Michelle Souza, of Metamorphosis Design, is among the garden exhibitors creating a fairy tale garden for this year’s Rhode Island Spring Flower & Garden Show. Here she’s working with Erminio Pinque, artistic director of Big Nazo puppets, to build a Jack and the Beanstalk scene.

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The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

Rhode Islanders often joke that they pack an overnight bag if traveling from Woonsocket to Westerly. But who would imagine that gardeners in Pawtucket would face dramatically different challenges than those in Pascoag, Providence or Portsmouth?

Barbara Gee, author of the new The Rhode Island Gardener’s Companion, said this may be the smallest state in the union, but gardening conditions vary radically from one area to another, even a few miles away.

That’s why, for her book, she needed to talk to gardening experts from around the state, to compile specific advice for dealing with Rhode Island’s unique topography and climate when it comes to growing flowers, vegetables, grass and trees.

She’ll share those tips as a featured speaker at the Rhode Island Spring Flower & Garden Show this week.

Her guide is jam-packed with informa- tion about everything from soil and water conditions to the “special challenges” posed by seaside and city gardens here.

“. . . I have a soft spot for city gardens, like those in Providence and Newport, but I have discovered and fallen in love with seaside gardens like the ones you find on Jamestown or Block Island,” she writes.

Gee, who’s a native of England but has spent most of her adult life here in the United States, said she’s relatively new to gardening — which may come as a surprise to some.

“So many Americans are still hankering for an English-style garden,” she said, and they just assume that everyone from England has been blessed with gardening talent.

But Gee said she didn’t start gardening until nearly 20 years ago, when she and her husband bought their house in Portsmouth, overlooking the Mount Hope Bridge.

Until then, she’d mostly lived in condos, where she didn’t have to think about the upkeep of the lawn and gardens. She recalls looking at the overgrown front lawn and a huge vegetable garden that consumed her backyard, and thinking: “What the hell am I going to do with that?”

She decided to venture into the garden shop at a nearby Home Depot, where she bought a four-pack of plants — she’s not even sure now what they were — in a box that looked like a McDonald’s “Happy Meal” container. And she brought them home to plant. “When I started digging in the soil, it was like electric,” she said. “From that moment, I wanted to know everything there was to know about gardening. I was addicted.”

A few years later, she signed up for the master gardener program offered by the University of Rhode Island’s Cooperative Extension, which provides extensive training for participants who then agree to volunteer their time and expertise with others in the community. She also participated in the Royal Horticultural Society’s course for certification, and she worked at Conway’s Nursery for Uncommon Plants in Tiverton and with the staff in the department of horticulture at Blithewold Mansion in Bristol.

Soon, she’d created a variety of garden beds around her property, and she’d amassed a library of garden books — so many that she’d often buy a book and come home and find she’d already bought it, so she gave it as a gift instead.

Many of the books had great general tips and advice, she said. But none were specific to this region. So Gee, who’s a freelance writer and editor by trade, decided to write one of her own. Late last spring, she published The Massachusetts Gardener’s Companion, designed to provide information specific to different areas throughout Massachusetts, and then followed it up last month with The Rhode Island Gardener’s Companion.

“What I did was get anecdotes from all over the state,” Gee said, explaining that she asked gardening experts from horticulturists at the historic Blithewold Mansion to owners of local nurseries what worked best in certain areas and why.

She shares this information in a simple and straightforward way. She said she deliberately designed the books to be “almost a casual conversation” with her readers, a sharing of the tips and advice she’d collected. “I wanted somebody to be able to read it and feel like they were just talking to a friend.”

But there are some important things to know about gardening — especially the basics like soil, water and atmosphere, Gee stressed.

Beyond that, it takes a little studying to figure out what will work — and won’t work — in different areas.

And Gee isn’t about to make any predictions, especially if you’re asking her what will work in a particular site. There are simply too many variables, she said.

That said, she did offer a few generalizations:

Consider where you live when you’re thinking about what you’d like to plant. Rhode Island’s growing conditions change dramatically from the northwest corner, with its colder temperatures and higher elevations, to the southern tips along the coastline.

The variation is so great that there are actually three “hardiness” zones in Rhode Island, Gee said. The hardiness zones are defined by the United States Department of Agriculture, based on the average minimum temperature of any given region. Most people think Rhode Island is in Zone 6, as is much of this part of New England, but the reality is that the northwest portion of the state should be considered Zone 5-B, while places like Tiverton and Little Compton would be Zones 7 to 7-A.

