Gardening Book Reviews

BOOKS ON GARDENING make fine friends for those with a green thumb -- but who has time to sort through the hundreds of titles on the shelves? The editors of the Gardener's Companion have carefully culled the finest volumes for reading or reference and offer brief reviews. On days when you just can't get outside, why not curl up with one of the following books and plan what you'll do next in your garden?

• Advice For Beginners
• Bulbs
• Cook's Gardens
• Crafts
• Flowers
• Gardeners
• Garden Tours
• Herbs
• Landscape/Design
• Nature
• Shrubs/Trees

Courtesy of The Old Farmer’s Almanac® Dublin, NH www.almanac.com.

Fountain Planting

• Don't let peripheral plantings compete with the house for emphasis -- the eye is to be drawn to the house. Borders are incidental to the central focal point of the landscape, which is the house.
• Frame and mass at the edges, to leave the center of the place open. Keep the largest plantings off to the side.
• Avoid scatter -- no flower beds in the middle of lawns, no brilliantly colored plants without a background of green foliage to set them off.
• Make flowers incidental, to supply color and finish. The lawn and the mass plantings are the main pieces of the plan. Flower sparingly.
• Consider position carefully. Far more important than the right choice of plant is its correct position with reference to other plants and to structures.

Courtesy of The Old Farmer’s Almanac® Dublin, NH www.almanac.com.