Book Reviews

Plant-Driven Design
Creating Gardens that Honor Plants, Place, and Spirit; Scott Ogden and Lauren Springer Ogden

   On a recent visit to our local library, I spied this gem in the new book section. Plant-Driven Design by the husband-and-wife team of Scott Ogden and Lauren Springer Ogden was just published in 2008. What makes this book so wonderful and helpful to Hill Country gardeners is that this couple owns homes in Austin, Texas, and Fort Collins, Colorado, both areas not known for abundant rainfall. They consistently use native and adapted plants in their designs, both in their own gardens, and those they have installed for others. The color photography, mostly by Lauren, is just sumptuous and fully illustrates their philosophy as stated in the subtitle of the book, “Creating Gardens that Honor Plants, Place, and Spirit”.
   Scott and Lauren feel that “only when plants are accorded the respect they deserve, selected to thrive on the site, and made the primary focus, does a garden become emotionally resonant”. What this says to me is that, of late, there has been too much emphasis on contrived design and little reliance on plants that will truly grow and be happy in the soil and climate they are given. This is music to a Hill Country Master Gardener’s ears as this is what we are taught and, in turn, attempt to impart to the public. There are many lists in the book naming plants suitable for different (or difficult) sites and plants which are compatible with each other. This book is readily available online.   By Marilyn Pease

Rare Plants of Texas
Texas A&M University Press; Jackie M. Poole, William R. Carr, Dana M. Price & Jason R. Singhurst
  
   Other than botanists, who knew that the yellow columbine was actually a rare plant of Texas? Most gardeners who plant this perennial choose it because they like its foliage or they want a shade-lover that produces blooms. Yet there it is on pages 84 and 86 of the 2007 edition of Rare Plants of Texas.
   The preface describes the book as the first published catalog of "all the listed, candidate and globally rare plants of the state of Texas" — about 5,100 of them. Only California and Florida claim more, according to the authors, who map the state into 11 natural regions originally developed by the LBJ School of Public Affairs to provide ecological insight.
   Texas has so many plants precisely because of its geological diversity, said Bill Carr, one of Rare Plants' four authors. From the Piney Woods region in the East to the Trans-Pecos in the West, the ecology of Texas includes bottomland forests, plains, beaches and plateaus. In the Edwards Plateau region that includes Kerr County are springs that are the source of many Texas rivers, as well as seeps, shallow soils, and canyon and riparian wetlands.
   Carr told Hill Country Master Gardeners about species in the Kerr County area that "don't grow everywhere, only here." Many are hard to spot and are restricted to certain habitats, like cliff faces. "You will find cool stuff if you look," he said, mentioning such plants as the Tobusch fish-hook cactus, which can be as small as a penny or up to 3 inches in diameter, and which blends in with grasses. It's not "greatly rare," but it is hard to see, he added.
   Should gardeners have the 600-page Rare Plants in their libraries? That depends on how much a gardener wants to know. The book is filled with fascinating information about plants, as well as a history of Texas plant conservation and threats to rare plants. It also provides an easy way to look up plants, and you can find out where a plant came from, its scientific name and its global or state rank as to rarity. Bibliophiles will love it.
   But if you only need to know that the plant is adapted or native to the area, whether to plant it in sun, shade, or either and how much water it will need — probably not. Rare Plants of Texas is a valuable reference and education tool, but not imperative to gardening.   By Barbara Elmore

Maria Rodale’s Organic Gardening
Your Seasonal Companion to Creating a Beautiful and Delicious Organic Garden; Maria Rodale

  This book is that happy and rare combination of coffee table book and destined-to-be-often-used reference book. This book is visually appealing with its large format and beautiful photos. In true Rodale fashion, it is printed on acid-free, recycled paper. For those of us who are into organic gardening, this book is a wonderful find and would make a great gift for a gardener in your life. The chapters are titled by the seasons with a wonderful introduction and history of the Rodale legacy to gardening. Interspersed among the chapters are great interviews with various organic gardeners. There are numerous plant lists and a complete index at the back. While not a new book (published in 1998), it is still readily available. Anyone who loves beautiful flower photos and good information will enjoy this book.   By Marilyn Pease

Native Texas Gardens, Maximum Beauty, Minimum Upkeep and
Native Texas Plants, Landscaping Region by Region; Sally and Andy Wasowski.

