What do you think?
Rate this book
The New York Times 1000 Gardening Questions and Answers: Based on the Column "Gardeners Q. & A
Authoritative, accessible, and engaging, here is a new reference from The New York Times , a comprehensive, nearly 700-page bible of all the garden news that's fit to print. Based on "Gardeners Q&A." the enormously popular syndicated column, 1000 Gardening Questions and Answers is like a passionate conversation between gardeners and gardening experts. Every week readers from around the country send in their most vexing problems--how to divide perennials, prune raspberry canes, grow basil that really tastes like basil, get rid of earwigs, find long-lost varieties of flowers, keep honeysuckle under control--and every week, the authorities at the Times write a column full of answers.
Carefully selected, updated, and expanded by Leslie Land, one of the column's two authors, here are 1,000 Q&As that add up to an informal encyclopedia of gardening knowledge. The book covers flowers, trees, shrubs, the lawn, vegetables, herbs, fruit, indoor plants, soil, pests, and troublemakers. It addresses problems and provides answers to difficulties in every North American zone. Hundreds of line drawings illustrate the book, providing botanical identification and demonstrating how-to gardening techniques. In addition, sidebars throughout supply supplemental information--"Dos and Don'ts of Deadheading," "Annuals that Beat the Heat," "To Prune or Not to The Clematis Question," "Air Layering," "Windowsill Bonsai"--plus quirky facts, trivia, lore, and myth. It's big, it's got heft, it's filled to the brim with information. And it's so lively, it reads like a novel--and belongs on every gardener's potting bench and bedside table.
Carefully selected, updated, and expanded by Leslie Land, one of the column's two authors, here are 1,000 Q&As that add up to an informal encyclopedia of gardening knowledge. The book covers flowers, trees, shrubs, the lawn, vegetables, herbs, fruit, indoor plants, soil, pests, and troublemakers. It addresses problems and provides answers to difficulties in every North American zone. Hundreds of line drawings illustrate the book, providing botanical identification and demonstrating how-to gardening techniques. In addition, sidebars throughout supply supplemental information--"Dos and Don'ts of Deadheading," "Annuals that Beat the Heat," "To Prune or Not to The Clematis Question," "Air Layering," "Windowsill Bonsai"--plus quirky facts, trivia, lore, and myth. It's big, it's got heft, it's filled to the brim with information. And it's so lively, it reads like a novel--and belongs on every gardener's potting bench and bedside table.
852 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 2002
About the author
Leslie Land
8 books3 followersDecades of garden articles, 8 years of weekly garden columns in The New York Times and a co-starring role in the book and TV series The 3000 Mile Garden mean I’m best known as a garden writer, someone lucky enough to call talking about plants her work.
True. But only half of the story. The other half starts with my first real job – as one of the opening chefs at Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California.
Less than two years later, I joined the great hippie migration of the early 1970′s and moved to rural Maine, where making a living meant catering, consulting, being a guest chef and – finally! – saying “thanks but no thanks, eager backers, I don’t want a restaurant. It’s more fun to write about food.”
And write and write and write: food and cooking articles for publications as diverse as House and Garden, Country Journal and The New York Times Magazine; a syndicated column, Good Food, that ran for 20 years in newspapers from Philadelphia to San Francisco, and two cookbooks: Reading Between the Recipes, aka The New England Epicure, and The Modern Country Cook.
Meanwhile the gardens kept expanding, from vegetables and herbs to really a lot of vegetables and herbs, also flowers and fruit and shrubs and trees. Next step? Writing about it, for Metropolitan Home, for the Times, and for Yankee, where as a Senior Editor I spent 7 years overseeing articles on everything domestic from food and gardens to antiques and designer furniture.
All this continues on the blog, where food and garden share the billing, design appears from time to time, and so does my husband, Bill Bakaitis, a bow-hunter, beekeeper, sitar player and expert mycologist. He grew up on a farm near Pittsburgh. I grew up on a farm near Philadelphia. We are still growing, together, and the gardens that inspire me daily would be mighty different without him.
True. But only half of the story. The other half starts with my first real job – as one of the opening chefs at Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California.
Less than two years later, I joined the great hippie migration of the early 1970′s and moved to rural Maine, where making a living meant catering, consulting, being a guest chef and – finally! – saying “thanks but no thanks, eager backers, I don’t want a restaurant. It’s more fun to write about food.”
And write and write and write: food and cooking articles for publications as diverse as House and Garden, Country Journal and The New York Times Magazine; a syndicated column, Good Food, that ran for 20 years in newspapers from Philadelphia to San Francisco, and two cookbooks: Reading Between the Recipes, aka The New England Epicure, and The Modern Country Cook.
Meanwhile the gardens kept expanding, from vegetables and herbs to really a lot of vegetables and herbs, also flowers and fruit and shrubs and trees. Next step? Writing about it, for Metropolitan Home, for the Times, and for Yankee, where as a Senior Editor I spent 7 years overseeing articles on everything domestic from food and gardens to antiques and designer furniture.
All this continues on the blog, where food and garden share the billing, design appears from time to time, and so does my husband, Bill Bakaitis, a bow-hunter, beekeeper, sitar player and expert mycologist. He grew up on a farm near Pittsburgh. I grew up on a farm near Philadelphia. We are still growing, together, and the gardens that inspire me daily would be mighty different without him.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 8, 2020
The New York Times is a venerable newspaper, so it is not surprising that it had a gardening section. Through a lively Question and Answer format, this book answers gardening problems with knowledge backed by expertise. Recently, I have been trying to expand my horizons and become interested in more topics. Reading this book is the result.
Published in 2003, The New York Times 1000 Gardening Questions and Answers Book takes questions from over the country and answers them. The book covers five major topics. Due to the organization of the book, it is possible to find a topic that interests you, rather than going through the entire book.
Published in 2003, The New York Times 1000 Gardening Questions and Answers Book takes questions from over the country and answers them. The book covers five major topics. Due to the organization of the book, it is possible to find a topic that interests you, rather than going through the entire book.
January 10, 2022
Conversational and expert at the same time, and the format makes it easy to pick away at when your attention span is short. I learned so much. Great reference book, too!
May 9, 2016
This is an excellent book on gardening. It answers all kinds of questions that the new and older gardener may have. It is very helpful and I intend to keep it on hand.
J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the Isms" "Wesley's Wars" "To Whom It May Concerrn" and "Tell Me About the United Methodist Church"
J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the Isms" "Wesley's Wars" "To Whom It May Concerrn" and "Tell Me About the United Methodist Church"
July 25, 2007
This is an ongoing read, I love the way its done. So easy to answer your questions on gardening, I keep it at my bedside for easy reading and learning.
August 9, 2007
this book rocks!! i am a newbie to gardening, and the q&a format was a great way to take a crash course in it. very helpful index makes it easy to use, too.
November 26, 2007
this is the most useful gardening book on my shelf. i love it.
September 18, 2010
For a beginner, this was a consistently informative book. I appreciated the sprinklings of sarcasm and snarkiness as well.
April 3, 2011
It was okay - a huge book but full of questions new gardeners would ask, full of helpful information on gardening, weeding, pruning, how to control pests, container gardening, and harvesting.
April 14, 2016
I thought this was a good resource for the next person who was taking over my community garden job, especially if they know nothing about gardening. :)
January 19, 2014
A super resource!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews