Monday, January 11, 2016

BOOKS: 'Gardening with Confidence' by Raleigh's Helen Yoest

Editor's Note:  Raleigh Gardening Author Helen Yoest will be the keynote speaker at the Annual Meeting of the Garden Club of North Carolina, Inc., April 17-19, 2016.
 
Gardening with Confidence: 50 Ways to Add Style for Personal Creativity
Author: Helen Yoest
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: GWC Press; 1st edition (September 20, 2012)
ISBN-10: 0985416807
ISBN-13: 978-0985416805


FOREWORD: It is always a joy to learn new things and to be reminded again of others. I m always looking for resources to continue to hone my gardening design skills. Gardening with Confidence accomplishes just that. This book methodically outlines a foundation of best practices starting with the basics and adding to those building blocks to help us develop into the best gardeners that we can be. The confidence gained by understanding how to add design features, while developing our own personal style, will take us and our gardens to that next level. Gardening with Confidence 50 Ways to add style for personal creativity is a true labor of Helen Yoest s love of our common pursuit. Helen has outlined 50 ways to add style to express one s personal creativity in the garden when in fact her 50 will inspire at least 50 more ideas in us. The author covers all of the topics that any beginning gardener will want to know about and offers more seasoned gardeners many inspiring ideas. I am taken in by all the themes but particularly by all of the chapters on garden styles and your garden environment. I am crazy about moss gardening and all of the wildlife topics that she documents in her book. In this book, she instills gardening self-assurance with her relaxed and easy, non-prescribed approach. She introduces us to basic concepts and patiently explains them with an informative and gentle voice written with the ease of someone who has garnered a wealth of personal experience over the years making her an ideal guide to lead readers through all of the helpful ideas and concepts giving readers the courage, the confidence, and the tools to strike out on their own to develop their very own personal style. Each step is a rewarding journey encouraging us to take that next step, then another and yet another. Gardening with Confidence provides all of us an overview of garden style without dictating what it should be. Helen helps readers explore, discover and express what their own style actually is. She helps us through this voyage of self-expression laid out not as a designer would approach the subject matter but as an enlightened guide who over the years has worked through the obstacles. It s obvious that the author has practiced what works and what doesn t. This experience helps her to communicate on the same level as the reader. Like working through a puzzle with a trusted friend she gives us the gift of gardening success through self-realization.
 
--P. Allen Smith

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