Starting Seeds

December 17, 2012
Consider the seed. A single seed, no matter the size, carries all the needed building blocks to become, say, a towering beech tree. The trick is helping it along. Ellis (The Veggie Gardener’s Answer Book) takes the project in hand and with meticulous, sometimes excruciating, detail, leads the reader step-by-step through ways to place the seed in the dirt and then coax it into reaching its potential as full-fledged food and/or astonishing garden beauty. From tending to those fussy “special-needs seeds” by means of a helpful lesson on the necessity for stratification, to calculating the optimal watering strategy (soaker hoses are the vegetable gardener’s best friend), Ellis enables even the hopeful beginner to plan the garden, implement it from seed, and then behold the glory: seeing the magic unfold when, with proper care and the work of one’s own hands, the little speck of DNA-packed life rises from the ground in beauty, vitality, and wonder.

December 15, 2012
Every spring, grocery-store sidewalks are lined with newly sprouted plants waiting to be transplanted in backyard plots by amateur gardeners. According to veteran gardening expert Ellis, most of these seedlings are overpriced, nonorganic, and quickly fall prey to transplant shock. In this slender, do-it-yourself guide to growing all varieties of plants from seed, Ellis demonstrates how much greater control the enterprising gardener acquires with germinating methods, from being able to choose from a much wider variety of vegetables and herbs to keeping seedlings free of pesticides. In three easy-to-follow, jargon-free sections, complete with useful illustrations, Ellis covers the fundamentals of seed selection, soil preparation, proper moisture, and choosing the best containers. An invaluable section includes troubleshooting tips, a frost-dates map, and an Internet resource guide. Whether you're a novice gardener just breaking in a new greenhouse or a veteran fine-tuning your germination skills, Ellis' book offers plenty of sound advice on working botanical magic from one of nature's most fundamental units of life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)