Monthly Archives: July 2015

Book Review 100 Easy To Grow Native Plants

100 Easy To Grow Native Plants

For American Gardens In Temperate Zones

By

Lorraine Johnson

 100 Easy To Grow Native Plants, For American Gardens in Temperate Zones. This book is reviewed by Kenneth Wilson “The Gardening Whisperer”.

This review is prepared to be on www.Gadeneningwhisperer.com  Lorraine is a writer and gardener, she has written over 23 books mostly on gardening in the urban settings and other topics.  On her posts in ‘The City Farmer”; http://www.cityfarmer.info/2010/05/01/lorraine-johnsons-city-farmer-adventures-in-urban-food-growing-coming-on-may-22-2010/, she writes on gardening and topics that are important for a city garden. The book is published by; ‘A Firefly Books copyright© 2009.’

The title of this book wants to make you think that there are 100 plants for native gardening. Then in the introduction, she states that there are actually 101 plants on her lists.  After reading the book twice I came to the conclusion that if you add in all the related species and companion plants there are many more plants discussed here.  The short snippets are great for someone wanting to grow native plants.

I was naive to think I could pick up a book and have 100 native plants that I could grow in my back yard. Within America and Canada, there are volumes of plant possibilities each with its own growing climate.  In the back of the book, there are listed plants for specific conditions it is a quick reference as to what plants grow best in what areas.  There is also a list of native plant nurseries listed in each region.

I would recommend reading this book as a starter informational book on native plants; it does not go into great depth on any plant or climate. After looking up references on Larraine Johnson she has some great information on urban gardening. I am going to look up some of her other books.

©Ken Wilson Gardening Whisperer 2015

This entry was posted in Book Reviews and tagged Gardening Books, native plants. on July 19, 2015, by Ken Wilson. Edit

Two Full Moons in July

Full Moons of July

Or

Full Buck Moon and Blue Moon

We just finished the wettest month (June) ever in St. Louis. Going into June we were behind the yearly average by 1.59 inches. June’s has an average rainfall of 3.83 inches; we received 10.51 inches thus we are ahead of the year by 5.09 inches. The forecast for July is hot, hot, and hot so this may dry us out; I hope.  The normal rainfall for July is 3.9 inches and the total for the year is 39.79 leaving us with only more 15 inches left for a normal year.

July has two full moons; One, July 1 which is called the Full Buck Moon and the other on July 31 is called the Blue Moon.  Read why it called the dog days of summer and what is behind the names of the full moons on The Farmer’s Almanac; http://farmersalmanac.com/astronomy/2013/07/15/julys-full-buck-moon/

Bee and Misquotes

Other tidbits the Japanese Beetles are back and misquotes if they are not here they coming. (See picture) I hope we can see the full moon tonight instead of rain clouds. Hoping to see monarchs any day they were here several years ago and have not come to my garden since, but that is part of gardening; Hope.

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