Pennsylvania Getting Started Garden Guide: Grow the Best Flowers, Shrubs, Trees, Vines & Groundcovers

The book that puts Pennsylvania's most knowledgeable gardener at your beck and call. Split down the middle by the Appalachian Mountains, Pennsylvania experiences a wide range of extreme weather on each side of the divide, with humid summers in Harrisburg and record-breaking snowfalls in McKean County-- but there's one thing every Pennsylvanian experiences: rain, and plenty of it. The state's well-hydrated landscape hosts a vast selection of beautiful native plants, from the gorgeous multi-season serviceberry to the stunning and underused Joe-Pye weed. In Pennsylvania Getting Started Garden Guide, locally beloved Patriot-News garden columnist George Weigel teaches you how to plant and care for more than 150 of different species of natural Pennsylvanian agriculture. Elegantly photographed, full-color pages impart Weigel's decades of experience gardening in this state. The flowers, shrubs, vines, trees, and groundcovers within - organized alphabetically by type and common name - are each showcased with a reference image, a name pronunciation guide, and detailed information such as: full-grown plant size, when to plant, tips for bringing your transplants to healthy maturity, and even recommendations for the best companion species. This comprehensive, easily understandable reference guide is complete with at-a-glance icons for quick plant info, color-coded USDA zone maps, and - of course - the charming writing style of Pennsylvania's most endearing and trustworthy garden writer. So even if you don't love the weather all the time, with Pennsylvania Getting Started Garden Guide, you'll be able to choose plants that do.

George Weigel is a garden writer, garden designer, garden speaker, Pennsylvania Certified Horticulturist, and--as his balding, plant-killing brother likes to put it--a "Certified Gardening Wacko." In central Pennsylvania, George is best known for his Over the Garden Fence columns that have appeared weekly in the Patriot-News, Harrisburg's newspaper, since 1993. The Garden Writers Association named George's column as one of America's five best garden columns in 2008. His articles have also appeared in such magazines as Horticulture, People, Places and Plants, Green Scene, Pennsylvania Gardener, and Central PA Magazine. When he's not writing, George spends his time operating his own garden-design and consulting business for DIYers, leads garden-themed tours, gives frequent lectures, and is a member of the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society's Gold Medal Plant Award committee. George is the author of Cool Springs Press' Pennsylvania Getting Started Garden Guide (2014).