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Gardening House Plants & Indoor
The Houseplanter
Your Go-To Growing Journal
- Publisher
- TouchWood Editions
- Initial publish date
- Apr 2025
- Category
- House Plants & Indoor, Reference
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781771514590
- Publish Date
- Apr 2025
- List Price
- $24.00
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781771514651
- Publish Date
- Mar 2025
- List Price
- $9.99
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Where to buy it
Description
Equal parts journal and checklist, The Houseplanter is the perfect place to keep your houseplant records and aspirations all in one place.
Whether you’re just getting started with your very first little pot or have accidentally found yourself manager of a mini jungle, you’ll know that houseplants require at least a little bit of regular maintenance. With this handy journal, expert gardeners Janet Melrose and Sheryl Normandeau help you keep track. This guided journal provides charts for recording all the pertinent information about your plants, including where and when you acquired them, when they last had their shot of fertilizer, how often they like to be watered, when they were last repotted, and more.
And while you fill in your charts, Janet and Sheryl fill you in with tips on plant care and facts about houseplant history, nomenclature, and folklore. Kind of like a baby book for your plant babies, The Houseplanter is a dedicated companion notebook to keep things on track and your houseplants happy and accounted for.
About the authors
Janet Melrose is the co-author of the Guides for the Prairie Gardener series. She is a garden educator and consultant, and an advocate for Calgary’s Sustainable Local Food System. She is a life-long gardener and holds a Prairie Horticulture Certificate and Home Farm Horticultural Therapy Certificate. She has a passion for Horticultural Therapy and facilitates numerous programs designed to integrate people marginalized by various disabilities into the larger community. She is a regular contributor to The Gardener for Canadian Climates magazine. She lives in Calgary where she runs her education and consulting company, Calgary’s Cottage Gardener.
Sheryl Normandeau is the co-author of the Guides for the Prairie Gardener series and author of The Little Prairie Book of Berries. A life-long gardener, she holds a Prairie Horticulture Certificate and a Sustainable Urban Agriculture Certificate and is a freelance writer specializing in gardening writing with hundreds of articles published. She is a regular contributor The Gardener for Canadian Climates, The Prairie Garden Annual, Herb Quarterly, and many more. She lives in Calgary.
Excerpt: The Houseplanter: Your Go-To Growing Journal (by (author) Janet Melrose & Sheryl Normandeau)
Introduction
Whether you have been growing houseplants for many years, or you are just starting out with one or two and already eyeballing Numbers Three, Four, and Five in the garden centre, you understand why nurturing houseplants is a fulfilling passion for so many people. From African violets to ZZs, we love our houseplants! If you’re like us, you’ve crammed as many as you think is reasonable into your home (of course, our significant others rarely agree on what exactly constitutes “reasonable,” but that doesn’t dampen our enthusiasm). No matter if your collection is burgeoning or bulging, keeping a record of your green babies and tracking your houseplant care routines will help you give them their best lives in your space. It’s also fascinating to compare species and varieties and note how they perform as they grow and mature.
You have in your hands a book that requires interaction, but you can choose any or all the parts that best suit you. Flip back and forth between sections, pore through the plant lists we’ve offered you in the back of the book, and peruse page by page to enjoy all the fun facts and advice we’ve snuck in. We encourage you to record your observations and information about your houseplants in any way you please: doodle in the margins, use fancy pens and colourful markers (plain ones will work just as well!), and slap sticky notes, cute stickers, and reminders into the journal’s interior. We’ve created a resource that you can use over and over again and in many different ways, and we hope you delight in it.
—Sheryl Normandeau and Janet Melrose
Editorial Reviews
Praise for Janet Melrose and Sheryl Normandeau
Honorable Mention at the American Horticultural Society Book Awards
"The Prairie Gardener's Go-To series comes in mighty yet digestible volumes covering popular topics like seeds, vegetables, and soil. . . Although each guide touches on regionally specific information, the wisdom of these seasoned gardeners applies to any garden, wherever it may be." —Acadia Tucker, author of Growing Perennial Foods
"Whether you’re looking for information on that one tiny pest you just can’t control, or are talking a new gardener through their first planting season, these slim but mighty volumes make great companions at the height of summer in the garden trenches and during cold winter days planning the next season.” —Floral Acres Greenhouse & Garden Centre
"The books are a pleasure just to leaf through, but the accessible writing and level of expertise makes them essential to any gardener’s library... Well-indexed, to help you find solutions to elusive problems. Highly recommended!"—Diane Miessler, Certified Permaculture Designer and author of Grow Your Soil
"Reading the Prairie Gardener's Go-To series is like sitting down with your friendly local master gardener. Delivers practice guidance that will leave you feeling confident and inspired." —Andrea Bellamy, author of Small-Space Vegetable Gardens
“The Prairie Gardener’s Go-To series offers knowledgeable yet accessible answers to questions covering a broad range of topics to help you cultivate garden success. Get growing!” —Lorene Edwards Forkner, gardener, writer, author of Color In and Out of the Garden
"The Prairie Gardener guides offer tips on planning, planting and growing gardens, and troubleshooting pests and diseases." —Calgary Herald
"A great resource for gardeners everywhere." —Quill & Quire
"In a digital world full of general information, their books provide specific knowledge for gardening in climates like Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Plus, everything they write about is based on their own experience." —Helpful Gardeners Podcast
"This book provides detailed cultivation, harvesting and storage tips for the vegetables grown in our region." —Western Producer
"Melrose and Normandeau answer all the questions that the two experts could think of when it came to horticulture on the prairies." —Edify Edmonton
"Helping gardeners across the prairies succeed in growing food, flowers and everything in between." —Medicine Hat News
"Herbs offers highly local advice on how to grow herbs for your kitchen in our climate." —Savour Calgary
"With advice on which native grasses to use—and why—the book gives gardeners both inspiration and knowledge." —Alberta Views
"This go-to paperback addresses many issues of perennial plants that will prove extremely useful to gardeners." —Calgary Horticultural Society
"Advice on container gardens, raised beds, small plots and postage-stamp sized yards, and how to try your hand at vertical gardening." —Garden Making
“Written with wit and charm, Janet and Sheryl have given us the comprehensive, gardener-friendly guide to soil science everyone who grows a garden needs to read.” —Daryl Beyers, gardening instructor and author of The New Gardener’s Handbook
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