Getting Ready to Garden?

March 25, 2011

This year I am going to grow a few things. Without a doubt! Absolutely. The snow in the grass this morning is a minor setback; spring is here. I often see interesting resources on gardening at the library, and I am inspired. We just had a neat speaker on a program about landscaping sidewalks. Other gardening programs in the Mid-Continent system are listed online and in the Beyond the Books publication.

Kansas City is promoting the use of rain gardens to limit the runoff of rain water into the storm water systems. The library system has books on this subject like Rain Gardens by Nigel Dunnett and Andy Clayden. There are many color pictures in this book showing how to landscape for water retention. This idea has its benefits in regular yards as well as urban settings.

Another inspiring book is Flower Gardening in Kansas City by Craig Nienaber. It shows many flowers and plants that do well in the climate here. The author calls this area one of most difficult to garden because of the harsh climate changes. But, he gives encouragement and advice. There are chapters in this book that are good beginnings for water gardening and container gardening. There's also beautiful pictures.

One of our gardening books says that March 29th is the average last snow in Kansas City. Soon, the weather will be milder, and I plan to put some of these ideas to work in my yard.

Howard B.
Dearborn Branch