Your Questions About Gardening

GardenersCardiff answers:

Mel Bartholomew’s “square foot gardening” method is really inspiring, and can teach you to fit a lot of plants into a small space. (Here’s the site; there’s also a book: http://www.squarefootgardening.com/)

For nuts and bolts kind of gardening, I like Barbara Damrosch’s Garden Primer (from amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Primer-Barbara-Damrosch/dp/0894803166).

If you are into preserving foods at all, I really like Mike and Nancy Bubel’s books; the root cellar book has a lot of info about planning your garden, too. They also have one on seed-starting. (From amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Root-Cellaring-Natural-Storage-Vegetables/dp/0882667033/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231314436&sr=1-1 also http://www.amazon.com/New-Seed-Starters-Handbook/dp/0878577521/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231314436&sr=1-7)

Good luck, and have fun!

GardenersCardiff answers:

Http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/neweng/

GardenersCardiff answers:

Its called companion planting.

It can be used for various purposes. Some plants help to deter pests from other plants, such as garlic. Some help by attracting pests away from other plants, like planting aphid attracting Calendula next to roses. Some enrich the soil, like Dandelion that draws up nutrients from deep in the soil. Some contribute to the health of sickly plants, like chamomile (which also protects seedlings against damping off disease). Some attract beneficial insects that feed on insect that are infesting your garden, like Queen Anne’s Lace that attracts parasitic wasps.

There are a number of excellent books out there that cover companion planting in depth, such as Carrots Love Tomatoes, Roses Love Garlic by Louise Riotte

Here are a few sites that might interest you
http://www.sheridannurseries.com/gardensite/subGARDENTIP25mainframe.htm
http://www.mi.ca/compendium/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants