Gardening in the Mountain West

Rating:
Summary: No color pictures
Review: Major disappointment. Probably a ton of good content. But the little stick drawings of plants, at best, and no drawings a lot, for most, is a real let down.

Rating:
Summary: Yes, She Really Does Understand What it's Like Here!
Review: The author has spent her entire life in the mountain west, has degrees in horticulture and is a retired Colorado Cooperative Extension Service agent. She implemented the Master Gardener program in Boulder County, and she's one smart lady!

This book is a real compendium of ideas suitable for mountain and intermountain areas. She not only describes what works--and what doesn't--but tells the reader why. The first section includes chapters on landscape planning and design, followed by a section on cultural procedures. Want to plant a windbreak? She tells you how. Need to know how to prune a tree without destroying it? It's right here. And much, much more. Hyde mixes contemporary wisdom and knowledge with "old-timey" country skills in chapters on protecting plants from flood, frost, hail, heat, ice, lightning, vandalism, wind and Ol' Man Winter. Other sections focus on specific plants for the mountain west and the garden necessities, including tools.

I live on small acreage on a northern Idaho prairie. There are gardening books I've enjoyed more, but none that have helped me as much as this one.