Carolina Gardener’s Handbook is filled with need-to-know information from popular Carolina gardening experts. Each expert includes his or her collective wisdom in this complete guide for Carolina gardeners. In addition to hundreds of proven plants, this resource has monthly to-do calendars for more than ten plant categories from annuals to vines. “When to” information assists gardeners with the proper care and timing for everything from planting to watering. Advice on gardening with less water addresses the challenges of gardening in the Carolinas.
As field faculty emeritus, Toby Bost is best known for his thirty-one years as a horticulturist and Extension Agent with the NC Cooperative Extension Service. For more than two decades, he recruited and certified more than 400 Master Gardeners in Durham and Forsyth counties, appearing frequently in the media as a gardening educator. He has been a garden writer for several newspapers and magazines, including Carolina Gardener and Our State. Many landscape professionals have attended the programs he developed to assist them with licensure in myriad trade associations. For six years, he was director of the Arboretum at Tanglewood Park.
Toby continues to dedicate his time to helping gardeners conquer stubborn clay soils and grow healthy lawns and gardens as both a volunteer mentor and consultant. He is an adjunct instructor at the local community college in the horticulture department. He is the author of North Carolina Gardener’s Guide and co-author of Carolinas Gardener’s Guide; co-editor of The Successful Gardeners Guide: North Carolina by Blair Publishing; and co-author of Carolinas Gardener’s Handbook by Cool Springs Press.
Toby and his wife, Becky, reside in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where they serve in leadership at their church. In his leisure time, Toby enjoys golf, fishing, and of course, the joy of gardening.