It's Garden Time!

The weather is warming up, the days are getting longer, the soil is ready, and it's time to start planning the family garden. We've got some great family gardening idea books in the parents collection at the library. Here's a few of them:



Family Garden by Lia Leendertz. A nicely organized and clearly presented

book from DK.

101 Kid-Friendly Plants by Cindy Krezel. Contains over 100 plants that are safe to use around children.

Family Kitchen Garden: How to Plant, Grow, and Cook Together

by Karen Leibreich. Published by locally renowned nature publisher, Timber Press. Includes growing vegetables, fruit, and herbs.

Children's Gardens: Twelve Theme Gardens for Families by Edwin L. Howard. A nice little book with theme garden ideas for your backyard.

A Child's Garden: 60 Ideas to Make Any Garden Come Alive for Children by Molly Dannenmaier. I just love this book with its beautiful photos and can't help but wish I had these theme gardens when I was growing up.

Gardening with Children Recently written and published by the Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Hollyhocks and Honeybees: Garden Projects for Young Children by Sara Starbuck. Includes some great activities for youngsters in teaching them about gardening and nature.

And let's not forget the kids!

Here's some of my favorite garden themed picture books for you to share with your little ones:

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

A mother and child plant a rainbow of flowers in the family garden. This book is also great for learning colors.



Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming

Mr. McGreely plants a garden he has always dreamed about but then rabbits persistenly come into his garden and eat his vegetables.

Up, Down, and Around by Katherine Ayres. This book has fun illustrations showing how different plants grow down into the soil, how vines wrap around, and how peppers grow up. A great book that plays on words and an excellent choice for developing early literacy vocabulary skills in preschoolers. This book also makes a fun read-alound.

The Gardener's Alphabet by Mary Azarian. This is an alphabet book that features words associated with gardening, such as bulbs, compost, digging, insects, and weeds.

Flower Garden by Eve Bunting. A young girl and her father shop at their local store to purchase flowers and come home to create a beautiful flower pot for mother's birthday.

The library also has a large collection of gardening and landscaping books located in the adult non-fiction area on the second floor of the library. If you have any home gardening questions, be sure to contact your local Oregon State University Extension Office, or visit their website at http://extenstion.oregonstate.edu/gardening for an array of gardening advice such as weed and insect management, sustainable gardening paractices, and treating plant diseases, all of which are based on scientifically unbiased research for the Pacific Northwest.