No comments about Pests of the West, 2nd Edition: Prevention and Control for Today's Garden and Small Farm.

1 comments about Bayou Bend Gardens: A Southern Oasis.

1. This is a wonderful book on a gorgeous subject. The text is very interesting and the images are crisp and well conceived. As anyone who has visited the gardens at Bayou Bend can tell attest, this place is simply breathtaking. The mansion and grounds are part of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, as bequeathed by Miss Hogg. The gardens were her passion, she looked after them and the home as if they were her children. The gardens are a study in landscape design, they follow the meandering of the stream, or bayou, as Houstonians call them. I highly suggest visiting Bayou Bend in April when the azaleas are in full bloom, it really is a sight to behold, and bring this book with you, it makes a wonderful companion for the trip. Highly recommended to anyone with an appreciation for beautiful things.

No comments about Month-By-Month Gardening in Utah.

1 comments about Earthly Paradises: Ancient Gardens in History and Archaeology.

1. We are all familiar with ancient buildings like the Luxor temples, Acropolis, or houses in Pompeii, and from them we can get an idea of how people of their times lived. But what about their gardens? The question is not trivial. Gardens have always represented an ideal sensual and peaceful environment, and what ancient gardens were like could tell us something about the ancients and about humans in general. This sort of research has been done by Maureen Carroll, an archeologist who has dug in garden sites all around the regions of the ancient world. She has written _Earthly Paradises: Ancient Gardens in History and Archaeology_ (Getty Publications), a small and scholarly book that unlike most academic works, is beautifully produced with almost a hundred pictures, mostly in color. It is a concise overview of what we can now know about ancient gardens of the Near East and Mediterranean region, and will delight those interested in ancient history or in gardening.
   
   "Gardens are ephemeral, as fragile and short-lived as the people who once cultivated them," Carroll writes. This was one of the reasons that archaeologists neglected them; marble, mortar, and mosaics lasted longer and were easier to find and understand. It was not until the 1970s that the "empty spaces" of courtyards and outside of houses became the target of evaluation. Most of the gardens described here are not agricultural or economic efforts, but luxuries. When Pericles encouraged Athenians not to mourn their possessions in a loss to Sparta, one of the luxuries he specifically mentioned as unfit for bereavement was the garden. Gardens were, however, no less work than they are today. A papyrus document shows that the garden owner Talames required that the gardener Peftumont maintain the irrigation channels, water the garden, protect against sparrows and crows, and do a full day's work.
   
   One of the pleasures of _Earthly Paradises_ is that it gives the ever-valuable lesson of how little people really change. For thousands of years they have found refreshment and sensual delight in gardens that were just for pleasure, not for profit, although baser motives of showiness to impress others also seem eternal. There is one example after another here of ancient gardeners doing the same thing gardeners do now; it isn't surprising that watering and weeding had to be done, of course, but it is interesting that we can recognize so many tools for the gardener. Most iron objects have corroded away, but Egyptian paintings, for instance, show the use of rakes and hoes. We have to assume that they were used in Egyptian gardens as well as for regular agriculture, because such paintings of gardens are idealized and don't show tools or work. There is a detail of a Roman painting shown here of a songbird sitting on a vertical reed stick which serves as a support for a rose plant that has been tied to it. Terracotta pots for plants were so essential to the Romans that they started making them in Britain immediately after invading in 43 CE. A ladder whose impression was left in the ash of Pompeii looks completely modern, with a tapering top such as is used in fruit picking. The central square of Greek cities, the agora, was planted with trees for the shade of citizens, and in Roman cities similar spaces had pits cut into the rock to be filled with soil and used as planters for trees. Gardeners borrowed styles from each other, with, for instance, a Roman garden decorated with statuary of Greek or Persian themes and having a central water channel as was favored in Egypt. The borrowing has gone on especially during the baroque period, when ornate classical landscape design renewed in the Renaissance became the fashion. To be sure, Carroll's delightful book is not a how-to for setting up an ancient garden two millennia later, but gardeners will find much that is familiar here, and some will find plants and arrangements that can agreeably be incorporated into their own personal paradises.

No comments about Estate Gardens of California.

5 comments about Plants for Dry Climates: How to Select, Grow, and Enjoy.

1. Although this book supposedly covers my region of New Mexico, I found so little in it that applied to me that I am returning it. Three-fourths of the book is a plant reference, and most of the plants are not cold hardy below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, making about half the book wasted paper as far as I am concerned. Also, a lot of xeric standards for this region are missing.

   If you can, check the map on pages 2-3 to make sure that you live in the Low or Middle regions (as I write this, the map is included in the scanned pages here on Amazon, but isn't displaying properly). For the High region, I recommend instead any of the books by Judith Phillips, who writes toward climates that are slightly wetter and somewhat cooler than the ones that are the focus here.




2. This is a great book for the desert landscaper. I live in the big bend area of Texas and have been looking for something like this for a long time. It's easy to read, lets you know what elevation, rainfall, water needs, sun etc. that particular plant need to thrive. It's written so the lay person can understand it with just the amount of information for gardner/lanscaper needs. Has been a big help in finishing up landscaping projects I've been doing and on the projects I am starting.



3. i live in Arizona, and knowing what kinds of plants to plant here and how they are to be taken care of is important..so that is why i needed this book...and it is very informative..thank...



4. This is one of two gardening books we bought after moving to Arizona two years ago; the other is "Arizona Gardener's Guide" by Mary Irish. Of the two, this is probably the more informative, but the wealth of information it contains is not presented in the most user-friendly way. Plants are listed using their proper botanical names (i.e. in Latin) rather than the common names that most people are likely to be familiar with. The photography is first-rate, and the "how to" explanations are mostly clear and easy to follow. If you live in Arizona, and only want to buy one book, I'd recommend the Arizona Gardener's Guide, as it is AZ-specific. If you live outside Arizona, this is probably the better choice -- although you might want to buy both, as they have different strengths.



5. Highly recommend this book for anyone looking to grow anything in dry climates, whether you are a 'newbie' or not. Pictures and write-ups are excellent.

2 comments about Garden problem solver (Reader's Digest).

1. This book helped me to get through a lot of problems I had in my garden. You can find the answer to over 1,000 problems in your garden including problems with vegetables, flowers, shrubs, etc.It is also very well organized.



2. I first encountered this book as a library rental and decided I must add it to my collection of gardening books. It is a great book. It covers a large variety of plants and offers many helpful hints. It is well organized and very easy to understand.

2 comments about Winter Gardening in the Maritime Northwest: Cool-Season Crops for the Year-Round Gardener.

1. The book had some good information, but was limited to only cool weather vegetables. Two other books Steve Solomons, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades and William Heads, Gardening Under Cover are much much better choices. They cover all vegetables, yet still include plenty of info for winter gardening and extending the season.



2. This book is an excellent resource for cold weather gardening especially those in the northwest. If you thought it might not be possible to grow much in the pacifc northwest winter this book will be an eye opener.

1 comments about The Michigan Gardening Guide.

1. I was disappointed in this book because there are very few photos or illustrations, and those that appear are not in color. Also, I assumed the book was solely about floral gardens (because of the lovely cover) but it actually covers lawn care, fruit trees, vegetable and indoor gardens, etc.; not that much is devoted to flowering annuals/perennials. (My fault: I should have previewed the table of contents). The section on insect control is probably the best part of the book. Although other readers might be very pleased with the book and all the general info it contains, I would not have purchased this book if I had seen it beforehand.

No comments about The North Carolina Lawn Guide: Attaining and Maintaining the Lawn You Want.