Good References

Below are a number of books that I depend on.  They are all linked to Amazon.com, but please buy them where you like. Many used copies are often available at the end of the Spring semester at the VT Hort. Department:

• Good climate reference:

<http://www.sunset.com/garden/climate-zones/sunset-climate-zones-mid-atlantic-00400000036360/>

• Best book on native design I've seen.  Extremely informative.  Our latitude in the NRV, combined with our elevation of 2000' puts us in conditions equivalent to the author's Pennsylvania garden.  We do seem to have more in common with the mid-Atlantic region than with the South, because of elevation.  Thank you, Gloria!:

Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants, Updated and Expanded by Douglas W. Tallamy and Rick Darke (Apr 1, 2009)

Formats Amazon Price New from Used from Kindle Edition $8.99 -- -- Hardcover -- $30.00 $17.77 Paperback $12.21 $10.83 $5.87

• Without a doubt, best book(s) on woody landscape plants, bar none.  I consider this to be the one book everyone should have.  The older edition is just as good, even used:

Manual of Woody Landscape Plants: Their Identification, Ornamental Characteristics, Culture, Propogation and Uses by Michael A. Dirr, Bonnie Dirr, Asta Sadauskas and Nancy Snyder (Hardcover - Aug 2009) $96.80


or, just as good and cheaper:


Manual of Woody Landscape Plants : Their Identification, Ornamental Characteristics, Culture, Propagation and Uses by Michael A. Dirr (Hardcover - Aug 1998) 25 used from $28.35

• The book of great photography for the above.  Dirr is on a par with Rick Darke when it comes to plant photography:

Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs: An Illustrated Encyclopedia by Michael A. Dirr (Hardcover- Oct 1, 1997) - Illustrated 5 new from $99.99 39 used from $59.72

• A fine reference on grasses, native and non-native:

The Encyclopedia of Grasses for Livable Landscapes by Rick Darke (Apr 15, 2007)

35 new from $31.39 21 used from $28.12

• A good herbaceous perennial book:

(I do not know.  Jury is still out on that.)

• A decent reference on landscape graphics (good to have even if you never use it.  I still kept it around while I was teaching Autocad):

Landscape Graphics by Grant W. Reid (Sep 1, 2002)

Formats		Amazon Price		New from	Used from
	Hardcover	--		--	$17.21
Expand	Paperback	$15.80		$14.43	$9.73