   For those wishing to landscape with Hill Country plants, here are two good primers. There are lots of photos and descriptions for plant identification as well as landscaping layouts. The cover photo of Native Texas Gardens is a ranch garden in Doss. The Wasowskis also include several photos and plant descriptions from the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort in San Antonio which is entirely landscaped with native plants and well worth a trip if you are planning a new native landscape. Another favorite book is Gardening Success with Difficult Soils – Limestone, Alkaline, Clay and Caliche by Scott Ogden. Mr. Ogden guides the reader to discover heat-tolerant and lime-loving varieties, the best roses and border plants for difficult soils, as well as fruit, nuts and vegetables in our harsh climate. This book is sprinkled with beautiful photographs.   By Eleanor Baldwin

 Mulch
Death of a Garden Pest, Death of a Political Plant
The Garden Tour Affair; Ann Ripley

   Having been a mystery buff since discovering Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys when I was in elementary school, I was delighted to find Ann Ripley’s Gardening Mysteries. The heroine is a middle-aged gardener named Louise Eldridge who hosts the local PBS gardening show, Gardening with Nature, in Washington, D.C. Louise’s husband is with the CIA and she has two daughters, one in high school and one in college. Just your average female Hill Country Master Gardener, right? Louise manages to get involved in several local murders, much to the chagrin of her family. (You know, the old “Why can’t you be like the other moms?”) The series is even more enjoyable because the author weaves in wonderful essays on relevant gardening topics between chapters. Some of my favorite essays are Houseguests are Like Gardens—Both Should be Low-maintenance; How to Put Serenity in a Small Garden; Politically Incorrect Plants, Conceits and Follies; The Sci-fi Future of Gardening: Genetic Engineering and Tissue Culture; Jungle: The New Look in Gardens and The Joys and Sorrows of Garden Tours (definitely a classic!) With more twists and turns than a switchback road, Louise’s sleuthing keeps you guessing. Was the murderer the owner of Wild Flower Farm in Connecticut (wink, wink) or the rascally Congressman, Lloyd Goodrich who is out to bring down the “checkered” President? (And they say this book is fiction!!) If you are looking for entertainment, you can’t go wrong with Ann Ripley's gardening mysteries.   By Pam Bresler

Doug Welsh’s Texas Gardening Almanac; Doug Welsh

   It’s not often that a textbook is entertaining as well as informative, but that is just what this book is. Welsh’s gardening humor, honed through years of radio and television shows, enlivens the lessons from this experienced horticulture professional. Welsh’s credentials include professor of horticulture at Texas A&M University, state coordinator of the Texas Master Gardener program, columnist, television personality, and author of two previous books. You might say Welsh is outstanding in his field. (Sorry, I just couldn’t resist the obvious.) As in a textbook, Welsh covers all the basics of gardening. As in an almanac, the information provided is in a month-by-month format. For those of us with retention deficit disorder, the organization of the information by calendar month is perfect. “May is coming. What should I be preparing? What can I expect? What should I do now for dreaded July and August in Texas?" The colorful Almanac at a Glance at the front of the book makes it easy to see the gardening subjects particular to each month. Timely Tips tells us what we should be doing as a matter of good garden maintenance. This is a book full of good, sound information that every gardener, even the very experienced, will find helpful when gardening in Texas.   By Carol Brinkman

The Unlikely Lavender Queen, A Memoir of Unexpected Blossoming; Jeannie Ralston

   People familiar with the Hill Country, especially the town of Blanco, may take a while to warm up to this book. But those who keep reading might be intrigued by the idea of a mismatched new resident growing an unlikely crop in the fields just outside the town. Jeannie Ralston, a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Life, the New York Times, National Geographic and Glamour among other publications, is not a person you'd expect to see working the hardscrabble land or growing a cash crop there.
   And yet this is where we meet her as she tells the story of moving from her beloved New York City to Austin, and then to Blanco with her husband Robb Kendrick, a native Texan and a photographer for National Geographic. Blanco, she relates, was out of her pre-determined range of places to live, which she had set at "30 minutes or less west of Austin, into the Hill Country."
   In the first 100 pages, readers live Ralston's new country life with her, Kendrick and their two dogs. She tells the story of dragging herself to Blanco – and why she did it – and working with her husband to remodel a barn that was converted to a unique and eventually beloved home. She was almost converted to the country life herself when the barn's renovator, Leroy Behrends, discovered a time capsule that detailed the history of the old barn – including the names of the two mules that hauled the rock for the structure.
   But almost doesn't quite get it, and natives reading Ralston's descriptions of the life may feel indignant before they get to the part where Ralston actually understands and begins to love the Hill Country. But her writing makes the book a hard one to put down, and as persevering readers will discover, she has to know and understand herself first before she can accept her new home. To say more than "The Hill Country grows on her" would give away too much of the tale.
   As far as Ralston becoming the unlikely lavender queen, readers will get an inkling of the difficulties of the cottage business. Longtime servants of the land will nod their heads at the couple's tragedies and successes. But those interested in growing lavender should not expect to find how-to information here. Ralston and Kendrick, who helped a number of Texans start their own lavender operations with advice and seminars, detail that information in a book available on the Web site (www.hillcountrylavender.com).
   The Unlikely Lavender Queen is a good story for people interested in memoirs that reveal as much about place as they do about people. Ralston relies on her journalistic training to bare the warts of small town living as she settles in. Who better to speak the truth about a place than someone seeing it with fresh eyes?   By Barbara Elmore