productions ornamentals maintaining demystified

books:

Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape and All Climates: Helping Your Garden Flourish, While Conserving Water!

6 reviews
Robert Kourik

Metamorphic Press, 1993

Drip Irrigation gets down to nuts and bolts
This is a very helpful book for the gardener who wants to actually install a drip irrigation herself. The author goes into specifics about how to test your soil so you know how water moves through it and you can calculate how much water you'll need to apply, and he talks (somewhat unsuccessfully for my complete understanding) about transpiration rates for various types of plant, so you can kind ...

The Tree and Shrub Finder: Choosing the Best Plants for Your Yard

2 reviews
Robert Kourik

Taunton, 2000

A unique approach to landscaping with really big plants!
I have checked this book out of our library so many times since discovering it that I've finally decided to add it to my home library! This book is so incredably excellent! The information in its pages is truely unique. Not only does it go into the functionality of different trees and shrubs, but it also goes into color, texture, translucency of leaves, uniqueness of bark and branching as well ...

Roots Demystified: Change Your Gardening Habits to Help Roots Thrive

8 reviews
Robert Kourik

Metamorphic Press, 2007

Great source book, excellent writing
"Roots Demystified" is a great read, which you wouldn't expect from a gardening/horticultural book about roots. Kourik gives amazing information that I'd never heard before, lining up his drawings with the facts about how roots feed the tree. I've already changed my method of watering and feeding a tree further from the root to make these roots spread out wider. There are many personal touches ...

Easy Composting (Environmentally Friendly Gardening)

2 reviews
James Ball, Robert Kourik

Ortho Books, 1992

Actual useful practical advice
This is a great little paperback on the basics of composting. Just about everything I have learned about composting is here. I higly recommend this to anyone interested in composting or vegetable gardening. All the important topics are covered: from basic understanding of the decomposition process, to particle size, to bin construction, equipment, and using the finished product.

Smith & Hawken: Hands On Gardener: Pruning (Smith & Hawken the Hands-on Gardener)

1 review
Robert Kourik

Workman Publishing Company, 1997

A Good Introduction to Pruning
Although this book doesn't cover the most sophisticated aspects of pruning in detail (like grafting), it will give you a firm grasp of the basics, including when to prune, and how to do it. Various general types of trees are treated, like conifers, deciduous trees, fruits, bushes, etc. Simple yet attractive line drawings fill the book and are very helpful.

The Lavender Garden: Beautiful Varieties to Grow and Gather

10 reviews
Robert Kourik

Chronicle Books, 1998

One of the BEST books on the subject
Grew up with vast fields of French lavender as a child and lavender is a daily part of my life still. Love this book because it gives so much useful information on soil requirements, watering and best type of lavender to grow where you live. There is also a great recipe section in the back part of the book with the Buttermilk Lavender Bread and Lavender Lemon Shortbread (which is a cookie) being ...

Designing And Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally

2 reviews
Robert Kourik

Permanent Publications, 2005

A Library Within This Book
One of my most-used books; I'm buying this copy for a wedding. Two negatives -- The cost is high, and even as I wish for more color photographs, I ponder how much the price would rise with them. Also, as a new gardener, I struggled with five-syllable foreign terms and phrases. But he compensates well. After "an inoculant called rhizobium that colonizes the roots of leguminous plants", he says, ...