plant beside it.

Armitage's Manual of Annuals, Biennials and Half-Hardy Perennials
by Allan M. Armitage [635.9 Ar]
Focusing on plant identification, successful culture, and primary garden attributes, Armitage discusses 279 species in detail and summarizes the distinguishing features of hundreds of cultivars, many of which he has tested himself.

A Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seed
by James Fenton [716 Fe]
Flowers for color, size, and exotic interest; herbs and meadow flowers; climbing vines, tropical species—this book describes one hundred readily available varieties, and tells how to acquire and grow them.

Flower Gardening 1 2 3: Design, Plan, Select, Plant, Care- Step by Step
[716.3 Fl]
A complete compendium packed cover-to-cover with everything flower gardeners of all skill and experience levels need to know about creating pleasing, healthy, and abundant gardens tailored perfectly to taste.

Ken Druse: The Passion for Gardening
By Ken Druse and Adam Levine [716 Dr]
This is not a simple how-to book, but a why-to. Why do we garden? And how are our lives immeasurably enriched by the process? As the world around us grows more chaotic each day, Druse, in rich and thoughtful prose, reminds us to slow down, put a trowel to the earth, and consider the wonders and healing powers of tending a garden. Gardening, he tell us, is an antidote for today's hectic pace.

New Complete Guide to Landscaping
by Todd A. Steadman, edited by James D. Blume [712.6 Ne]
Illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions for planning, designing, & building typical landscape projects.

Weeds, Friend or Foe?: An Illustrated Guide to Identifying, Taming, and Using Weeds
by Sally Roth [632.5 Ro]
Weeds plague every garden, and this illustrated guide to controlling them- or using them to your advantage- gives you everything you need.

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Michigan Gardening

Annuals for Michigan
by Nancy Szerlag and Alison Beck [716.2 Sz]
Organized into 88 accounts, this handy book is the perfect guide to the species, varieties, hybrids and cultivars that are best suited to Michigan. The practical, common sense advice provided will help bring color and variety to any Michigan garden.

Gardening Month by Month in Michigan
by Tim Wood and Alison Beck [716 Be]
Filled with tips and advice on what to do and when to do it, this seasonal guide can be used any time of the year. Its inspiring color photographs and useful and interesting garden topics will help you keep your yard looking its best.

Midwest Landscape Design
by Susan McClure; photography by Ian Adams [712.6 McC]
Each chapter of Midwest Landscape Design focuses on a particular Midwest region's unique appearance and growing conditions and is accompanied by lavish color photographs illustrating both landscape designs and individual plants. Providing both stunning photography and practical advice, Midwest Landscape Design enables all gardeners to incorporate the best of heartland landscape design into their own gardens.

Month-by-Month Gardening in Michigan
by James A. Fizzell [716 Fi]
This month-by-month planning book covers everything from azaleas to zoysia grass and apples to zucchini, making it the premier how-to resource for landscape and vegetable gardening.

Perennials for Michigan
by Nancy Szerlag and Alison Beck [715.2 Sz]
Perennial gardening can be easy, fun and rewarding, especially when you have this beautifully illustrated guide at your fingertips. Grouped into 84 entries, these species, varieties, hybrids and cultivars range from the easiest to grow to the challenging flowers that will expand your gardening triumphs.

Roses for Michigan
by Nancy Lindley and Laura Peters [716.2 Li]
A practical and beautifully photographed guide to over 100 recommended roses for Michigan. Enjoy the more than 300 full-color photographs as you read where to plant roses, which roses will do best in your garden, how to purchase, plant and care for different kinds of roses, protecting the plants over the winter and identifying and treating various pests and diseases that can attack rose plants.

Tree and Shrub Gardening for Michigan
by Tim Wood and Alison Beck [635.9 Wo]
This definitive guide to 500 woody species, hybrids, varieties and cultivars that thrive in Michigan features 450 brilliant full-color photographs and lots of practical tips from third-generation horticulturist Tim Wood.

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beginning gardening

New Complete Guide to Gardening
by Susan A. Roth [635 Ro]
In this invaluable reference for both novice and experienced gardeners, readers find complete information on perennials, roses, bulbs, annuals, trees, fruits, vegetables, and more. Step-by-step illustrations show all the techniques critical to proper plant maintenance and dozens of charts help readers decide which plants are best for certain situations.

The New York Times 1000 Gardening Questions and Answers
by Leslie Land, Dora Galitzki and Linda Yang [716 Ne]
Based on the popular column, "Gardeners Q&A," the 1000 questions and answers in this title run the gamut of gardeners' most common and vexing problems. The book covers flowers, trees, shrubs, the lawn, vegetables, herbs, fruit, indoor plants, soil, pests, and troublemakers. It addresses problems and provides answers to difficulties in every North American zone. Hundreds of line drawings illustrate the book, providing botanical identification and demonstrating how-to gardening techniques.

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kitchen gardens

How to Grow More Vegetables
by John Jeavons [635 Je]
While many people tend to look for big solutions to global concerns such as malnutrition, environmental researcher John Jeavons proves that the answers are often found in our backyards-that is, in how we grow our food. Written for the individual gardener, this book is the bible on grow biointensive® mini-farming, a method that produces high yields of food crops in very small spaces while nourishing the soil and reducing the use of chemicals. This newly revised and significantly expanded edition incorporates the latest techniques and methods developed by Jeavons and many others around the world who have adopted this increasingly necessary method of small-scale food production.

