Every gardener needs this pruning guide

If you have shrubs in your yard, you need to know something about pruning.

My favorite pruning book is Cass Turnbull's Guide to Pruning: What, When, and Where and How to Prune for a More Beautiful Garden.

I've been a fan of Turnbull's ever since I read in Horticulture magazine that she had started Plant Amnesty, a Seattle-based nonprofit organization devoted to educating gardeners how to avoid the senseless mutilation of trees and shrubs.

Turnbull has been teaching correct pruning practices for more than 20 years. She writes well, and just plain knows her stuff. Her book shows you all the how-to with clearly written and illustrated instructions.

Nothing about pruning is obvious, Turnbull explains; in fact, most of it is downright counterintuitive. For example, gardeners prune to try to control growth, but mostly they end up promoting more of the kind of growth they don't want.

Although this pruning guide is published by an American regional publisher based in the Pacific Northwest, most of the plants discussed are found in gardens and backyards throughout the US and Canada.

So if you're looking for a readable book about real-world pruning, this one is humorously written and reasonably priced: Highly recommended! Available at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener

Hurrah: My book is out again

Available only in Canada
through Chapters/Indigo bookstores
It's had a cover makeover and a name change to Basic Gardening, but the content of my book is identical to the original version, Clueless in the Garden: A Guide for the Horticulturally Helpless, which has been out of print for about a year.

When the book came out five years ago (has it already been that long?), the "Dummies" series was popular. The publisher Key Porter, had the me-too idea of commissioning a number of "Clueless" books on topics like cooking, wine, etc.

When I was approached to be the writer for the gardening book, my initial reaction was: Who needs another book like this? Bookstore shelves are littered with how-to books. But while out planting my annuals and vegetable garden, I got to thinking: Why not do it? It would be neat to have my name on a book, and I've written about all those topics for magazines, so why not give it go?

Doing the book was a good experience, and it gave me the confidence to start my gardening website, which is an on-going project and nice little online business that I work on every winter, when I'm resting up from the garden.

As for the new edition of Basic Gardening, the reprint was done for Chapters and Indigo stores in Canada, and will only be available there. It will also be listed at the Chapters.Indigo.com website soon, and I'll let you know when it's up. As far as I know, it won't be available in the US.

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener