Gardening in Iowa and Surrounding Areas

Gardening in Iowa and Surrounding Areas PDF Author: Veronica Lorson Fowler
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 9781587290688
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
On the East Coast, so the story goes, newcomers are asked where they come from; on the West Coast they are asked what they do for a living; in Iowa people ask them, "How's your garden doing?" Maybe this is not a true story, but it does epitomize the importance of gardening for Iowans, blessed as they are with the rich glacial soil so hospitable to corn and soybeans. Rural and urban Iowans alike start planning next summer's garden in midwinter, when their plots are still snow-covered and deep-frozen; by state fair time their trees, shrubs, vegetables--including the ubiquitous zucchini--and flowers are thriving. Veronica Fowler's month-by-month guide to gardening in Iowa is a concise, valuable resource for all novice and experienced gardeners. Beginning in January, Fowler presents a monthly checklist to allow gardeners to prioritize seasonal tasks. Her winter chapters focus on garden design, cold-weather gardening, and starting plants from seeds; in spring she moves into soil preparation, shopping for plants, wildflower and rose cultivation, and lawn care basics; summer brings landscaping, flowers for cutting, and organic gardening; and fall involves cold frames, winter-harvest vegetables, forcing bulbs and perennials, trees and shrubs, and ground covers and vines best suited for Iowa's climate as well as information on mail-order suppliers, gardens to visit, where to go for help, and garden club memberships. Tips from some of the more than two thousand members of the Federated Garden Clubs of Iowa round out this plentiful harvest of useful advice. On a day in February when the wind chill is, well, chilling and the forecast calls for more of the same, the arrival of the first garden catalog of the season brings warmth to any gardener. Veronica Fowler's accessible, information-packed book will become part of every gardener's life both indoors and out.

Gardening in Iowa and Surrounding Areas

Gardening in Iowa and Surrounding Areas PDF Author: Veronica Lorson Fowler
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 9781587290688
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 172

Get Book

Book Description
On the East Coast, so the story goes, newcomers are asked where they come from; on the West Coast they are asked what they do for a living; in Iowa people ask them, "How's your garden doing?" Maybe this is not a true story, but it does epitomize the importance of gardening for Iowans, blessed as they are with the rich glacial soil so hospitable to corn and soybeans. Rural and urban Iowans alike start planning next summer's garden in midwinter, when their plots are still snow-covered and deep-frozen; by state fair time their trees, shrubs, vegetables--including the ubiquitous zucchini--and flowers are thriving. Veronica Fowler's month-by-month guide to gardening in Iowa is a concise, valuable resource for all novice and experienced gardeners. Beginning in January, Fowler presents a monthly checklist to allow gardeners to prioritize seasonal tasks. Her winter chapters focus on garden design, cold-weather gardening, and starting plants from seeds; in spring she moves into soil preparation, shopping for plants, wildflower and rose cultivation, and lawn care basics; summer brings landscaping, flowers for cutting, and organic gardening; and fall involves cold frames, winter-harvest vegetables, forcing bulbs and perennials, trees and shrubs, and ground covers and vines best suited for Iowa's climate as well as information on mail-order suppliers, gardens to visit, where to go for help, and garden club memberships. Tips from some of the more than two thousand members of the Federated Garden Clubs of Iowa round out this plentiful harvest of useful advice. On a day in February when the wind chill is, well, chilling and the forecast calls for more of the same, the arrival of the first garden catalog of the season brings warmth to any gardener. Veronica Fowler's accessible, information-packed book will become part of every gardener's life both indoors and out.

Gardening the Amana Way

Gardening the Amana Way PDF Author: Lawrence L. Rettig
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609381904
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
Gardening in Iowa’s Amana Colonies is the culmination of techniques that stretch back several centuries to central Europe, when adherents to a new faith called the Community of True Inspiration formed their own self-reliant communities. As a child of parents who were part of the communal life of the Amana Society, Larry Rettig pays homage to the Amana gardening tradition and extends it into the twenty-first century. Each of the seven villages in Amana relied on the food prepared in its communal kitchens, and each kitchen depended on its communal garden for most of the dishes served (the kitchens in Rettig’s hometown produced more than four hundred gallons of sauerkraut in 1900). Rettig begins by describing the evolution of communal gardening in old Amana, focusing especially on planting, harvesting, and storing vegetables from asparagus to egg lettuce to turnips. With the passing of the old order in 1932, the number of the society’s large vegetable gardens and orchards dwindled, but Larry Rettig and his wife, Wilma, still grow some of the colonies’ heirloom varieties in their fourth-generation South Amana vegetable garden. In 1980 they founded a seed bank to preserve them for future generations. Rettig’s chapters on modern vegetable and flower gardening in today’s Amana Colonies showcase his Cottage-in-the-Meadow Gardens, now listed with the Smithsonian in its Archives of American Gardens. Old intermingles with new across his gardens: heirloom lettuce keeps company with the latest cucumber variety, a hundred-year-old rose arches over the newest daylilies and heucheras, and ancient grapevines intertwine with newly planted wisteria, all adding up to a rich array of colorful plantings. Rettig extends his gardening advice into the kitchen and workroom. He shares family recipes for any number of traditional dishes, including radish salad, dumpling soup, Amana pickled ham, apple bread, eleven-minute meat loaf, and strawberry rhubarb pie. Moving into the workroom, he shows us how to make hammered botanical prints, Della Robbia centerpieces, holiday wreaths, a gnome home, and a waterless fountain. Touring his gardens, with their historic and unusual plants, will make gardeners everywhere want to reproduce the groupings and varieties that surround Larry and Wilma Rettig’s 1900 red brick house.

