Canadian Garden Design: Ideas and Inspirations for Your Garden

Lisa M. Rohlmann is a former business owner in Shelburne, Ontario.

Mark Cullen is a household name among Canadian gardeners from coast to
coast. Over two million people tune in weekly to his radio shows and
television broadcasts. He also publishes a weekly newspaper gardening
column. Earlier books by Cullen include The All Seasons Gardener.

The 200-page Canadian Garden Design works to entice the reader to start
and “claim” his own garden. This richly illustrated book details and
visually demonstrates how any little piece of dirt can be transformed
into a secret garden. Whether it be a shade, water, herb, meadow,
coastal, fragrant, rock, formal, low-maintenance, or environmentally
friendly garden, it can be found in this book, together with ideas for
patios, decks, garden furniture, containers, fences, hedges, shrubs, and
trees.

The revised and updated The New Greener Thumb is an in-depth guide to
growing a vegetable garden in Canada’s hardy climate. This classic
reference book includes a large climate zone map, complete with a color
chart, to help gardeners determine which plants will thrive best in any
particular region. Another helpful tool is the color-wheel, which can
assist gardeners in color-coordinating the many annual and perennial
flowers described in detail throughout the book. Other topics covered
include soil types, composting, plant rotation, and fertilizers
(organics vs. chemicals), as well as roof gardens and container planting
for the city dweller. Having established an overview of the basics of
gardening, Cullen moves on to the laborious work of growing plants from
seeds, winter-proofing plants, growing fruit trees and berry bushes,
providing suitable ground covers, lawn care, and pruning shrubs and
vines.

These two books complement each other beautifully and are all an
amateur or expert gardener would need.