{"id":7159,"date":"2026-02-24T12:16:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/ferry\/?p=7159"},"modified":"2026-05-07T12:18:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:18:59","slug":"winter-is-for-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/ferry\/2026\/02\/24\/winter-is-for-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter is for Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>By Twinflower Wilkie, WSU Master Gardener<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Winter: slow your pace and take a gardening breather. So, what to do? Read! I checked several books out of the libraries in Curlew and Republic and acquired a few keepers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on my need for color in my garden, I checked out The Nonstop Color Garden from Cool Springs Press by Nellie Neal. There are many inspiring full-page photos to engage the imagination. The extensive number of trees, shrubs, perennials and groundcovers profiled are meant to be easy care and widely available. The writer, however, being from the south, includes many plants not suited to our Ferry County climate, and an edible ornamentals section would have been nice. This book isn\u2019t really for the hungry gardener. After enjoying the photos and plant descriptions, I looked for the chart of different flowers and their approximate bloom times required to keep the pollinators and the senses happy all season. I expected surely a book with this title would have that information, but nope, not there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re more interested in pleasing your pollinators than you are in design principles, you may love, as I do, the book put out by the Xerces Society: 100 Plants to Feed the Bees. It, too, has plant lists (in alphabetical order), bloom times, notable flower visitors, and best growing conditions. The primary goal of this book is to help native bees thrive in your garden so they can stick around and pollinate your edible plants. Incidentally, you will have nonstop color as well, if you select with an eye for color, timing, and easy maintenance. Native plants, including trees and shrubs, are highlighted with introduced species covered, too. There was no chart specific to bloom-time, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you really want to do pollinators a huge favor, collect edible berries, and enjoy fragrance and flowers, you\u2019ll get a knowledge packed bonanza from the third edition of Gardening With Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest, by Arthur R. Kruckeberg and Linda Chalker-Scott. This book in its original edition came out in 1982 and became an instant classic. Linda Chalker-Scott was approached to help with this updated version which came out in 2019. It includes comprehensive data about plant habitats, uses, and design principles. This is a 374-page book, mostly devoted to descriptions listed native plant by native plant with suggestions for uses and plant needs. The photos are excellent and numerous. Native plants have made a resurgence partly thanks to Arthur Kruckeberg\u2019s original edition of this book and natives are now recognized as beneficial for birds and other wildlife besides pollinators. I highly recommend this book as a reference for every gardener. Still, there is no bloom-time chart in this book, and unfortunately, I didn\u2019t find it at the local libraries, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I needed some path building advice, which I found in the book, The Spirit of Stone, by Jan Johnson from St Lynn\u2019s Press. It is subtitled \u201c101 Practical and Creative Stonescaping Ideas for Your Garden,\u201d and it covers not only paths, but rock gardens, stone walls, steps, benches, accents, and plants that go well with stone. The writer\u2019s love for the feel and look of stone is evident. You\u2019ll find it useful if you have some boulders or stones lying in your way \u2013 put them to use! It\u2019s available through our public libraries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lastly, I saw a book titled To Stand and Stare, by Andrew Timothy O\u2019Brien, through DK Press. I had to have it \u2013 that\u2019s my kind of book. I will need it when I\u2019m tempted to embark on new projects. I might benefit from cooling my heels and looking around first. This is more of a \u201chow not to\u201d book than a \u201chow to\u201d book. There aren\u2019t pretty photos of flowers or mouthwatering veggies and lots of growing tips. Nature goes through a lot of processes to take care of itself, and this book concentrates on how not to get in nature\u2019s way, while partnering with the natural processes to encourage your space to meet your needs. Incidentally, we will love and enjoy our gardens more if we aren\u2019t always in such a hurry to impose our will on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I began reviewing books, I saw that I had chosen them based on my own interests. Some gardeners may need more concrete advice. So, I found a few books that are more hands-on, but I haven\u2019t had the time to read them all, so I will save them for a later article. I hope these reviews inspire a few of you to read, enjoy the process, add some color and make room for natives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Twinflower Wilkie, WSU Master Gardener Winter: slow your pace and take a gardening breather. So, what to do? Read! I checked several books out of the libraries in Curlew [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":329,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wsuwp_accessibility_report":null,"_external_link":"","_expiration_date":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[14,18,37,22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/ferry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/ferry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/ferry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/ferry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/329"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/ferry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/ferry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7160,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/ferry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7159\/revisions\/7160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/ferry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/ferry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/ferry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}