The Organic Home Garden
by Patrick Lima [635 Li]
With this resource, newcomers and seasoned growers will learn step-by-step how to plant, grow and harvest delicious fruits and vegetables. This book offers detailed instructions for enjoying fresh and healthy food from spring to fall.

Organic Kitchen Gardening
by Barbara Segall [716 Se]
Whether you have a small front or back garden, rooftop or patio, or even just a window box or hanging basket, the opportunities for cultivating fruits, vegetables, and herbs are endless. This book begins with the basics of garden planning: what to sow and when, and how to improve the soil, create shelter, combat pests, and propagate plants. It also includes advice on choosing your crop, with detailed information on leaf, flowering, and fruiting vegetables; gourds; onions; pods and kernels; roots, stems, and bulbs; and herbs.

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Reference Books

American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening
by Christopher Bricknell [REFERENCE 716 Am]
Guides readers expertly through the latest gardening techniques, details information on garden planning and design, covers useful tools and materials, and features an extensive glossary of plants, including trees, shrubs, and perennials. Written by experts and endorsed by the American Horticultural Society, this is truly the most comprehensive gardening reference available.

The Botanical Garden
by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix [REFERENCE 712 Ph]
In two volumes illustrated with detailed photos of leaves and bracts, blossoms, rhizomes, and root structures, this reference manual expresses the value of plants to ecology, farming, and the individual orchard, landscape, flower bed, and window box.

The Encyclopedia of Planting Combinations
by Tony Lord ; photography by Andrew Lawson [REFERENCE 635.9 Lo]
All gardeners have favorite plants, but they often get stumped when it comes to knowing which plants to put beside those favorites. Confidence in which combinations work can mean the difference between a mediocre garden and one that sings. This book is the perfect tool to help gardeners create a stunning garden.

Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants, 1640 - 1940.
by Denise W. Adams [REFERENCE 716 Ad]
Today's gardeners have more plants and design ideas to choose from than ever before. But is there something missing in our gardens if they ignore ties to the past? This book of history and horticulture documents the changing plant palette of American gardens.

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CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Ann Plants a Garden
by Susan Blackaby [Easy Reader/Level 1]
Stories for the beginning reader about Ann and how she learns to grow a garden.

Busy in the Garden
by George Shannon [Easy Shannon]
Twenty-four short, lively poems about gardens and gardening with colorful illustrations to match perfect for preschoolers.

An Episode of Sparrows
by Rumer Godden [J/Fiction]
In post- World War II London two children attempt to build a hidden garden.

Grow Your Own Pizza: Gardening Plans and Recipes for Kids
by Constance Hardesty [J Non-Fiction 635/Ha]
For gardeners of all ages this fun, practical resource will take you from dirt to dinner table.

I Heard It from Alice Zucchini: Poems About the Garden
by Juanita Havill [J Non-Fiction 811/Ha]
Twenty poems that capture the science and backyard magic of growing things.

Jackson Jones and Mission Greentop
by Mary Quattlebaum [J/Fiction]
Too much zucchini and a bully almost make Jackson lose interest in his community garden but when a company wants it destroyed he fights to save it.

The Prairie Builders: Reconstruction America’s Lost Grasslands
by Sneed B. Collard [J Non-Fiction 574.5/Co]
Scientists work in the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge to rebuild the native prairie grass, plants and animals which once lived there.

What Shall I Grow
[J Non-Fiction 716/Wh]
Interesting and fun ideas to introduce students to growing plants.

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Videotapes/DVDS

Container Gardening from the Ground Up!
[VT 716 Co]
The essential, step-by-step video guide to preparing, growing and caring for a variety of container plants, including flowers, trees, shrubs, herbs and vegetables.

Rebecca's Garden: Basic Gardening
[DVDs 716 Re]
Rebecca Kolls teaches the basics of gardening as seen on her show "Rebecca's Garden." Topics include soil-testing, garden design, flower care, and shopping strategies. Also included as a bonus are chapters devoted to the construction of a window box and a recipe for bruschetta.

Rebecca's Garden: Container Gardening
[DVDs 716.1 Re]
Contains the most popular segments on basic gardening from the TV show "Rebecca's Garden".

Rebecca's Garden: Herb Gardening
[DVDs 716.1 Re]

Vegetable Gardening
[Videotapes 635 Ve]
From the TV series "Hometime." This video includes how to: choose a garden location, improve soil with organic amendments and fertilizer, seed vegetable plants indoors, determine when to plant outside, plan for a continuous harvest season, mulch for garden health and for your own convenience, reduce waste and conserve resources by composting, and how to prepare a garden in autumn for a quick start in spring.

The Victory Garden Vegetable Video
[Videotapes 635 Vi]
Let the master gardeners from public television's highly acclaimed "Victory Garden" series show you step-by-step how to have a successful vegetable garden. Whether you have a 10 X 10 urban plot or a one-quarter acre in the country, this video will teach you all the gardening techniques and practices that you will ever need to know.

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