Rainy Side Gardeners' Featured Book
Gardening on a Shoestring
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Gardening on a Shoestring is for anyone who has more energy than dollars and who wants to create a beautiful garden. Gardening can be very expensive. Annuals now cost what perennials used to cost, and the cost of pots, furniture, fencing, arbors, paving and water features can put a beautiful garden beyond the means of many. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Rob Proctor, best-selling garden author and designer, has created pricey gardens for clients while pinching pennies in his own garden. You’d never know the difference.
With Proctor’s latest book, fixer-upper types, new gardeners, new homeowners and renters alike can learn creative ways to realize their dream gardens without breaking the bank. Here they’ll learn how to become savvy shoppers, how to determine which size plant is the best deal, when the best sales are, and how to find mom-and-pop nurseries with the best prices. They’ll learn the almost-lost art of growing plants from seed—still the best bargain in horticulture—while expanding the variety of plants for their own gardens. They’ll learn how to collect seeds and store them, and how to join societies such as the North American Rock Garden Society that has an annual seed exchange for its members across the continent.
Every good workman needs tools, but what do you really need? Are their uses for things like snow shovels and push brooms in the garden? You bet. A new gardener will be surprised to learn that a furrow of corn seed can quickly be covered with a push broom. Soon they will be saving egg cartons, plastic tubs and jugs, old panty hose (for tying tomatoes), tree trimmings and even picking up their neighbor’s bags of leaves before the trash collector comes. (Composted leaves turn into “black gold.”) Even found objects can be turned into useful or decorative elements in the garden—which are far more charming than any store-bought bunny statue or birdbath.
Beautiful gardens are the product of imagination and sweat. However slim your budget, Gardening on a Shoestring will inspire you to make your own wished-for beautiful garden a dream come true. Rob Proctor is one of the nation’s most prolific gardening writers, with 14 previous books to his credit, including the acclaimed Passionate Gardening: Good Advice for Challenging Climates (coauthored with Lauren Springer). He oversaw the renovation of Denver Botanic Gardens as Director of Horticulture and Artistic Director and has designed several public parks. He is also a regular contributor to the Rocky Mountain News. He lives and gardens in Denver, Colorado, with his 3 dogs and 3 cats.
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