George Book No. 3

December 1st, 2015

My third gardening book from Cool Springs Press just published, and it’s very similar to “Month-by-Month Gardening in Pennsylvania,” except geared to gardeners in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

This one’s called “Mid-Atlantic Month-by-Month Gardening,” and it’s set up in month-by-month format to produce a 192-page to-do list for what to do when around the garden.

The main difference between this one and the Pennsylvania version is that the timing of some of the jobs differs, plus a few techniques are a bit different since some parts of the broader Mid-Atlantic region are coastal and have sandy soil.

The climates over those four states and the District of Columbia vary even more than Pennsylvania’s span from Philadelphia to Bradford and Erie. This book had to cover conditions from Zone 5b in the mountains of West Virginia to the balmy Zone 8a in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area of coastal southeastern Virginia.

One other curveball: Maryland has passed some restrictive rules on what fertilizers people can apply and when, so I had to incorporate those into the lawn sections.

For example, Marylanders can’t use lawn fertilizer that has phosphorus unless they get a soil test verifying that that potentially bay-polluting nutrient is needed. They also have limits on nitrogen amounts, they can’t apply any lawn fertilizer within 15 feet of a waterway or anywhere between Nov. 15 and March 1 (to head off frozen-ground applications), and they’re required to sweep spilled fertilizer off of sidewalks and other hard surfaces.

Like “Pennsylvania Month-by-Month Gardening,” the format of “Mid-Atlantic Month-by-Month Gardening” has 12 monthly chapters with each chapter broken down into the different kinds of jobs (Plan, Plant, Problem-Solve, etc.) Then under each job, tips are laid out for each category of plants (Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs, Shrubs, Trees, etc.)

This is a new format for this whole series of Month-by-Month Gardening books, which Cool Springs Press publishes throughout the country. I like that localized approach because it’s very difficult to give much meaningful advice when you’re trying to write for the whole country. It’s hard enough zeroing in on just a single state.

If you’d like a copy of “Mid-Atlantic Month-by-Month Gardening,” I’ll be happy to send you a signed copy for $25, plus shipping. Order details are on my Buy Helpful Info page.

This book makes most sense for gardeners living in the four states covered and D.C., but it’ll also make a thoughtful holiday gift for friends or family you might have in those areas. The order form lets you specify to whom you’d like me to sign the book.

Signed copies of my other two Pennsylvania books are also available on my Buy Helpful Info page.

Cool Springs started doing this concept about a dozen years ago, offering companion sets in each region – one book on best plants and one book on when to do what.

Liz Ball, a garden writer in the Philadelphia area and a long-time friend from the Garden Writers Association, did the original Pennsylvania versions. She’s since retired and passed the Pa. torch to me.

Nurserymen Mark and Andre Viette from Virginia did the original version of “Mid-Atlantic Month-by-Month Gardening.”