It's spring! Spring bulbs are flowering, shrubs are starting to bud, and the ornamental cherry blossoms are in bloom.
Since we're lucky enough to live on the West Coast, it's not too early to start gardening. Here are a few newer books to inspire you.
Gardening Step by Step is perfect for experienced or beginner gardeners.
Its bright, colourful photographs and straightforward descriptions make it easy to follow.
It covers planting a small garden, low maintenance gardening, easy pruning, vegetable gardening and includes a plant guide for each section.
Gardening Shortcuts is also well laid out and provides step-by-step projects to spruce up your garden without devoting a lot of time.
Marjorie Harris is a well-known Canadian gardener whose Thrifty Gardening: From the Ground Up offers tips for creating a beautiful garden in any space - without breaking the bank.
This sequel to her book Thrifty: Living the Frugal Life combines her passion for horticulture with her frugal lifestyle.
In Sow Simple: 100+ Green and Easy Projects to Make Your Garden Awesome, Christina Symons and John Gillespie follow up their Everyday Eden with more tips, tricks and projects that will increase your enjoyment of outdoor spaces, save you money and sustain the environment.
They cover using beneficial fungi and bugs, edible weeds, water-wise wildflowers and native plants.
Back to Basics: Traditional Garden Wisdom is a practical book for creating a natural, sustainable outdoor space.
Its simple, green tips and techniques are gleaned from a time when gardening skills were passed down through generations.
Willi Galloway's Grow Cook Eat: A Food Lover's Guide to Vegetable Gardening is a garden-to-table handbook for growing 50 vegetables, herbs and small fruits. In a kitchen garden you can eat food not easily found in supermarkets and pick and eat young tender shoots.
Galloway offers the information needed to eat seasonally from the garden, including planting and growing, harvesting and storing, and easy-to-prepare recipes and cooking ideas.
"Home grown food just tastes better." These and other books on gardening are available at the New Westminster Public Library at 716 Sixth Ave.
The library is open from 9: 30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday, 9: 30 a.m. to 5: 30 p.m. on Saturday, and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, except on holiday weekends, and is closed on holidays. For more information, go to nwpl.ca.