Best Garden Plants for Iowa

Best Garden Plants for Iowa PDF Author: Don Williamson
Publisher: [Edmonton ]: Lone Pine Pub.
ISBN: 9781551055206
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
We've taken some of the work and a lot of the worry out of your next trip to the garden center. In this book you'll find over 160 accounts featuring the best plant varieties in nine categories: annuals, perennials, trees, shrubs, vines, climbers, roses, b

Iowa Gardens of the Past

Iowa Gardens of the Past PDF Author: Beth Cody
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781733842105
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
There's something about vintage garden photos: preserved moments of beauty from gardens long gone. Iowa Gardens of the Past features 300+ color and grayscale images of beautiful Iowa gardens, together with lovely seed catalog art, from the mid-nineteenth century through 1980. From impressive mansion grounds to humble flower-filled farmsteads, they include: Victorian-style flower bedding; formal rose gardens; exotic Japanese-style gardens; midcentury modern landscaping. Discover how Iowans coped with severe weather events, economic depressions, world wars, grasshopper plagues and Dutch Elm Disease. Despite these challenges, Iowans have made countless gardens of great beauty. Now these gardens can be admired and enjoyed once again, in these hauntingly beautiful images of Iowa Gardens of the Past.

Iowa Gardener's Travel Guide

Iowa Gardener's Travel Guide PDF Author: Kelly D. Norris
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 143575039X
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
The purpose of this book is to offer the reader the chance to explore, experience, and discover the public and private gardens and nurseries in Iowa. I have had the good fortune to visit many of these over the last ten years and must say that the horticultural entities of this state will prove amazing for those who have yet to embark on a quest to see them. Some of my favorite gardens and nurseries in the world lie between the waters of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and it is my goal to share them with you in a succinctly written guide that leads you on adventures much like I've had.

Gardening Month by Month in Iowa

Gardening Month by Month in Iowa PDF Author: Lone Pine Publishing
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781551054537
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description


Guide to Iowa Vegetable Gardening

Guide to Iowa Vegetable Gardening PDF Author: James Fizzell
Publisher: Cool Springs Press
ISBN: 9781591864011
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book offers advice on everything from starting your garden from seed, to planning your garden with helpful space saving techniques. Make this guide a must-have resource for anyone interested in growing vegetables, no matter what their space requirements. Helpful charts will outline when to plant and when to harvest cool and warm season vegetables.

Month-By-Month Gardening in Iowa

Month-By-Month Gardening in Iowa PDF Author: Melinda Myers
Publisher: Cool Springs Press
ISBN: 9781591863755
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Gardening is now the favorite leisure pastime in America. Homeowners are realizing the health benefits derived from gardening and the increase in their home's property value.

Shrubs and Vines of Iowa

Shrubs and Vines of Iowa PDF Author: Peter J. van der Linden
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609383974
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Shrubs and vines, often literally overshadowed by trees, also receive much less attention than their taller neighbors, and yet they are very important elements of the region’s natural landscape. A guide to these interesting and useful plants, this book identifies all 150 shrubs and vines native to Iowa, along with frequently seen naturalized ones. Here you’ll find the widely distributed buttonbush, the distinctive pagoda dogwoods, sumacs with their striking fall foliage, the adaptable ninebark, the attractive grape honeysuckle, the many species of Rubus and wild grapes that provide food for birds and animals, willows with their graceful promise of spring, and the diverse viburnums. Like trees, shrubs and vines are woody plants that are easy to observe year round. The first part of this book will help you identify them. Illustrated keys take you through the identification process one step at time; these are followed by images and descriptions of all but the rarest species. Noted naturalists Peter van der Linden and Donald Farrar also provide information about each species’ distribution, ecology, and uses. Summer and winter features are covered separately to facilitate identification at these two very different times of year. Chapters about the culture and natural history of shrubs and vines explain why the plants grow where they do in nature and show how to use them effectively in outdoor spaces. Plants native to Iowa have much to offer to the landscaper: winter hardiness, resistance to drought and climatic extremes, and food and shelter for native wildlife and pollinators. Many natives are ornamental as well, providing attractive flowers, bright autumn displays, and colorful stems or fruits in winter. The authors offer tips for selecting, planting, and caring for these plants effectively. With native plants, you can create a landscape that is sustainable, authentic to place, and satisfying to you. Iowa and midwestern arborists, conservationists, horticulturists, landscape architects, gardeners, and all those who appreciate the beauty and value of native plants will find Shrubs and Vines of Iowa immensely useful.

Parsnips in the Snow

Parsnips in the Snow PDF Author: Jane Anne Staw
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gardeners
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
"Through conversations with twelve vastly different gardeners—among them a Trappist monk, a retired mailman, and an advertising copywrite—this enchanting volume captures the spirit of midwestern garderners. Illustrated throughout it is the wholesale dedication of midwesterners to their gardens—despite drought, heat, disabilities, and other challenges"--