I like to read…though sometimes it’s hard for me to get into serious how-to gardening book. But I will read them straight through (not out of necessity just because I like it), even if it takes me a while. The most recent one was The Well-Tended Perennial Garden. I should have read it eons ago. The main complaint was it was a library copy so I had to return it after I had maxed out my renewals.

The Well-Tended Perennial Garden is the bible on maintaining perennial plants. If you are taking care of perennials, you should have a copy of this box. I don’t necessarily agree with or follow everything she recommends…but the book is an excellent place to start and then experiment on your own. I read straight through the first half, which is a how-to on installing and maintaining perennials. Even after maintaining perennials professionally, I learned a bunch from this guide. The second half is an encyclopedia with specific maintenance instructions for individual species, and that is why I want to own the book.

Because I’m currently nursing a lot, and I read when I nurse, I’ve read a lot. The next book I read was Four Tenths of an Acre by Laurie Lisle. Not a bad garden memoir about the author’s garden in New England, though nothing stood out to me that much either.

I’ve also read The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels–a Love Story and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (Aladdin Fantasy) to polish off the week. Niether are gardening books, but both are good reads and at least have gardens in them. I read them faster and probably enjoyed them more than the gardening books too.

I read this book right before I move to Georgia. To me, this year long stay in Georgia is just a year long adventure. I’m planning on being back in the Intermountain west after we are done here. (We moved out here for my husband to finish his schooling, by the way). My gardening heart is still very much rooted to the Intermountain west. I’m finding little desire to learn about what plants grow well in overly moist acidic soil, rather than the calcium carbonated dry stuff I’m used to.

I need to own this book. I actually checked it out from the library, read it straight through, and had to return it when I met the renewal limit. I would love my own copy to mark up and use. It will probably wait until we are no longer on a student budget and I actually live in the intermountain west again.

If you live out in Utah or nearby, and have any interest in growing native plants, you should own this book. It is basically a database of almost all plants that are native and one would consider growing in the garden. The layout is great and makes it easy to find specific details and growing conditions on each of the plants. I basically read this cover to cover, but it’s probably more of a reference book. The front section is wonderful, in that it spells out the different native plant associations that are in the area, and the specific growing conditions associated with each. Even if you are mostly using it as a reference book, the front sections is worth reading straight through.

One caution about this book, is many plants that are in it are not available to go buy, and certainly not at the local Home Depot. Sometimes the only way to get your hands on a native plant is to propagate it yourself. But that can actually be a lot of fun too.

The amazon price is $43. When I worked at the Extension Office we had a large pile we sold for $40 a piece. So if you are going to buy this book and live in Utah, go try the county extesnsion office first.

Also, I am considering re-purposing my blog. I have another blog that I use for anything not gardening related, but I am thinking of combining the two into a new unique site. But I’m not sure about that, and wonder what my readers would think, if they have any opinion.

A Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections)

This is not a gardening book. It is a classic book on conservation. I at least somewhat consider myself a conservationist and thoroughly loved this book. One of the fun things I did while I was reading it was compare what the author thought should need to happen and what actually is happening now, 62 years after the book was written. There definitely is more progress being made, but we aren’t there yet. So go read the book.

One thing I though of when reading this book was related back to gardening. As gardeners we are stewards over a certain patch of land and I believe we can do of conservation and improvement on the land we use and own. I wrote a senior paper in college about it, which I put up over here. A lot of it is planting a variety of good plants: as gardeners we can preserve native plant species, along with a hoard of cultivated species that are useful to the overall ecosystem. We can create healthy ecosystems in out own backyards by cultivating a healthy soil, not killing off everything “bad” with pesticides, and planting a diversity of plants.

I’ve seen great examples of this in a few gardens I’ve visited or heard of. Botanical centers do lovely jobs. There is an occasional neighborhood garden I stumble across that is growing a lovely assortment of native plants. I love the certified wildlife habitat program. I have yet to do much myself–it is one thing I aspire to do as a gardener, especially when I have a little more to garden with. I want to garden with the natural ecosystem and environment, not ignore it or even worse, try to get rid of or change it.

My day flew by today. It’s already almost over and I’m thinking of all the stuff that I thought I could get done today. I didn’t do half of it. Mostly I took care of my toddler, along with a lunch date/shopping trip with my husband. The toddler is pretty high maintenance right now, but a joy too. Sometimes I have I think of what I could be doing if I wasn’t taking care of him all the time. So many things I want to do just don’t get done, nor will they for a long time. But mostly I love being a stay at home mom. There’s a slew of other things I wouldn’t have dived into if I hadn’t been home with him. Like this blog and my fledging hort business.

Right now I’ve working on lots of stuff for the above venture. One of which is making a plant list that is taking forever, mostly because I get distracted and start to read all the cool things about plants. I’m working on perennials right now. I got up to over 380 species, but have since consolidated some. There are so many different plants to plant out there! I wonder why people plant so much lawn when you could plant big borders of beautiful perennials instead. It’s been a really good project because I’ve increased my knowledge immensely. (I didn’t know 380 perennials before. Okay I still don’t know that many, but more than I did before I started.) It’s also nice to have a list I can copy/paste out of to make plant lists for clients. I will share when if I ever get done.

I’ve used two books for the plant list–Still’s manual (Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants), and Graham Rice’s book (Encyclopedia of Perennials (American Horticultural Society). Both are good books and complement each other. I like Still’s better as a basic reference, but Graham’s is the better read. I get very distracted by all the wonderful pictures and fun facts. And so many cultivars are listed! That is one thing I do not think I will ever learn unless I go into the nursery business. What do you think about learning cultivars? For me, it’s best to learn general facts about the species and worry about specific cultivars when I am at a nursery about to buy a plant. No point in finding the perfect cultivar that no one sells!

My gardening books might differ from an average gardener because most were bought as textbooks. When looking through them I realized that many of my favorite were the ones that I used the most during my long internship at the extension office. These were the one I frantically looked for when someone wanted an immediate answer on the other end of the phone, or pulled out and refereed to when someone came in. None are good reads. But they are wonderful gardening reference books.

Weeds of the West

Want to know what weed it is? Look it up in this book. If its a weed, you will find it in this book with only a few exceptions. If you garden, get this book. Because we all deal with weeds, and its easier to deal with them if you know what they are.

Manual of Woody Landscape Plants: Their Identification, Ornamental Characteristics, Culture, Propogation and Uses

This is the bible for woody plant information. No book compares. I also use the more reader friendly Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs. Colored pictures there make it easier for identification.

Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants

There are plenty of herbaceous plant books out there. This is my favorite for basic plant info reference. Its getting old (17 years!) and needs updating, but I still like the format.

PNW Insect Management/Disease Management/Weed Management and UW Weed Management

Now I’m excited: these books are online! Didn’t know that. And I know: there are actually four books that I am counting as one. But they extremely similar and worth mentioning. They update them yearly, and they include everything you’d want to know to take care of pests. It’s a lot of chemical recommendations, but also most other control methods as well.

Hartmann & Kester’s Plant Propagation: Principles and Practices (8th Edition)

There are more interesting books out there. But as a reference book this is the best. All the technique on how to do anything propagation wise, along with a large section on how to propagate most plants. It’s expensive: I would buy the old edition.

Thanks for suggesting, North Coast Gardening!