The Apprehensive Gardener

Book excerpt: When Griselda Kerr, newly returned from Hong Kong, set out to rescue the 'dismal-looking' plants in her garden, she looked for a general guide book to help her--and failed to find one. Instead, she started to collect information wherever she could. After twenty years of gathering gardening knowledge, and testing it out in her Derbyshire garden, she has put together the book she wished she had access to then. No coffee table book this, it is made for constant quick reference: look up the plant you want to know about in the first section of the book, which is an alphabetical list of plants within a chart of months and seasons. There will be a coloured box in any month where action is needed (action that, depending on the climate, might be done a month either side). Turning to the month in question, you will find a brief description of what is to be done. You might be advised to propagate, clip, deadhead or divide, cut right down, feed or mulch. A section on gardening techniques provides sound instructions on all these activities and more. From time to time you might need more detailed information from a specialist book on, say, pruning. But here is where you begin