The Undaunted Garden: Planting for Weather-Resilient Beauty

Rating:
Summary: golden
Review: A great book for plant lovers in the high plains, or the high desert. This book contains inspiring photographs and great plant lists (the most valuable part of the book, as these lists are nowhere to be found elsewhere), as well as wise advise from a well experienced gardener. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading nearly every page of this book. On the downside, the plants in the book may be difficult to find, unless you join a rock garden club and grow the plants from seed. I wish the plant portrait section was three times as big. But overall, this book is indispensible.

Rating:
Summary: Plant Choices for Tough Garden Sites
Review: As a landscape designer, I have found Lauren's book 'The Undaunted Garden : Planting for Weather-Resilient Beauty' to be as important a tool as pruners, shovels and trowels.

By dividing plant lists into groups that agree with every kind of climate around a building, I can quickly go 'there' and select just the right plant(s). Then I can fantasize about and enrich my knowledge of others. The listing of not-well-known natives and adapted plants is breathtaking and should spur the nursery trade into a production frenzy. I especially love the color and textural combinations pictured. The photography of these plant alliances is so delicious that I get hungry for dirt under my nails just by looking at the cover! Imagine how it helps the novice gardener create a great garden with fewer mistakes.

If you live in the Rocky Mountains, The Undaunted Garden is a must. If you live on a prairie, even better. It's also a gift that I'm going to send my Dad now that he's planting his own Xeriscape.

Rating:
Summary: Pure inspiration for the southwest gardener
Review: For those of us who live in the western states, this book is an invaluable rescource. Ms. Sprenger offers great advice on learning how to cope with poor soil conditions (such as sand and clay), how to acheive a lushly planted look by relying on hearty (yet beautiful) native plants that won't let you down when the going gets tough, and absolutely wonderful planting designs and combinations. Her style is engaging and entertaining to read, as well as forthright and full of plenty of personal anecdotes and tidbits. Her photogrophy alone is worth the price of the book. Even if you don't live with poor soil, nasty weather and a stunted growing season, there's much to learn here. A great book, one of my favorites! A destined 'green' classic.

Rating:
Summary: The Undaunted PLAINS Garden
Review: I agree with others, lovely prose, lovely photos, good organization. However, if you are looking for a true mountain (high altitude) gardening book, this won't do it. The author is of course speaking of her own experiences but I purchased this book believing it would help me to be a "Colorado Gardener." Not one word on dealing with elk and deer attacks on your plants or that short and really unpredictable growing season above 7500 feet in the Rocky Mountains. This book did make me miss my old mid-Atlantic garden badly!

Rating:
Summary: The Undaunted PLAINS Garden
Review: I agree with others, lovely prose, lovely photos, good organization. However, if you are looking for a true mountain (high altitude) gardening book, this won't do it. The author is of course speaking of her own experiences but I purchased this book believing it would help me to be a "Colorado Gardener." Not one word on dealing with elk and deer attacks on your plants or that short and really unpredictable growing season above 7500 feet in the Rocky Mountains. This book did make me miss my old mid-Atlantic garden badly!

Rating:
Summary: Superlative!
Review: I have checked this book out at the public library so many times I wonder if anyone else had a chance! I live at 7300 feet, and appreciate Ms. Springer's attention to our unique weather problems. But I first read the book when I lived at 200 feet, and everything worked for that altitude, too. She advises on those tough places in your garden, like Dry Shade, and includes tons of recomendations on annuals, long blooming perennials, and 'roses for the realist'. You can always get basic gardening advice from those encyclopedia garden books - Ms. Springer shows you how to put plants together for a great look. Her photographs are breathtaking! Do not go another season without purchasing this book!

Rating:
Summary: Well written, beautifully illustrated
Review: If you love to garden, but are nowhere near a coast, this is the book for you. Lauren Springer gardens in Colorado and understands the harsh mid-continental climate and its challanges to gardeners trying to create beautiful, yet durable landscapes. The book is divided into sections addressing both plant types (e.g. annuals, perennials, roses, etc.) and site conditions (e.g. hot & dry, shady). Numerous color photographs are throughout the book and a section in the back highlights a goodly number of what she considers excellent plants for harsh climate gardens. The only drawback to this book is that she recommends many plants which are difficult to locate commercially. It speaks well of her writing abilities that this reader, at least, has gone to great lengths to locate several of her recommendations, as I could not face another summer without them

Rating:
Summary: A wonderfully written, illustrated and presented guide
Review: In The Undaunted Garden: Planting For Weather-Resilient Beauty, gardening expert offers the novice gardener a wonderfully written, illustrated and presented guide to the art and science of growing and maintaining a lovely year-round garden despite harsh climatic conditions. Here are to be found all the information, guidance, tools, and ideas and inspiration to achieving a healthy garden suited to environmental conditions. Springer's informative and engaging text is enhanced with lists of more than 1,000 attractive, resilient plants; complete and detailed descriptions of 64 especially recommended plants; and more than 250 superb photographs. The Undaunted Garden is a core addition to any personal or community library gardening reference collection!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent! My new garden bible and friend!
Review: Lauren Springer has written an entertaining, informative and beautifully photographed book! She is obviously well educated in her field yet came across like the wife and mom with hobbies that she also is. This made me feel like even I, the novice gardener and homemaker new to the high desert, could also have a colorful landscape. We have the additional challenge of living on forty arid acres off-the-grid so water comes only from nature or on a truck. I had a fantasy of turning this barren land into a lush paradise, but was paralyzed by the overwhelming task ahead and fear of failure, before THIS BOOK. Now there's a plan! The first steps in soil preparation have finally begun, seeds started, and a few trees even planted! This book stands out among dozens of others because Ms. Springer "talked" to me like a neighbor over coffee. Down to earth, logical comments along with the education made me feel like I could relate and accomplish anything; "failures" will now only be learning experiences and compost material. For anyone living in dry, high, hot summers and cold winters like here in No. Arizona and Denver, make this the anchor book in your gardening library ("Dry-Land Gardening" by Jennifer Bennet is also a great addition). I'll probably buy any of this author's future publications, regardless of the subject, because this one was so well written. Thanks, Lauren!

Rating:
Summary: Great prose, great advice
Review: Lauren Springer is a gifted writer as well as a gifted gardener. She has a knack for passing on her knowledge in a very interesting way, making the book more than just a plant encyclopedia.

In part, this book is a novel about her own garden, but she goes far from her own chunk of dirt to show and describe plants which work in a variety of climates. If there's any one gem I pulled from this book it is to plant the correct plant for the specific micro-climate rather than trying to adapt the micro-climate for the plant you've chosen. This is much easier to do, more rewarding, and requires less maintenance.

This book is a good read now, and a good reference for later on.