Might add two to your list.

Neil Sperry's Complete Guide to Gardening. This is not Texas, but close enough in most cases.

Water Gardening Water Lilies and Lotuses by Perry D. Slocum & Peter Robinson

randy

Thank you for posting book info there are sooooooo many out there. I have found 2 I ordered they are :

"Great Garden Companions: A Companion-Planting System for a Beautiful, Chemical-Free Vegetable Garden"
Sally Jean Cunningham;

"Secrets of Companion Planting: Plants That Help, Plants That Hurt"
Brenda Little;

I ordered them together as a group .

I love to read too . I will be looking in used book stores for the Susan Wettig Albert series
They sound like something I would like .

Once again thank you all so much .

Wendy

Look what i found and it was free !

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=howTo&p=LawnGarden/GardenResults.html

I hope that works .

Wendy

Wendy,

I fixed your link. You have to put the URL in the box that says "Optional Link URL" when you are writing or editing a thread.

Randy,

I am glad you mentioned Neil Sperry's book. Neil is my gardening hero. I have read all of his books dating back to the very first one he published long, long ago AND I listened to his radio show beginning when I was a teenager....and even for quite a while after I moved up here. I subscribed to his magazine, purchased his calendar and even attended his All-Gardening Show in Arlington, Texas several times (as opposed to the standard Home & Garden Show). Neil is the best and I have learned so much from him over the years!

As for books from Texas, of course I have many of them since I lived there my entire life before moving here. I have found that any book written "for Texas" is good for gardeners here too.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Lowe's Info on Companion Planting

Just realized I didn't type the title correctly. It's Neil Sperry's Complete Guide to Texas Gardening.

All of my vegetable gardening books are many years old, most from Rodale Press purchased during the seventies.

Rodale Books:
ENcyclopedia of Organic Gardening
Organic Plant Protection
Plants-a-Plenty (lots on vegetative propagation)
The Solar Greenhouse
ORganic Gardening Under Glass (Someday I'll have one)
The Self-Sufficient Suburban Gardener
Getting the Most FRom Your Garden--This is the book that inspired us to switch to wide-row, deep-bed gardening.

With these books and several years worth of ORganic Gardening magazines, we learned to garden.

Another good book is Gardening, The Complete Guide to Growing America's FAvorite Fruits & Vegetables by the National Gardening ASsociation.

My favorite flower gardening books are :
Best Plants, 1000 easy-to-grow garden plants, published in Great Britain by Hamlyn but appicable here as it gives hardiness zones. Lovely pics.

Flower Gardening 1-2-3, a Home Depot book, a great book for beginners

Good Planting by Rosemary Very, another English book. But I love, love, love the chapter on Woodland Gardens and have used it as inspiration for my own

The Long-Flowering Garden by Craigmyle, yet another English book with great photos. (I'm a sucker for 'purty pichurs'.

The Perennial Garden, Color Harmonies Through the Seasons, by Jeff and Marilyn Cox is another Rodale Book

I don't know if you can even still find these books, but that's my list for what it's worth. Dorothy

I almost forgot one of my favorite books, Two Acre Eden, byGene Logsdon is another old Rodale book. No photos, just a real funny read that gets you in the head of an experienced gardener-homesteader.

Dorothy,

I have read many of Gene Logsden's books on gardening and have enjoyed every one.

Also, any of the books Michael Pollan has written in recent years that also relate to gardening and food. I'm currently reading "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto". Its' basic theme is "Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants." Next on my list of Michael Pollan's books to read is "The Omnivore's Dilemma". I also enjoyed "Second Nature" and "A Place of My Own".

The only good thing about cold winter weather is that at least you can read good gardening books if you are stuck indoors.

Dawn

Ornamental gardening is my focal point. There is one book that is still as usful to me today as it was when I bought it in the early 90's: Perennials for American Gardens by Ruth Rogers Clausen and Nicolas H. Ekstrom. It is the only encyclopedic book that I've found that deals with the issue of summer hardiness (heat+humidity, not just dry heat).......... The other garden writer that addresses summer hardiness is Pamela Harper. Any book by her is well worth the investment. English books have pretty pictures but little climatic similiarity to our part of the country. Pamela Harper, a displaced English Plants woman, found out the hard way when she moved to Virginia and encountered its sweltering humid summers. For those who wish to read about plants beyond the norm take a look at these books.

I used to think the same thing about English books, but tnen picked up Rosemary Very's book in a bookstore and fell in love with her design and color sense and her PROSE. She can describe a garden, and a season in such poetic language that I am enthralled. So I read her in the winter when I am more in need of inspiration than nuts and bolts how-to-do-it. ANd once started reading, I was surprised at how many of the plants, and plant combinations that she used I was already familiar with and knew would do well here. But then I am in Eastern Okla and live in a woodland, the perfect place to install an English type spring garden, that can be enjoyed without any added water and then allowed to go dormant. But I think I will look for the Clausen & Ekstrom book as I do need some summertough perrenials for the sunny border.

I love Louise Riotte's books! "Catfish Ponds and Lilly Pads" is my absolute favorite--there's something about it that's so enthralling. I like Steve Dobbs' books as well.

I think my favorite gardening book is "The Bountiful Container" by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey. When I first started trying to grow vegetables in containers, this book gave me a lot of encouragement. It has some good information on starting seeds as well.

And of course, the most favorite of all is a good seed catalog--some of them are as informative as a good gardening book.

Noah's Garden.
Not so much a how-to book as a philosophy of gardening. Using native plants, planting for wildlife, and so on. You have to take into consideration regional differences when she is talking about plant choices.

A Sand Country Almanac.
Learn to appreciate the nature around you.

One my sister gave me for christmas: The Gin and Tonic Gardener. Don't let the title fool you. The author works her rear end off in the garden. It's a collection of her gardening columns she used to write for a newspaper. Her message: enjoy your garden and learn from your mistakes and those of others.

I LOVED "Noah's Garden" and Sara's follow-up book "Planting Noah's Garden" as well. I read Noah's Garden during the time that we had just moved here and I was trying to figure out what all the different native plants were and which ones were worthy of keeping. The books inspired me!

Remember the lengths Sara went to in order to get some Love Grass growing? Attempt after attempt after attempt. I had to laugh when I read that! Here in Love County, the sand lovegrass is EVERYWHERE. I swear.....it even sprouts in the middle of the gravel driveway. And, when we have wildfires, pastures of that stuff just burns and burns and burns like you wouldn't believe! Still, I love it too.

And I read "A Sand Country Almanac" at the same time as well, and it had the same effect on me.

Now, I believe I will have to find The Gin and Tonic Gardener as it sounds delightful!

I love this thread. Y'all keep posting your favorite books so we can find more good stuff to read. : )

Dawn

I found this thread on the Native Plants Forum.

The book sounds like a good one.

I'm off to Alibris. (They make it just TOO easy to impulse-buy!)

Here is a link that might be useful: native plants book