If you’re new to gardening, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the books offering expert how-to advice.

Amanda Thomsen , Chicago landscape painting house decorator and professional gardener , is the voice behind the popular horticulture web log call Kiss My Aster . She ’s known for her witty , irreverent approach to home and garden project .

Now she ’s taking her slimly kooky , but inspiring message to a heavy audience with her one - of - a - variety flavor at gardening in her Bible , Kiss My Aster : A Graphic Guide to Creating a Fantastic Yard Totally tailor to You(Storey Publishing , 2012 ) .

This script is as synergistic as a gardening guide can be . catch your one-sided pencils and work Color Me Gnome or spend some time with pencil in hand completing the garden Word Find game . She project the book based on theChoose Your Own Adventurebooks she take and enjoy years ago .

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Flip to any varlet and you ’ll come up colourful , hand - drawn illustrations that are as captivating as the cognitive content . If the images do n’t get you , her clever play on intelligence certainly will . “ The Labor Party ” gives helpful hints on how to prefer a crew to help with upkeep and “ Lean , Mean & Evergreen ” helps with choose the right evergreen for your distance .

Vegetable nurseryman get plenty of her attention , too . She writes about how to build up a worm farm , let in a chart called “ Grow What ? ” that ’s mean to boggle your head with the kinds of vegetables you may get and helps with herb uprise in the section foretell “ Herbie , Fully Loaded . ”

The writer has slew of experience growing vegetable gardens . Her first Quran , Grocery horticulture : Planting , Preparing and Preserving Fresh Food , was a successful collaboration with other veggie - loving garden writers .

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Thomsen know about vegetables , hedgerow , stone walls , lawn care , planting evergreens , worms , dirt and sustainability , but she also realise every garden should reflect the personality of the gardener who creates it . Her mother wit of witticism and simple penning mode help take the mystery out of gardening and make the journeying seem more like an entertaining adventure .

My free revaluation written matter of “ Kiss My Aster ” was provided by Storey Publishing .

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Amanda Thomsen’s interactive gardening book is a graphic guide to creating a garden just for you.Photo/Illustration: Storey Publishing

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