Gardening with Prairie Plants

May 7th, 2010 | Category: Green Books | 2 comments |

Gardening with Prairie Plants is a book by Sally Wasowski. Of all the “how to” native gardening books I’ve read this is my out and out favorite. It’s a definite inspiration, full of wonderful detail.

Subtitled “how to create beautiful native landscapes“, if you live east of the Rocky Mountains, you’ll want to add this book to your collection.

I was very excited to receive my very own copy, courtesy of the University of Minnesota Press – now I get to share with you why I love this book.

You Want to Landscape with Prairie Plants? Why?

This is the question Sally Wasowski was asked at the beginning of her journey in writing Gardening with Prairie Plants.

There are many reasons to use prairie flowers and grasses in your garden and many ways to go about planting prairie gardens, no matter how large or small your space. Sally covers all of them in her book, amply illustrated with wonderful photographs, and with an absolute wealth of detail on native plants, their natural ranges, and their growing conditions.

Things to Know About this Book

It’s a 285 page paperback book published in 2002. The author, Sally Wasowski, is a leading authority on landscaping with native plants and has several other published books, and many published magazine articles. Sally has been named a Top Ten Gardener of the South by Southern Living. Sally’s husband Andy Wasowski is the photographer behind this book.

What’s In Gardening with Prairie Plants?

When you think of a prairie do you imagine an open, grass-like, treeless, sun-parched landscape? Prairies in fact contain a mixture of habitats from dry to moist (mesic) and from open, to dotted with shade-giving shrubs or trees (thicket or savanna). All of these various habitats are covered in the book with the following sections:

Part One – Prairies and Prairie Gardens

Getting Acquainted with Prairies - what prairies are.
A Gallery of Home Prairie Gardens - preserved, transplanted, re-created, prairie-like, prairie neighborhoods. Each has photos and illustrated landscape plans with plant names.
Beyond Home Landscapes – examples of prairie planting in public places and commercial situations.
Using Preserved and Replicated Prairies as Models - lowland prairies, mesic prairies, upland prairies, sand prairies, savannas, thicket shrubs. What to do if you have trouble finding a prairie to copy.
Anatomy of a Prairie – soil and root layer, ground layer, grasses and grasslike plants, shapers of prairie.

Part Two – Design, Installation and Maintenance

Designing Prairie Gardens - pocket prairie, bird thicket and savanna, wet prairie garden, nectar garden, food and medicine garden, designing with prairie and woods. There are lots of drawn plans and photos in this section.
Installing Prairie Gardens – history of prairie gardening, preparing a seedbed, what to plant, how to plant.
Maintaining Prairie Gardens – weeds, insects, watering, fire.

Part Three – Plant Profiles

Grasses, Sedges and Rushes – grasses are grouped by family. Each grass has a range distribution map and cultural information. Most grass species described have a photo. There’s a three page reference chart explaining the type of prairie each plant is native to.
Cool Season Forbs - plants with flowers which bloom from spring to mid-summer. Organized by plant family – bean, orchid, lily, iris, primrose, evening primrose, rose, geranium, madder, crowfoot, parsley, borage, saxifrage, bluebell, spiderwort, dogbane, figwort, phlox, flax, mallow, aster. There’s a five page reference chart explaining the types of prairie each of these native plants belongs to.
Warm Season Forbs – plants which flower from May or early June in southern areas and mid-summer in northern areas. Plants are listed by family – mint, acanthus, bean, spurge, milkweed, aster, gentian. There are beautiful photographs and distribution maps, just as with the grasses section, and three and a half pages of reference chart.
Savanna Trees and Thicket Shrubs – trees and shrubs to use along with prairie. Make no more than half of your garden in shade. Families of trees and shrubs are: beech and oak; pine and cypress; willow; rose, plum, and cherry; honeysuckle, including viburnum; dogwood; cashew; citrus; oleaster; buckthorn. There are many photos, as well as maps and two pages of reference charts.

There’s also a glossary and resources section with recommended periodicals, organizations, and plant nurseries (website addresses included). And there’s an extensive four and a half page bibliography.

Who Should Buy Gardening with Prairie Plants

This book is highly suitable for you if you are a native plant enthusiast living east of the Rocky Mountains, a garden designer or landscape architect looking to move toward more natural landscapes, a naturalist who wants to bring the plants you love home to your garden, an ecologist, ecosystem gardener, or someone who just wants to invite wildlife into your garden and really wants to learn.

Don’t Buy This Book If

If you are looking for a classic-style gardening book which uses simple layouts and tells you step by step what to do you could be overwhelmed by the wealth of information in this book. It’s not a book you can absorb at one sitting. Rather it’s a book to come back to again and again as you grow your knowledge.

Gardening with Prairie Plants is available from Amazon.com. I thoroughly recommend this book. Sally Wasowski is also the other of a number of other fabulous native plant gardening books which you’ll want to check out.

Have you read any great green gardening books which I should check out? Have you added native plants to your garden?

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