Hit the Dirt; Required Reading

Good morning. This is it. And I'm sad to be asking your host for today. I hope you're not tired of books because today I have a list of reference books many of which are becoming dog eared. Again a pencil and paper will be handy. I'll start with some encyclopedic books one that is not dog good because it is sat on read on my book shelf for years is America's garden book by James in Louise Bush brunch I was searching for a list of the longevity of seeds and there it was. And while browsing I discovered that it contained many useful plant lists accompanied by articles on such subjects as hedges ground covers trees perennials and annuals the Encyclopedia of organic gardening is invaluable and I have to admit to preferring the old version. While Amazon Cyclopedia on gardening is very comprehensive and then there is Hortus 3. This giant of a book calls itself a concise dictionary of plants cultivated in the United States. Its list of common names over 60 pages long has solved many problems. They're almost cultural societies encyclopedia of gardening is I believe identical to that of the

American Horticultural Society. It's only drawback being as in many English books that no hard innocents are mentioned. There are two perennial books that I value perennials for American gardens by Ruth Rogers Krause and Nicklas Backstrom listing over 3000 species count of hours and with many full color photographs at an ABA Tige used for her patients perennial plants has many line drawings this book not only describes the culture of many plants but helps identify key species of large genera such as hostile and geranium. There are useful notes for further reading for shrubs and trees I have the Hilliard College Dictionary of trees and shrubs. Again English knows. But 3500 woody plants are described with 600 illustrations. There are charts for uses and a glossary of botanical terms. Michael does manual of Woody landscape plants is considered a Bible for nurseries landscapers and gardeners. It has line drawings for

identification descriptions cultivation landscape uses and much more including the forever useful common name index so often in our planning. We forget how large a plant becomes or how small it stays. The plant growth plan a bike out and bus set is a valuable guide there are illustrated scale charts for trees shrubs vines ground covers and perennials. A tree chart for instance will show the first 6 and 12 years growth in height and with a perennial will show the first second and third year growth also in height and with this is that there is a descriptive text with each plant. There are a number of new books on natural gardening but roto presses nature to nature's design. Printed in 1984 is an excellent hand book. If you like to propagate your own plants Michael Dunn has a companion book to the one mentioned above. It is the reference manual of woody plant propagation. This is for the serious propagator but homeowners without a lab will find useful

information on seed germinating and cuttings etc.. Another guide is the well illustrated print propagation in Simon and Schuster as Encyclopedia of practical gardening series. This covers most types of propagation for vegetable gardening I recommend three from the Rodale Press organic gardening encyclopedia high yield gardening and square foot gardening. Maybe you don't want to follow the exact systems here but you can glean ideas from each Eliot Coleman's Four Seasons harvest is another book that will help you produce your own vegetables for pest control I use organic plant protection from Rodale Press and a Bible. Commonsense pest control by William and Helga us KOSKY and Sheila Dar which offers integrated pest management and recommends only least toxic chemicals as a last resort. This book covers everything from house to garden to pets and humans. I'll finish with my favorite Book of Lists and a source book the source book is.

Addison horticultural library source list of plants. This is put out by the Minnesota landscape. It has forty seven thousand plants listed by botanical name and their cross referenced to 400 plus retail and wholesale nurseries. Excellent for the hard to find plant but you have to know your botanical names. My Book of Lists is gardening by mail by Barbara J Barton now in its fourth edition 1994 plant seeds and products sauces well cross reference horticultural professional societies magazines in libraries and books. You want to know where fieldstone nurseries investment is open and what they sell and how much their catalog is. Check page 835 and that's all for this time. This is Sally KRASNY vs. If I hit the dirt.