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Have you ever looked enviously at a neighbour’s garden and wished you had a green thumb? Have you ever gone to the garden centre full of enthusiasm, only to find yourself confused and defeated? Have you ever wished that some how gardening could just be, well, easy? If so, it’s time to Get Growing with Frankie Flowers. In 352 pages packed with inspiring yet instructional photos, Frankie coaches gardeners of all levels through the basics of getting a garden growing. Broken down into seasonal chapters that give the reader concise, clear instructions on what you need to do now and why, it provides a solid foundation for building a beautiful ornamental garden, a healthy, natural lawn and a bountiful vegetable garden. With tons of step-by-step details in words and photos — this book includes everything from planning and planting to pruning and fine tuning. It also helps gardeners of all levels troubleshoot problems like weeds and slugs and rodents (oh my!). Gardening shouldn’t be complicated or overwhelming — it should be fun.

The secret is just to get outside and get growing!

What People Are Saying About Frankie Flowers and Get Growing!!

REVIEWS COURTESY OF AMAZON.CA

By
book luv “book luv” (Ontario, Canada)
Finally, a book truly dedicated to Canadian gardening — the photos are very well done and actually show the diseases and pests we get here in the Toronto area (even the spider pic is one I see in my garden every year!).

There are a lot of useful tips and I especially like the diagrams on how to prune trees. This book will get a lot of use as I’m a newbie gardener and given the price of food in the coming months I’ll definitely be planting a garden and will need help on just about every aspect of creating one.

Highly recommend this book!

By
Illona
There is nothing I would have wanted to know prior to buying this book. We watch Frank on Breakfast Television and on City Line and that is actually what prompted me to buy the book in the first place.
I’ve actually purchased two of these books. One for myself and the other as a gift to my daughter-in-law. We love it. It’s a great source of information that’s easy to understand. Simple things to do before your start plantng helter skelter. I’ll recommend it to anyone who is interested in gardening. And it does make a great gift.

By
Andrea M Strachan
What a beautifully set out book – easy to read – set out by season – gardening will be so much easier this year! The photography is gorgeous and it has been written so the layman can understand. All gardening questions have been answered in this fantastic book!

BY TORONTO STAR:
Frankie Flowers makes it all seem so easy
April 22, 2011 Peggy Mackenzie
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

By Frankie Flowers

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., 2011

352 pages, $26.99 Paperback

This enjoyable book by Canadian gardening expert and television personality, Frankie Flowers (aka Frank Ferragine), provides readers with an industry insider’s knowledge to successful gardening.

Practical, witty, and forthright, Ferragine is a gifted writer who is able to simultaneously put the novice gardener at ease and also pump them up to tackle the challenges that lie ahead in any gardening endeavour.

Raised in the family gardening business, Bradford Greenhouses started by his grandfather and father, Ferragine rarely advocates using a gardening centre to solve challenges.

It’s refreshing that Ferragine first tries to solve common problems with common sense, common tools and homemade solutions. When that fails, then he lists how a gardening centre can help.

A book written by a Canadian for Canadians is always a pleasure to read, and the featured plants are chosen because they grow well in our climate.

The book is divided roughly by seasons (spring gets two, early spring and spring) and tells readers what they should be doing when, how to prepare soil, pick the right flowers and vegetables and then grow and harvest them, as well as troubleshoot. At the back of the book is an illustrated reference guide to the plants that thrive in Canada.

Expert tips are interspersed throughout the book. “Frankie’s Tips” (cleverly shown as plant labels) provide quick tips that experts only learn by trial and error. The most useful to me was on page 189, where he says to harvest vegetables at sunrise for “maximum freshness and longer shelf life.” Charts and checklists ensure that readers have a handy planting guide. Green pages supply necessary solutions for common problems, such as keeping cats out of the garden.

The photography by Shannon J. Ross is extremely helpful in showing readers exactly what Ferragine means when he writes step-by-step procedures such as the correct way to plant seedlings.

Ferragine doesn’t minimize the work that goes into creating and maintaining a garden, but he believes that gardening is something that anyone can do with the time and inclination. After reading this book, a harvest will greet even the most novice reader by fall.

Peggy Mackenzie is a Toronto Star librarian addicted to home, decor and gardening books. Contact her with book review requests at pmackenzie@thestar.ca.