The complete guide to greenhouses & garden projects Greenhouses, cold frames, compost bins, trellises, planting beds, potting benches & more

An alternative to kit-packaged greenhouses that would only blend in with your home style if you happen to live in a drive-thru restaurant, this Black & Decker guide offers complete instructions for such custom projects as a Victorian-style greenhouse complementing your Queen Anne house. Start-to-finish demos make this and many other projects possible, all from scratch, all using ordinary building materials. The broad and detailed coverage encompasses greenhouse types, including lean-to, freestanding, and hoop house, as well as such garden projects as cold-frame boxes, potting benches, solar produce dryers, planter boxes, cedar garden benches, and a mini shed. The many full-color photos, detailed listings of needed materials, and illustrations that break down construction methods, including cast concrete for ornaments and how-to directions for copper-bamboo borders, make this an inspiring and instructive guide. Illustrated conversion tables, a listing of resources, and an index encourage and inspire garden builders from novice to experienced.--Scott, Whitney Copyright 2010 Booklist

From germination to harvest, this guide covers a wide range of gardening projects. Leading with in-depth information on greenhouse design, the book then presents four greenhouse projects, from simple to quite complex. The rest are garden accessories, including landscape accents, seating, planters, trellises, and exciting and original concrete projects. Several of these are pulled from the publisher's other outdoor project books. Still, the instruction here is good, and accompanying photographs illustrate steps. If you have most of the "Black & Decker Complete Guide" series, you can live without this; otherwise, it's a good addition to larger public library collections. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.