Christmas gift books for gardeners
It is hard for me to imagine a better Christmas gift for a gardener than gardening books. They are especially appreciated by gardeners who are trying new things or starting fresh.
Here are some of my favorite titles and why I like them.
For basic plant/vegetable information
“Neil Sperry's Lone Star Gardening” by Neil Sperry: My fellow Express-News gardening columnist's book is a great basic text on Texas gardening. It includes lots of lists to help a gardener choose appropriate plants for meeting the needs of every type of growing condition.
“Texas Home Landscaping” by Greg Grant and Roger Holmes: The authors organize the topics by the landscape problems they address. Instead of wading through a whole book to find an answer for a landscape challenge, you can look up the challenge such as how to address planting in the shade, a green screen to block a view, providing autumn color and many other specific problems.
I also really like “Native Texas Plants: Landscaping Region by Region” by Sally Wasowski, “The Vegetable Book: A Texan's Guide to Gardening” by Sam Cotner and “Perennial Garden Color” by William C. Welch.
Butterfly lovers
Butterflies have become a favorite topic for me and many
other San Antonio-area gardeners. Becoming knowledgeable in the topic allows us to learn the particulars of a fascinating part of gardening and to help save the threatened monarch population.
“Butterfly Gardening for The South” by Geyata Ajilvsgi: The perfect, basic how-to text to get a butterfly garden started.
“Butterflies of North America” by Jim Brock and Kenn Kaufman: This book helps identify the many species that live in Texas.
“Caterpillars in the Field
and Garden: A Field Guide to the Butterfly Caterpillars of North America” by Thomas Allen, Jim Brock and Jeffrey Glassberg: The importance of caterpillars in increasing butterfly populations is often overlooked.
For bird lovers
“Attracting Birds to Southern Gardens” by Thomas Pope, Neil Odenwald and Charles Fryling Jr.: This has great advice on how to make a landscape more desirable to visiting and breeding birds.
As pleased as gardeners are
when they receive resource books as presents, a gift certificate to their favorite nursery is also very much appreciated. Some nurseries sell these books, too, so they fit together well.
A gift certificate allows gardeners to buy their plants when they are ready to plant them. Plants always fare better when the gardener has the time to plant them right.