The authors of this book were nurtured and informed by the well-known Northwest Perennial Alliance Borders at the Bellevue Botanical Garden. Here, Marty Wingate tells how the Borders are part of a much greater whole brought together by a diverse group of plant lovers. The detailed history is followed by descriptions in word and photo that highlight features and plants in each of the nine gardens, augmented with short profiles of key players. A Garden promotion, yes, but there’s also some good history and enough about the individual plantings to take some ideas home, especially if this book accompanies your next visit to Bellevue.
Excerpted from the Fall 2007 Arboretum Bulletin.
A coastal garden book, this written by a transplanted Pennsylvania Master Gardener, who took the training again in Oregon. Written to a very specific audience, a fact brought home by the second chapter: “Dune Gardening.” Yes, this is for those with lots of sand in their soil. Carla Albright has designed this as a handbook, with many pages of worksheets for the reader to fill out based on experiences. The tips are very basic, too. “In my tool bucket I keep two trowels, a narrow one and a wide one. The narrow one is good for…” Following a review of native beach plants, there are suggestions for appropriate beach garden aesthetics, and an extensive list of shore tested vegetable varieties.
A Salt Spring Island, British Columbia entomologist, Linda Gilkeson is enthralled with the work of beneficial insects in the garden, especially in combating pests. This manual is based on her experience and is very specific to our region. She clearly gives her opinion on what works, and what doesn’t. While the focus is on insects, weeds and diseases get their turn, too. Most of the information is available from other sources, but like many hands-on work, there’s much valuable empirical knowledge. One suggestion caught my eye: planting alyssum amongst gladiolus to attract pirate bugs, who in turn will eliminate the thrips that devastate the glads. It’s worth a try!
Linda Beutler thinks every gardener should be a florist, at least for his or her own home. On this premise she has written this extensive primer addressing all aspects of filling your vases (or whatever) for any and all occasions. Or for no occasion, other than to better enjoy the bounty of your garden. And the tips are great, such as how to “rinse” your daffodils so they don’t kill the tulips you add to their arrangement. The second half of the book is an A-Z listing the best cutting plants, including growing tips, harvesting tips, vase life, when (or when not) to use preservatives, and what parts of the plant — seeds, flower, leaves, etc. — can be used, either fresh or dried. All this is clearly illustrated with Allan Mandell’s excellent photos.
Ciscoe Morris writes like he talks, so you know this book will be fun. Less appreciated is his vast knowledge base that he has acquired from years of experience both as a professional and avid home gardener. That knowledge is presented in a Question (sometimes as funny as the answers) and Answer format, broadly organized into categories such as Flower Plants, Edible Plants, Garden and Lawn Care, etc. Good for the bedside table — to foster ideas as you read as little or as much as you want, or use the excellent index to find a specific topic. There’s much more here — and its all experience based — than first meets the eye.
Val Easton’s warm and clear writing style is very familiar, but her subject matter in this book breaks new ground as she applies the architectural concepts of patterns, or putting “human instincts into words,” to garden setting. Throughout she “helps us to understand why we feel comfortable in a space” and why, in other places, we don’t. The patterns are not unfamiliar: Scale, Garden Rooms, Ornamentation, Containers, etc., but some associations may be new, such as grouping Patios, Sheds and Focal Points under destinations. This makes it important to read the book as a whole, even though you’ll return to favorite sections again and again for specifics. A short review of favorite plants concludes the book, but these are just one more pattern in the larger design.
A field guide “to assist the user in identifying” the wild orchids throughout an expansion of our region that includes Alaska and western Alberta and Montana. Author Paul Martin Brown, of the University of Florida, has a series of similar titles covering all of North America except for the southwest; however he has clearly spent considerable time in our region. Appendices brim with reference materials, many trying to untangle the nomenclature of our orchids, but more romantic is the “Orchid Hunting” section with tips such as “watch for small, shaded cemeteries along the way.” Essays such as “The Correct Name for the Northwestern Twayblade” add to this slightly eccentric but fun book.
This book details our major ecosystems, how they’ve worked historically, how that work has been interrupted, and possible corrections. These systems are defined first by plant zones or geographical features, such as bunchgrass prairies or tidal wetlands, and then reexamined as large scale landscapes that cross zones, including urban natural areas and watersheds. This is not a field guide, and not a quick read (and not cheap!), but the more technical parts are brought to life by case studies from throughout the area. Invasive vegetation is given its own chapter, as is a study of ecological knowledge and restoration practices by indigenous peoples. Editors Dean Apostol and Marcia Sinclair present a good survey of this large and important topic.
This collaboration of over 80 authors, most of them students at the University of Washington, is a field guide to the region’s invasive species that includes not only the noxious weeds gardeners fear, but aquatic plants, animals, invertebrates and even diseases. Sarah Reichard, head of conservation for UWBG, is one of the three editors that managed the project. The inclusion of the domestic cat is sure to get your attention, but a thorough reading describes a complex ecological web that will influence the way we look at the world around, especially in our gardens. The whole discussion of what constitutes an invasive species is fascinating in itself. A special section on these issues as they pertain to the Haida Gwaii is nice companion reading to the previous book.
Haida Gwaii, known by many as the Queen Charlotte Islands, has a rich and distinctive history of using plants in all aspects of the life of the indigenous Haida people. Nancy Turner has completed a project of over 30 years to document these practices, which is present here in a very thorough, yet quite readable presentation. Organized using the indigenous taxonomic systems, the use of plants for food, medicine, technology, and ceremony is interwoven with narratives of traditional stories and beliefs, often told through the interaction between plants and animals. These are juxtaposed with current issues of conservation, dealing with invasive species to these fairly isolated islands, and the disappearance of a way of life.