These differences in climate also result in dramatic differences in the amount of moisture and humidity lawns and gardens will receive, in addition to sun and wind. Gardeners in coastal areas, in particular, have to take into account the winds that can batter plants much more severely than in protected inland areas.

The soil quality varies widely as well, from the sandy and salty soils of the coast to the inland granite ledges, kettle holes and glacial lakes where the soil doesn’t drain as well. And when it comes to growing, Gee said, “it’s all about the soil.”

That’s why she strongly recommends that the first step for any gardener is to get the soil tested. Basic soil test kits are available at many local nurseries, or contact the URI Master Gardener Web site for information on where to send soil samples.

Remember, too, she said, that growing conditions can vary dramatically even on the same piece of property. Ten soil samples from different parts of the property can have different qualities, while sun and shade and protection from wind can be different, too.

People need to take into account all of these variables in deciding what and where to plant. “What you don’t ever want to do is fight your site,” she said. “You’ve got to look at what you’ve got and go from there.”

Local garden centers can be great resources when it comes to providing general advice for a particular area, Gee said. Rhode Island also offers a host of other gardening resources, including the URI Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardener Program, at www.urimga.org.

Gee admits she’s still no expert on gardening. “I don’t even remember the botanical names for all the plants I have.”

But she knows that gardening is supposed to be fun. “If gardening has become a burden, you need to get control and step back.”

And if you’re really clueless, and don’t have the time or interest to invest in learning more about gardening in your area, stick to annuals, Gee said. “Annuals will pretty much do well anywhere.”

For more information, contact:

The Master Gardener Hotline, (800) 448-1011, Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., or check the Web site at www.urimga.org.

The University of Massachusetts Extension, www.umassextension.org.

The Rhode Island Spring Flower & Garden Show, www.flowershow.com.

Or contact any of the many garden clubs and nurseries in a particular area for more information and advice.

Tidbits from The Rhode Island Gardener’s Companion

—An Insider’s Guide to Gardening in the Ocean State by Barbara Gee:

•Rhode Island’s unofficial “state soil” is Narragansett Silt Loam, named after the town of Narragansett where it was originally identified. It was proposed as the state’s soil because it’s so good for agriculture, forestry and development, said Jim Turenne, assistant state soil scientist. But the General Assembly, for some reason, never officially approved the designation when it was proposed in 1979. This means it may not be included in the Smithsonian’s “World of Soil” exhibit this summer, which will feature exhibits of “official” soils from neighboring states including Massachusetts and Connecticut.

•Rhode Island has become “the worldwide hotbed of giant pumpkin growing,” with Rhode Islanders holding several world records for largest pumpkins ever grown. Contact the Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Association, (401) 864-7747, for more information. Is it time to water?

Barbara Gee says you know you must water when:

•The soil is dry below the surface.

•Wilted leaves on trees and shrubs don’t perk up in the evening.

•Leaves on trees turn yellow and drop before the fall.

•Lawns are a dull green and footprints show.

•It’s difficult to push a screwdriver or trowel into the ground. Tips for successful gardening

Advice from The Rhode Island Gardener’s Companion:

•Poor soil contributes to 80 percent of plant growing problems. The University of Rhode Island no longer performs soil tests, but the University of Massachusetts Extension Service in Amherst offers a variety of soil and compost tests; you send samples along with a small fee. Get details at www.umass.edu/plsoils/soiltest, or write to the Soil and Plant Tissue Testing Laboratory, West Experiment Station, 682 North Pleasant St., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01103.

•Wood ashes sweeten soil, so sprinkle the cool ashes from your fireplace over the garden.

•Cultivating or tilling soil loosens it, allowing air to get in, and it breaks up clumps and clods. But be careful not to till too much, or you’ll wind up with soil that is too fine to support plants or has poor drainage. And don’t till when the soil is too wet or too cold.

•Annuals in containers give almost instant gratification. You can plant more closely than you would in a border, especially since they’re only good for one season, Gee notes in her book. You can design and start your entire container indoors and put it outside when the weather is just right. Just remember to “harden” the plants by introducing them to the outdoors gradually in the spring. (You can also change plants easily as the seasons change.)

•A good source of information is The Perennial Plant Association, www.perennialplant.org, a trade association that promotes one plant as the perennial of the year, but also provides selections suitable for a range of climate types, including low maintenance and easy propagation and multiple season varieties.

lkirk@projo.com