Garden Tools: tips, resources and reviews for gardeners

In autumn, when deciduous shrubs lose their leaves, luscious berries extend the season of color into winter. One of the most unassuming shrubs, Callicarpa, is ignored most of the year, but in the fall most everyone who comes upon the berries of this shrub takes notice. Little shining lavender balls adorn the branches of this plant, and most who see it agree the common name of Beautyberry is appropriately applied. Read more about it in the November/December 2002 issue of Garden Design Magazine.

It's easy to plant a garden that is colorful and interesting in June, more difficult is designing a garden that shines in October. Read Autumn Gardens by Ethne Clark (Soma, 1999) to learn both design principles and the best trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs and grasses to plant in fall. Oakleaf hydrangea, Canadian serviceberry, species roses, and sedums are just a few of the plants featured that will extend the garden interest beyond Labor Day.

Hostas are shade loving foliage plants that thrive in our moist temperate climate. The American Hosta Society is devoted to promoting the genus and introducing new cultivars. Visit their website to read about the most popular hostas and how to grow them to perfection. Membership costs $25.00 per year and includes a fabulous color journal three times a year.

Weed fact sheets are available from UC Davis, in cooperation with the Nature Conservancy. This is an excellent resource for learning how to control some of the most tenacious invasive plants in the US. Many weed profiles have color pictures, "success stories," and references to research.

Leave it to gardeners to transform innocent seeming Bambi into a plant eating, garden destroying monster! Outwitting Deer by Bill Adler Jr. (Lyons Press, 1999)uses humor to reveal the truth about the largest pest in the garden. The long lists of plants that deer prefer and dislike (no plant is 100% deer-proof) are most helpful, along with an honest examination of the myriad of strategies and home remedies used to repel marauding deer.

Staking plants has got to be one of the most tedious garden tasks in the warm summer months. While there are plants you can choose that don't ever require it, some plants simply cannot be appreciated without it. Here are two good articles on the subject:

• Staking Perennials from University of Iowa
• Methods of Staking Perennials from Ohio State University Master Gardeners

Grow It, Cook It with Kids by Amanda Grant (Ryland, Peters and Small, 2010)

Parents of enthusiastic young gardeners, and farmers' market shoppers alike will love this useful guide to home-growing and cooking. It features easy, photo-illustrated recipes grouped by their main ingredients, so that chocolate zucchini cake is right next to zucchini salad and stir fry, allowing cooks to choose a recipe based on what they have on hand. Better yet, each chapter begins with step-by-step instructions for growing children's favorites like herbs, peas, beans, and berries.

Reviewed by librarian Laura Blumhagen

Many of the daisy-like flowers such as Rudbeckia, Helenium, Symphyotrichum, and Chrysanthemum will form a mass of flowers that will eventually topple over the edge of the beds. While a cascade of color can be attractive spilling over the edge, it looks very unsightly when you expose the brown bare centers of the plants. It is best to stake these plants as a group or clump. Tall perennials with large flowers like Lilium, Delphinium, Crocosmia, and Dahlia will benefit from individual stakes.

Though I will probably never survey my surroundings from the top of a tall beech tree, or climb a frozen waterfall in the dark, I thoroughly enjoyed discovering unspoiled natural areas of Britain through Robert Macfarlane's book The Wild Places (Granta Books , 2007). In richly descriptive prose, he leads the reader to these increasingly rare spots on the map, from saltmarshes and moors to hedgerows and holloways (tunnels of vegetation). Under the tutelage of his friend Roger Deakin (author of Wildwood, who died in 2007), Macfarlane's conception of wildness evolves over the course of his travels to include the humbler, smaller wild places that are within reach of even the most city-bound nature lovers:

"I thought about how the vision of wildness with which I had begun my journeys - inhuman, northern, remote - was starting to crumble from contact with the ground itself... The human and the wild cannot be partitioned. Everywhere that day I had encountered blendings and mixings."

Reviewed by Plant Answer Line librarian Rebecca Alexander

Ever wonder when you might expect to find a great display of fall foliage, either in your own area or another part of the country? The United States Forest Service has a toll-free Fall Color Hotline you may call: 1-800-354-4595. The site also lists spots of particular beauty for fall viewing.