Showing results by author "Melinda R. Cordell" in All Categories

The rose is the Queen of Flowers. Roses are beautiful, fragrant, and elegant - and they require all the pampering of a real queen, don't they? Actually, they don't! Rose gardening can be easy and pleasant. I've worked 25 years in horticulture and cared for over 300 roses in a public rose garden when I was municipal horticulturist. I found ways to keep rose gardening fuss-budgetry to a minimum while growing vigorous roses that bloomed their heads off. Rose to the Occasion shares tricks and shortcuts that rosarians use.

One of the most important things gardeners can do is to build up the soil in their garden. Soil building is a process. As humus is devoured by microorganisms, worms, and plants, more organic material must be added constantly in order to keep the soil biomass well fed and happy for strong soil structure. Learn all the various ways to get organic material into your soil to improve soil health and soil fertility to improve plant health for better gardens, higher yields, and more gorgeous flowers.

Gardening Month by Month lays out general gardening tips and tricks through the whole year. Are you planting vegetables, growing orchids, finding organic ways to care for your lawn, trying to raise fragrant roses? This book lays out what you need to know. Written for the beginning gardener, but also with plenty of information for the more advanced gardener.

Fia has two weeks to rescue her father before his execution. She is deep in enemy territory, alone, and praying that nobody sees through her disguise. But when they announce a special dragon race, Fia is tempted as never before. In her new disguise, she can take part in the biggest race in all of Italia, something she’d wanted to do ever since she started riding a dragon. The prize money would ensure a life of freedom for Fia, and her sisters.

Neva only wants to keep her family safe - but all hope of that vanishes when her best friend Fia plummets out of the sky, gravely wounded and on dragonback. “Let the dragonrider die!” her mama pleads. That would be the sure way to ensure that the army stops harassing them - but Neva can’t turn her back on her friend. Never mind that her family is holding Fia’s father captive, and Neva is forced to use her magic in this hateful work

My father's been kidnapped. The kidnappers demand an impossible ransom. If they don't get it in two weeks, they will kill my father. Mama won't survive his murder. She's already fallen unconscious. So, I've pulled my assassin grandmother out of retirement. Together, and with my dragon, we're going to find the kidnappers and rescue my father. And we're going to make those bastards pay.

Style: Everybody has it, but nobody really knows what it is. And when it comes to garden design, everybody has style. Sometimes, though, they just haven’t figured out what their gardening style is. Some people lean more toward traditional gardens with flowers to cram them into. Others lean more toward the formal gardens and parterres.

Perennials are the backbone of the garden - a low-maintenance, long-growing mainstay that the garden revolves around. I've worked with perennials for 20 years, as a manager in the perennials section at the local nursery, and then as a municipal horticulturist in charge of more than 20 gardens around the city. I've grown perennials from seed, potted them bare-rooted, divided them, deadheaded them, treated them for diseases and pests. Everything I've learned over the years I share here in this book - Perennial Classics.

Japanese beetles arrived in America in 1916. Since then, the beetle has cut a destructive swath across a great portion of the United States. Japanese Beetles and Grubs: Trap, Spray, and Control Them is an indispensable guide for home gardeners, landscape professionals and farmers. This Japanese beetle audiobook is your secret weapon to help you control the beetles and safeguard your trees, roses and vegetables. This audiobook walks you through many methods for stopping Japanese beetles, whether through organic means or (in some cases) chemical means.

Short stories about the link between humans and animals.

At last, help for home food gardeners. The simple, month-by-month layout of Don't Throw in the Trowel will help gardeners grow a bounty of vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Grow luscious tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, melons, and more, and enjoy all the fresh produce (and give the surplus to family and friends) that your garden grows using these easy tips.

Welcome to the world of tomato gardening. There’s nothing as sweet and good as a sun-warmed tomato fresh from the garden on a hot summer afternoon. It’s no wonder that tomatoes are the most popular vegetable in America (though botanically, tomatoes are a fruit). Cordell’s audiobook walks you through the steps in raising tomatoes – through starting tomato seeds, planting (and tricks for planting tomatoes early), and staking and caging tomatoes.

How do I make my lawn look like a golf course without all those chemicals? How do I keep up with all the lawn care when I have a million things to do? Leave Me A Lawn is packed with clear, concise information on yard care that is written with a sense of humor and a lot of helpful information on lawn maintenance from a former horticulturist with a trick back. Discover time-saving secrets for better fertilizing, watering and mowing, and helpful hints for those of you who already have too much on your plate. This book also contains advice for those lawn maniacs out there who want that green, lush grass but want to cut back on chemicals and water. You can grow lean and mean grass that fights off insect pests and diseases, and take drought with aplomb.

This book gives you ways to beat insect infestations on your houseplants and tips on preparing plants for winter. Learn how to raise orchids and African violets, how to grow a Christmas cactus the way your grandma did, and how to make poinsettias rebloom. You can learn how to make a dish garden and terrarium. You'll learn the right way to water your houseplants. When insects afflict your houseplants, consult this book.

Kathy, whose brain is over-saturated with Victorian novels, falls for Wyatt, the boy with all the verbs. It's your classic case of a shy gal running screaming from love.