As winter turns to spring many of us start to plan the improvements we want to make around the house. Garden Builder: Plans and Instructions for 35 Projects You Can Make by JoAnn Moser is a perfect book to help with those plans. Read on to learn about the book that I am very grateful – the hubby maybe not so much as I keep oooohing and aaaaaahing over projects – was sent to me at no charge by Quarto Knows for my honest review. I hope the thought of these garden DIY projects will inspire you as Get Ready for Summer Homestead Projects week continues.
About Garden Builder: Plans and Instructions for 35 Projects You Can Make
Garden Builder is a treasure trove of lovely yard, patio and garden projects you can build yourself!
Perfect for any gardener or outdoor enthusiast with a few basic DIY skills, it is packed with 31 complete project plans, each one featuring finished photos of the project along with cut lists and shopping lists, a construction diagram, and step-by-step instructions (complete with photos) show exactly how to build every project.
Most projects are made from durable exterior-rated wood and can be created with basic carpentry skills. But several of these highly desirable garden accessories are made with materials like concrete, metal, and wire.
Garden Builder is positively loaded with projects, a few you can look forward to building include:
-Trellises
-Raised beds
-Harvest boxes
-Planters
-Garden ArtSimply follow the clear and comprehensive instructions, and you’ll have a garden that’s rich in design elements, useful aids, and practical furnishings.
ALL AMAZON PURCHASE LINKS ARE AFFILIATE LINKS WHICH MEANS IF YOU MAKE A PURCHASE I RECEIVE A SMALL COMMISSION (AT NO ADDITIONAL COST TO YOU)
About the Author:
JoAnn Moser is a writer by education, a photographer by exploration, a blogger by accident and a DIYer by blood. A graduate of Hamline University, she holds an MFA degree in creative writing. In addition to writing fiction, she has also written about all things DIY on the design community curbly.com. Her pursuit of blogging reawakened a life-long love of photography and prompted further study of the art at Minnetonka Center for the Arts. When not writing, photographing, or DIYing, JoAnn nurtures her latest of many obsessions, playing the ukulele.
My Opinion:
The beauty of this book is that it doesn’t just give you beautiful pictures of completed projects and then leave you drooling over what could be while you search for the how tos. No Ms. Moser provides the project, a list of what you need, very clearly written instructions and some photo help to get you through the tricky parts.
All of the projects are doable by anyone with basic DIY abilities. Some are cute and others are quite useful. There are several that I want but I am not anyone with basic DIY abilities so I have to hope that the hubby can get around to them for me.
I’m sure many people would be enamored of the Vertical Harvest Panty. And the accompanying harvest boxes. Isn’t it lovely? I don’t have room for it here in the yurt but I can still enjoy the simple beauty of this piece. That is the glory of many of the projects in the book, they are simple and unfussy and yet very pretty.
I certainly hope this is not the last of Ms. Moser’s books in this vein.
Rating:
5
Garden DIY Around the Farm:
Every year we do try and do something new around the farm. Most of the improvements so far have been the addition of new gardens. We don’t do things until we can pay for them so some things come more slowly than others.
Although if we go back to the very beginning of our being here we could start with the goathouse. That was the hubby’s first DIY. He then built various chicken houses. Of course along the way he did do major improvements to the garden but it didn’t involve much building, just buying hoops and row covers etc.
Last year we started keeping bees. This year I hope we finally add the fruit trees. We have been talking about that for a while. But none of these things are really garden DIY are they? I do have one big plan – well sort of big anyway – that I want to accomplish this year. It comes out of our trip to Portland last year.
We visited the International Rose Test Garden while we were there and I fell in love with all of the varieties of roses. I want to plant some roses and a butterfly garden.
I recall how excited I was when we set about installing a duck pond and I bought some zinnias to put around the pond and they were out there for less than an hour and several butterflies found them. It was so peaceful to watch them fly in, fly out and do it again and again. There are a couple of plans in the book for different types of plant stands.
Decisions, decisions. But no matter which one I pick, it will add beauty to the farm.
The Giveaway:
One lucky US reader will win a copy of Garden Builder. Just enter as many ways as you would like on the Gleam widget below. Full rules are on the widget. Tomorrow there will be a giveaway for all three books that have individual giveaways. You are welcome to enter all the giveaways but you can only win one copy of each book. All the giveaways will be ending on the same day so if you are lucky enough to win twice you will be offered your choice of which prize you want to keep; the three book package or the single book. (erm, duh) Good luck everyone.
CELEBRATE GET READY FOR SUMMER HOMESTEAD PROJECTS WEEK:
CHARLES DOWDING’S VEG JOURNAL – EXPERT NO DIG GARDENING ADVICE
COMPOSTING FOR A NEW GENERATION BY MICHELLE BALZ
The Backyard Beekeeper by Kim Flottum
CHICKEN CHICK’S GUIDE TO BACKYARD CHICKENS AND MULTIBOOK GIVEAWAY
