Blog Recommendation Monday: The Casual Gardener

Shawna Lee Coroando is the author of Gardening Nude (a self help book on how gardening can help you strip away the stress of your daily routines), a syndicated newspaper columnist, health and green living guru, and finally, blog writer extraordinaire. The Causal Gardener is the perfect name for her blog because she writes articles that don't preach about the "right" way to garden.  She sticks to giving her readers tips and ideas to help expand their gardening skills without stressing over perfection.

Shawna keeps track of what works and what doesn't season by season so in her articles she'll talk about how what she did last year was a little better than what she did this year and why (or vice-versa). She also writes book reviews; her latest is on The Complete Idiot's Guide to Composting which she thinks should be in everyone's library. Her blog posts always include big pictures and lots of videos for you visual learners out there. You will also find lots of tips on how to reuse or recycle objects in your garden.

On July 20, 2010 Shawna gives her readers an update about the process she went through to convert her front lawn into a vegetable garden; it's very inspirational and you can read it here: "A Sustainable Vegetable Garden - In My Front Lawn."  She even gives us a peak into her design process by including a "bird's eye view" of her final product  (See photo on the right.), as well as  a corresponding "gardening by numbers" plant list!  Isn't that great! How many times have you wished that someone knowledgeable would just tell you what to do?   I know I have and the answers are here!

Thank you Shawna for providing your readers with such thorough garden reporting, and of course, for not making us feel imperfect in the process!!