Landscaping with Native Plants of Minnesota

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	• Landscaping with Native Plants of Minnesota Lynn M. Steiner Voyageur Press, 2005 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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Great guide to Minnesota natives

This is a great guide of Minnesota (and neighboring states) native plants. You will probably not like it if your idea of gardening is neat rows of flowers or even English gardens. I wasn't thrilled at first sight because it's not "pretty" but once I got into it I changed my mind because as it says it is landscaping with native and native plants don't sit neatly in a row. (By the way, it's more a guide than a landscape book.)

Landscaping with Native Plants of Minnesota

An excellent resource for those who are wanting to learn to plant part or a lot of their yards using native plants.
The book covers many different types of sites, with pictures of some beautiful native gardens in MN. Good plant resource in back of book.

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The best book on Minnesota native plants

This is about the most user-friendly garden book I've ever owned. In the first third of the book Ms. Steiner teaches the how's and why's of native plants, and how to distinguish them from invasive, weedy introduced plants. She shows how to make your gardens wildlife-friendly, drought and disease resistant, and beautiful, describing planting strategies for all sorts of environments (sunny, dry, marshy, woodland, water gardens, etc.) She covers everything about plant cultivation--from weed control, pruning, staking, dividing plants, pests and much more. She also covers garden design, and the photographs of plant combinations are inspiring. One chapter, entitled "A Gallery of Gardens," has many examples of beautifully designed native plantings.

The last two-thirds of the book is an encyclopedia of sorts, divided into Flowers and Groundcovers, Grasses and Sedges, Ferns, Deciduous Trees, Deciduous Shrubs and Small Trees, Conifers, and Vines. She describes in depth many different cultivars of each plant under these headings, how to care for it, what other plants to plant with it, and what its prime landscape use is. This portion of the book is invaluable for planning your gardens, and is great for bringing along on your trips to the nursery.

This book is packed with so much information on both the science and the art of gardening with native plants. If you think that gardening with natives results in a dull, rather colorless garden, this book should change your mind and get you excited about working with the plants nature has so abundantly provided us with.

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Gardeners use native plants for several reasons. For many, their initial attraction is to native plants? reputation for being low maintenance, as well as their ability to survive difficult soil and weather conditions. But equally appealing is the joy of connecting with nature and our state?s natural heritage and the satisfaction of creating a real sense of place rather than just another cookie-cutter landscape. "Landscaping with Native Plants of Minnesota" is the first book designed to help you identify Minnesota?s native plants and plant communities and to demonstrate how to use them effectively in a typical home landscape. In this book you?ll find the basic gardening information you need for working with the native plants of Minnesota. You?ll learn what level of native-plant landscaping is right for you and get valuable information on the process of designing a natural garden that fits your lifestyle and family. You?ll also find lots of plant lists for specific styles of gardens. In the Gallery of Gardens section, you?ll be inspired by what your fellow Minnesota gardeners have done with native plants in their own landscapes, including a prairie restoration, a suburban woodland garden, and a garden for wildlife. The Native Plant Profiles section includes comprehensive descriptions of some 600 species of flowers and groundcovers, trees, shrubs, vines, evergreens, grasses, and ferns native to Minnesota, as well as information on planting, maintenance, and landscape uses for each plant. About the Author: Lynn M. Steiner is one of the best-known gardening writers in Minnesota. Her enthusiasm for native plants and gardening stems from her childhood curiosity about all things natural as well as 20 years of tending her own extensive home gardens. For 15 years she was the editor of Northern Gardener magazine, and under her direction it earned several awards for ""Overall Excellence"" from the Minnesota Magazine & Publications Association.

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