Do you garden in December? Many gardeners do; a most important step to gardening in early winter, the planning for next years garden. So this time of year is the perfect time to get a couple of great books for the gardeners on your Christmas list.
I was contacted by Quarto Publishing Group to review some gardening books and I choose a couple that would make fantastic gifts for the gardener on your list! The first book I reviewed was Royal Horticultural Society Companion to Scented Plants By Stephen Lacey with photographs by Andrew Lawson.
This book is a gardening classic, which is a comprehensive catalog that describes over 1,000 of the best plants to grow for their fragrance as well as their beauty. Stunning photographs by Andrew Lawson throughout the book give you visualizations of the scented gardens you can reproduce.
The book has a garden planning guide which can help you put to paper the best choice of plants to create a scented garden for your own enjoyment.
The book doesn't leave out any type of scent producing plant you could enjoy. It addresses trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs, annuals, water gardens, Alpine plants, rose gardens, herb gardens, and indoor plants.
The beginning of each chapter starts out with the choosing of your plants and the fragrance you will experience from each plant's blooming phase and how to incorporate that into the garden. The end of each chapter is laid out in encyclopedia style with an extensive list of the varieties of plants that are highly scented options for you to plant.
Can't you just smell the honeysuckle wafting off of this wall planting? What a fabulous plant to have in your garden. I highly recommend the Companion to Scented Plants. I haven't noticed a gardening book's focus being on scented plants before but, if planting something beautiful to look at that I can't eat I would want it to smell good, so this is the gardening book reference I would love.
The next gardening book I reviewed was the Veg Journal by Charles Dowding. Mr. Dowding has been growing organic vegetables for thirty years with the no-dig method.
Using no-dig beds creates better soil and less weeds for the organic gardener. Mr. Dowding gives you the how, why, and detailed instructions to reproducing your own success with his no-dig method.
A great book for the planner in all of us. This book is filled with tables for planning crops, second cropping for maximum yield of gardening space, crop rotation, and results from his no-dig method.
This book is laid out in a month-by-month format to help you accomplish the gardening jobs that will give you great success with your vegetable gardening. I also like how he has blank journal pages in each month for you to write what works for your gardening and suggestions for what you might try next season.
So, sipping on that tea dreaming of my spring garden with buzzing bees and ripe strawberries, I am going to be in the planning stages of my garden soon. This is the perfect present for the gardener you know that loves to grow their own food.
My teacup is made by Roy Kirkham and the pattern is Alpine Strawberry.
Sherry
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