Would you like to be a better gardener? Do you wish you had a greener thumb?
No matter the size of our garden, from a few potted plants to acres in the country, we all want to fulfill our gardening dreams. We want a more productive relationship with the land and the plants we grow.
The main difference between a green thumb gardener and others is a little bit of know-how and a lot of passion for our plants. Garden writer Elizabeth McCoy tells stories about some of the many challenges she faced while adjusting to her new woodland garden and uses those experiences to illustrate a variety of simple strategies we all can use to improve our own gardening skills.
You will learn how to grow a greener thumb through 30 practical, science-based Green Thumb Tips that demonstrate how to work with the ways and rhythms of nature, and 6 Botany for Gardeners sections that explain the science behind the strategies in clear, easy to understand terms.
Let this guide show you how to:
- Choose plants that will thrive in your yard
- Improve your soil and build new planting beds
- Propagate the plants you already have
- Protect plants during extreme weather events
- Create four-dimensional container gardens
- Understand the ecological services of the plants you grow
- Understand issues related to native and invasive plants
- Edit your garden effectively so it brings you more joy
- Make the most of the natural resources at your fingertips
- Cope with deer, rabbits, and voles in your yard
The author distills decades of gardening experience, garden photography, and garden writing in this beautifully illustrated guide dedicated to helping you garden more effectively and with more insight and joy. This is a volume you will turn to again and again for practical advice and seasonal inspiration.
McCoy, Elizabeth L.: - Elizabeth McCoy is a life-long gardener who has planted and tended gardens in many parts of Virginia. Elizabeth spent her professional career as an educator before retiring from the classroom to play in the dirt full-time. Elizabeth launched her first website, A Forest Garden, in 2013 a few years after moving to the Williamsburg area. Her website began as a way to share useful information about gardening in a very challenging environment rife with deer, voles, squirrels, clay soil and other inconveniences. She began a new website, Our Forest Garden, in 2021 as a continuation of the original. Elizabeth is a former James City County/Williamsburg Master Gardener and Tree Steward and a former Williamsburg Botanical Garden Garden Steward. Her 2020 Tree Steward Project, completed in collaboration with a team of other Tree Steward interns, produced a webpage detailing over 150 woody species in the botanical garden, and led to the creation of the Williamsburg Botanical Garden and Freedom Park Arboretum in 2021. Elizabeth wrote for the JCCWMG website blog and newsletter from 2020 through early 2026. An avid garden photographer, writer, and dirty-hands gardener, Elizabeth rarely meets a plant she doesn't like and rarely leaves a garden center empty-handed.
