For Your Bookshelf

Story by Debbie Olsen

How Your Garden Grows

Jim Hole’s new gardening book is the latest in a bestselling series that makes your dream garden seem within reach

The warm sunshine of early summer carries with it the promise of long days spent outdoors. But it’s hard to enjoy your yard if your garden is
a mess. It’s time to transform that dreary landscape into an oasis of relaxation that reflects your own personality. But how?  It’s a daunting task – most of us aren’t sure what to plant or where to achieve the desired effect. Jim Hole’s new book may have the an-swer.

What Grows Here? Volume 3: Solutions – Favorite Plants for Better Yards is Hole’s third book in a bestselling gardening series. The first two volumes tackled locations and problems, offering great tips and plant choices to address different landscaping challenges. In the third volume, Solutions, Hole visits 13 gardens in different stages of development – from blank slates to gardens in transition to finished yards. Reading this book is like taking a gardening tour where you meet the homeowners, discuss the real-life challenges each one faces and garner expert advice on plant selections for your particular needs.

Like the previous books in the series, this one is full of sumptuous colour photographs by Akemi Matsubuchi of yards, gardens and specific plants. Hole uses common names for flowers and shrubs as well as scientific names, making it easy to find the plants when you visit a greenhouse. He also includes information on growth and lifespan for various trees and shrubs. Good visuals along with Hole’s unpretentious, practical advice make the book easy to read from cover to cover or to use as a reference guide.

The 13 gardens he features in this book are as diverse as each homeowner. But you’ll find aspects of your own life and garden mirrored in the stories within. Whether you have pets, small children, are looking for low maintenance landscaping, are challenged by unique landscape problems or are an avid gardener looking for ways to refresh an established landscape, you will find something in this book to take to your backyard. Hole offers useful gardening advice on plant varieties as well as advice on preparing the soil, pruning and maintenance.

Like any good garden tour, the highlight comes with the opportunity to view the yards of innovative gardeners who have successfully met a variety of gardening challenges and come up with creative solutions. The final section of this book visits the finished gardens of seven different families. Hole reviews and discusses their plant choices and offers a selection of alternatives that would be suitable for those spaces. This section of the book helps you realize the beautiful potential for different types and sizes of garden spaces. You’ll look at your own garden with fresh eyes. 

Hole clearly believes in preventative medicine. He leads readers to consider their garden’s unique environment along with their own wants and desires when choosing plants for their space. Rather than struggle trying to make plants grow in a space they aren’t suited for, Hole suggests choosing plants that will thrive in a particular garden’s microclimate.   

Add this book to your library if you are looking for solutions for your own gardening challenges or you just want to be inspired by other innovative Alberta gardens.