I have added a couple of new gardening books to my library that I thought I would share.

I’ve mentionted Plant Propagation A to Z by Geoff Bryant here a couple of times in the past week or two. I had originally borrowed it from a local library and fell in love with it. It is packed with tables that include every genus imaginable, the best method of propagation for each, requirements for the different types of propagation including germination requirements, how to’s, lots of pictures and a section on techniques for popular garden plants. For example, under cuttings it lists the different genera, tells what kind of cutting works best, when to take it, how long it should take to root and the typical sucess rate. I liked this book so much I ended up buying one of my own.

I was at a local bookstore tonight when I ran across Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs – Garden Insects of North America by Whitney Cranshaw on a table full of what else but gardening books. What caught my eye was the caterpillar photo on the cover and the size of the book. 600+ pages packed with closeup color photos of pretty much any 6 legged critter you will find in your garden. The different insects are presented in groups broken down by feeding habits and there is an appendix listing different plants and the insects that are typically associated with them. The index in the back also has the individual insects listed in case you already know what you are looking for. Each insect or group of insects has information on plant hosts, the damage they cause, distribution, appearance, life history and habits as well as a number of color photos for the different life stages, damage etc. There is a small section on management but this is more of a field guide than a pest management book though learning about the habits of the different garden pests is the first step in ‘managing’ them. As I thumbed through this book I ran across a picture credited to one of my college professors duing my stint as an Entomology grad student a few years back. Very small world indeed.

If you are at all interested in either subject I can’t recommend these books enough. Read any good gardening books lately?