Book Review: Rocky Mountain Gardener's Handbook

I always like to keep a nice library of gardening books. There is always such great information in them, and it is so easy to refer back to and make notes right in the book for what works in your garden or what doesn't. I recently received a copy of Rocky Mountain Gardener's Handbook by Mary Ann Newcomer and John Cretti for review. The first thing I noticed about the book when I started to flip through is that it has sections such as annuals, edibles, perennials, tress, ect. Then all of the plants that grow well in the Rocky Mountain area are listed and talked about along with a nice picture of each plant in the sections. I typically only get into vegetable gardening on this blog, however I was excited to see all the other information in there along with it. We strive to keep a nice yard, and are constantly pulling things out and planting new things here and there in our flower beds. This will be an excellent resource as we continue to improve and change our yard. One of the things that really sticks out about this book is in that she names specific varieties of fruits, vegetables and plants that grow best in the climate of the Rocky Mountain area. What a great resource! When trying to sift though all the different kinds, this makes it so much easier to narrow it down to choose the best variety for our soil and climate.

After all of the plant chapters, she has a chapter in the end where she talks about garden design and she gives some really good tips about planting bulbs and what bulbs look nice together, and some fun ideas for companion planting with the edibles. There is even a section about drought tolerant gardening in the Rockies  which is great for those who have water restrictions and still want a nice looking yard.

I really enjoyed the section about compost and how to compost. She mentions an idea that I have never come across before: To shred all the paper instead of throwing it our or recycling it and use it in the compost pile. Why didn't I think of that? She has so many more great tips and ideas for gardeners of all experience levels. I am very happy to add this book to my library of well used gardening books and would recommend it to others to add to their library in a heart beat!

I am excited to announce that I have an extra copy of this book to give away! All you need to do is leave a comment below about how this will help you in your gardening experience, and with the help of a few others, we will choose the lucky winner! Please leave the comment by July 15th, 2013. Or to purchase: Rocky Mountain Gardener's Handbook on Amazon.

Happy Gardening!

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