Waiting for Spring to arrive, I love to catch up on my reading. If you are anything like me, you have a good selection of garden books in your home library to give you inspiration and answer questions about gardening.
There are a few I would like to recommend that are especially good for our area. Sunset's Western Garden Book is the reference book no one should be without. This book covers everything from plant hardiness zones, extensive plant descriptions and solutions to common garden problems. For Colorado and Intermountain gardeners, there are several authors I would like to mention. Lauren Springer's book The Undaunted Garden is one of my first gardening books and I still refer to it often. She has a garden designers' eye for plant combinations that take your breath away. This book also has great pictures and descriptions of plants that do well in our challenging climate. Passionate Gardening by Lauren Springer and Rob Proctor is an entertaining and beautiful look at gardening through the seasons. Cutting Edge Gardening in the Intermountain West by Marcia Tatroe is becoming another heavily used reference book for me because of the beautiful but hardy plants and great combinations. My newest book is Hardy Succulents by Gwen Moore Kelaidis. If you think Hens and Chicks are the only hardy succulents you can grow, think again! I love using succulents in my garden and finding new varieties and ways to use them is just what this book offers.
Of course, we can't forget all of the seed and nursery catalogs that are filling our mailboxes. High Country Gardens catalog, out of Santa Fe, is one that I have been ordering from for years. Most of their plants do very well in Western Colorado and the catalog has great descriptions and ideas to inspire your own garden designs.
So, enjoy this time away from your garden and find inspiration and design ideas in a few of these books. Before you know it, crocus and daffodils will be popping their little heads out of the ground!
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