A well balanced garden design

In the middle of summer, many of us feel so “busy” with our gardens that we forget to appreciate the true joy that gardening can bring to our lives. Fall and winter are a wonderful time to read gardening books and browse through seed catalogs for inspiration, as we plan for next summer and ponder the beauty of our gardens.
Here are a few of my favorite gardening books, all available at Summit Landscaping Garden Center.
1. High Altitude Western Gardening by Marilyn Quinn: The photographs in this book are tremendously inspiring and provide an abundance of ideas. A perfect book for high country gardeners since the book focuses on plants suitable for our climate zone. Quinn highlights the use of native varieties and includes a useful section on vegetable and herb gardening.
2. Xeriscape Plant Guide by Rob Proctor: Anyone who is trying to create a more sustainable landscape will find this book to be a great resource. Proctor highlights 100 water wise plants, shrubs and trees which not only need less water, but less care in general. My only criticism is that the elevation ranges seem too conservative: for example, I have beautiful prairie coneflower growing in my garden at 10,400 feet, yet Proctor only rates it to 8,000 feet.
3. Easy Gardening: No Stress, No Strain by Jack Kramer: a gem of a book for someone new to gardening who could benefit from the basics of how to plan a garden. Kramer explains the basics of irrigation, raised beds and methods to keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.