Timber Press

50 beautiful deer-resistant plants; the prettiest annuals, perennials, bulbs, and shrubs that deer don't eat.

Deer have become a common garden pest throughout North America. Clausen, a gardener in the Northeast U.S., has compiled a terrific guide that describes the best garden plants deer won't eat. The plant entries are 2-3 pages in length and grouped by type, with sections on annuals, perennials, shrubs, herbs, grasses, and others. Each entry includes a key with the Latin and common name, hardiness, height and spread, and deer resistance rating; and a lengthy text describing the plant, how to grow it, and design tips. Beautifully illustrated with full-page color plates. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Armitage's garden perennials, 2d ed.

Armitage, who teaches horticulture at the U. of Georgia in Athens and is in charge of their Trial Gardens, offers readers a gregarious A-Z resource of perennials for every yard and garden. Arranged by Latin name, the entries for each plant type includes multiple color photos of many varieties, the appeal, qualities, habit, performance, design element of each one described by Armitage in an engaging, thrifty writing style. This is a terrific resource for gardeners, with 300 new plants added to the 2000 1st edition, bringing the total to 1250. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Contemporary color in the landscape; top designers, inspiring ideas, new combinations.

This is a well-organized and abundantly illustrated survey prepared by garden and landscape designer Wilson (he's based in England and active in London and Surrey). Individual chapters discuss how color affects people, personality and color choices, color interactions, contrast, intensity, the restricted palette, breaking the rules, and drawing inspiration from nature. The fully captioned photos offer a wide range of examples illustrating the principles. A list of references shows that the author has delved into the subject through works pertaining exclusively to color as well as those that apply color ideas to the planning and design of gardens. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Designing with conifers; the best choices for year-round interest in your garden.

To avoid bad choices and consequences a few years down the line (e.g. that spruce squashed up against the house), home gardeners and professional landscapers would be well advised to spend some time with Pennsylvania-based garden-writer Bitner's abundantly illustrated book. He has arranged material into chapters on shape (e.g. spiky, mounding, weeping); color; and conifers for specific sites and conditions (e.g. front gardens, hedges & screens, topiary, containers, shade, bonsai). He includes a chapter on underused conifers and a case study garden. Appendices offer information on deer, wet spots, southern gardens, Christmas trees, places to see conifers, and places to see bonsai collections. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

High-impact, low-carbon gardening; 1001 ways to garden sustainably.

Bowe, a garden writer based in England, has thought long and hard about how to match all aspects of gardening with the principles of sustainability and environmentalism while also creating beautiful gardens. Among the concepts put forward in this helpful guide are gardening with natives, how to compost, conserving water, how to prepare the soil, planting to attract beneficial insects, choosing the right plant for the right environment, and growing a vegetable garden. Though many topics are covered, the focus remains concentrated on energy-conserving, environmentally friendly gardening practices. Well illustrated with color plates, the volume also includes many tables and plant lists. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The new American landscape; leading voices on the future of sustainable gardening.

Filled with clear descriptions and guidelines, this practical guide contains 11 chapters encapsulating current thinking and approaches to sustainable gardening. The key issue of water use is addressed in chapters that describe eliminating lawns and creating no-mow natural meadows; planting with drought-tolerant native, or mostly native landscapes; and creating roof gardens. A chapter is included on edible sustainable gardens. Detailed information is provided in each chapter for assessing a garden site, including measuring water use. Many case studies are cited throughout. Practical, clearly organized, and well-illustrated, this will be a great resource for gardeners of all levels of expertise. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Small green roofs; low-tech options for greener living.

This colorful guide to building small scale living roofs provides practical instruction for creating ecologically friendly coverings for sheds, garages and accessory buildings with grasses, moss, lichens and other growing plants. Sections cover the structural requirements for building green roofs and retrofitting existing structures, types of plants and planting strategies and encouraging biodiversity. The bulk of the volume showcases finished small scale green roof projects form the UK and the United States in numerous color photographs. An appendix supplies a plant directory, list of green roof resources, and brief bibliography. Dunnett is a professor of urban horticulture at the University of Sheffield, Gedge is the founder of livingroofs.org, an independent living roof association, and Little is a partner in The Grass Roof Company. Snodgrass (The Green Roof Manual) founded the first green roof company in the US. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)