Time-Tested Plants: Thirty Years in a Four-Season Garden

by Pamela Harper

Book Overview

In this remarkable book, Pamela Harper takes us on a walk through 30 years of gardening, focusing her attentions on those trees, shrubs, and perennials that have earned her trust and affection for a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0881924865
• ISBN13: 9780881924862
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Timber Press (OR)
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 3.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 10.8" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Time Tested Plants: Thirty Years in a Four Season Garden

The title of this book led me to think it was just another listing of plants with notes on height, hardiness etc. It is far more than that, as I realized when I read in the acknowledgements "A stroll around my garden is a bit like telling the rosary, with each bead a friend remembered by a plant they gave me." Now that I can relate to.The author gives a great deal of information in this 350 page book, but she also shares herself and her love of her garden with the reader. We learn WITH her rather than from her. This is a really good read if you loved gardens and the book is beautifully illustrated with the author's own photographs. The material has been organized by season so you can curl up and enjoy a year's worth of garden beauty and wisdom. There are short but useful resource and reference lists.This book contains a wealth of information, but the pleasure of reading it comes from the warmth of the author. Her voice, her ideas, her thoughts on plants and gardening come through clearly and gently to the reader. This is a sharing of wisdom rather than as sharing of knowledge.

Time-Tested Plants by Pamela J. Harper

There are very few gardening books for Southern Gardeners that are so readable. This book feels like visiting with your best gardening buddy: walking through her gardens and talking about plants frankly and enthusiastically. Ms. Harper introduced me to many plants of which I had limited or no previous knowledge, and gave lots of great information on the care, propagation, and placement of them. She is not just a cheerleader. She also gives any drawbacks or limitations to each plant, with ideas for how to overcome them. The illustrations are fabulous, detailed, and filled with plant combination ideas. This book will have a valued place on my bookshelf for many years to come.

My favorite gardening book

This is easily my favorite gardening book. Already it is dog-eared and well-worn. A lovely combination of useful information, beautiful photos, and very good writing. The author tells you what she has learned over 30 years of gardening in the hot and humid southeast and does so in a way that is a pleasure to read. I highly recommend it.

A well-rounded view

The author has been gardening for over forty years now, with thirty years in the same garden. Time-Tested Plants considers the perennials, annuals, vines and trees in her garden as a unit, rather than as separate entities: chapters provide a well-rounded view of building and maintaining a complete garden environment, along with many tips on plant qualities and use. Color photos pack her presentation.

Entertaining and informative

Anyone who has gardened in the hot, humid and drought proned Southeast will smile knowingly as they read about Harper's 30 year experiences in her Virginia garden. This woman loves plants and it shows. She writes candidly of the plants she loves and she is not afraid to dismiss the ones that are duds. The book is a showcase of her garden, arranged by season, and she discusses her successes and failures along the way. It covers a wide range of plants including perennials, shrubs, bulbs, vines and trees. The photographs are wonderful and truly provide inspiration for design and plant combinations. Gardeners in this region should find this book to be an excellent tool for choosing plants.