April Showers Bring May Flowers

Want some ideas for your garden. Check out some of these new books in Sewickley’s collection.

Container Theme GardensContainer Theme Gardens: 42 Combinations, Each Using 5 Perfectly Matched Plants by Nancy J. Ondra

Simple and foolproof! Enjoy beautiful container plantings with no stress or fuss. Container Theme Gardens offers 42 plans for container arrangements, each using just five specific plants that you can find at your local garden center. There’s something here for every setting and every style, including a meadow in a box, a pond in a pot, a simple salad garden, and a combination that will attract hummingbirds. Each plan includes photographs of what the full planting will look like, as well as a handy shopping list so you know exactly what you need.

The Culinary Herbal: Growing & Preserving 97 Flavorful Herbs by Susan Belsinger and Arthur O. Tucker

The Culinary Herbal highlights 97 delicious varieties—like black cumin, fenugreek, lemon balm, and sassafras—that every food lover will want to add to their kitchen garden. In this gorgeously photographed guide, home cooks will learn which herbs offer the most flavor, how to grow them at home, and how to put them to use. Plant profiles are organized alphabetically by herb type and include basic growing information, flavor notes, and culinary uses. Additional information includes step-by-step instructions for harvesting, preserving, and storing, along with techniques for making pastes, syrups, vinegars, and butters.

Bee-Friendly GardenThe Bee-Friendly Garden: Design an Abundant, Flower-Filled Yard that Nurtures Bees and Supports Biodiversity by Kate Frey and Gretchen LeBuhn

In The Bee-Friendly Garden, award-winning garden designer Kate Frey and bee expert Gretchen LeBuhn provide everything you need to know to create a dazzling garden that helps both the threatened honeybee and our own native bees. No matter how small or large your space, and regardless of whether you live in the city, suburbs, or country, just a few simple changes to your garden can fight the effects of colony collapse disorder and the worldwide decline in bee population that threatens our global food chain.

A Wilder Life: A Season-by-Season Guide to Getting in Touch with Nature by Celestine Maddy and Abbye Churchill 

In our technology-driven, workaday world, connecting with nature has never before been more essential. A Wilder Life, a beautiful oversized lifestyle book by the team behind the popular Wilder Quarterly, gives readers indispensable ideas for interacting with the great outdoors. Learn to plant a night-blooming garden, navigate by reading the stars, build an outdoor shelter, make dry shampoo, identify insects, cultivate butterflies in a backyard, or tint your clothes with natural dyes.

Garden DesignGarden Design: a Book of Ideas by Heidi Howcroft and Marianne Majerus

In Garden Design: A Book of Ideas, she and Heidi Howcroft have created a stunning guide to designing gardens of all types. Ideal for all gardeners and landscape architects this book inspires and encourages while giving practical advice and clear instruction for creating a beautiful garden in any setting.


The New Shade Garden
 by Ken Druse

There is a new generation of gardeners who are planting gardens not only for their visual beauty but also for their ability to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In The New Shade Garden, Ken Druse provides this generation with a comprehensive guide to creating a shade garden with an emphasis on the adjustments necessary for our changing climate.