How to cheat at gardening and yard work : shameless tricks for growing radically simple flowers, veggies, lawns, landscaping, and more / Jeff Bredenberg.

For most homeowners, the landscape is a big green monster, demanding all manner of hard labor to keep it happy. Who ever imagined that so much of adult life would be devoted to raking, tilling, trimming, mowing, digging . . . and cursing bulky and expensive power tools? Surely not Jeff Bredenberg, who recommends that we all learn to cheat. In How to Cheat at Gardening and Yard Work, Bredenberg offers down-to-earth, friendly-neighbor-next-door advice and new, easier ways of doing gardening and yard work without sacrificing results. By cutting corners in a smart way, selecting maintenance-free plants, and using technology and innovative products, busy readers can shave hours off the time they spend laboring on the lawn and garden. How to Cheat at Gardening and Yard Work covers every important topic of gardening and yard work: landscape design, soil, flowers, vegetables, trees, containers, tools, and pests. From how to start the world's simplest compost pile to learning to garden with a minimum of bending over; from how to develop healthy soil without ever testing it to a simple planning trick that will have passersby gaping at the flowers, these tips will delight avid gardeners, time-pressed homeowners, and weekend warriors everywhere, yet still produce a yard and garden to be proud of.