This book gives general principles of gardens with prairie plants, examples of actual gardens, a few plans and lots of information on specific plants. The information on the plants is the highlight of the book. The plans that they show are excellent.

[Gardening with Prairie Plants by Sally Wasowski], Native Plant Society of Texas News, 20 (March April 2002): 5.

Convincing people that native flora are ideal for their home landscape should be easy. Colorful native plants flower as early as late February and continue to bloom until late June. After a respite during the intense heat and withering drought of summer, a riot of blossoms emerge again from September until the first frost of late autumn. Few gardens comprised of commercially popular non-native plants can compete with the duration of such a showy display. And few can match the low maintenance, the reduced water requirements, and the environmental benefits of native-flora horticulture.

Sally Wasowski's latest book, Gardening with Prairie Plants, is aimed at converting skeptics who doubt that native-plant landscapes can make any difference in the world. These are people who argue the futility of trying to reverse the course of things in any given region. In reply, Wasowski points to native-plant landscaping as one way to preserve biodiversity. Biodiversity is like the human auto-immune system; it provides an eco-system with the means for successfully adjusting to disruptive new conditions.
Wasowski has a good chance of succeeding against the skeptics because her volume-reasonably-priced and readily available in Texas bookstores-is excellently produced. Not only is her well-informed commentary accessible to the average reader, but Andy Wasowski's accompanying color photographs are spectacular. The publisher wisely opted to print large illustrations, and the 241 that appear in Gardening with Prairie Plants prove the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. Since Texas is a prairie state, there are attractive photos of Brown County, Quitaque, Gruene, Fort Worth and Lubbock, among other Lone Star State locales.

Gardening with Prairie Plants commences with several instructive definitions, such as the difference between short-grass prairies, which tend to be found in dry regions subject to very hot weather, and long-grass prairies, which tend to be found in wet regions subject to very cold weather. But such distinctions can become somewhat more complex, and Wasowski negotiates various qualifications in an easy-to-understand way. Her book then proceeds to consider the design, installation and maintenance of prairie gardens. This section is highlighted by photographs of homes, schools and museums exemplifying successful transitions to native landscaping. The impressive experiment at Selah Ranch in Johnson City is also featured.

Most of Wasowski's book is devoted to plant profiles, which comprise a richly illustrated section of the volume and are accompanied by helpful horticultural data and numerous floral distribution maps. The flowers populating this portion of the book are so appealingly presented that it will be hard for some readers to resist wanting to adopt all of them. Consider, for example, the allure of the beautiful photograph of needle-and-thread (Hesperostipa comata), accompanied by this description: "Needle-and-thread sways in the slightest wind with a motion like water, and the awns have a silvery cast. ... Wind blows the 'needle' onto the soil. The threadlike 5-to-8-inch awn is twisted behind the needle, and as it unwinds, the seed is literally drilled into the soil."

Gardening with Prairie Plants is an admirable work. It will be cherished by anyone devoted to native flora, but it will appeal equally to those who have as yet made only a modest foray into native-plant landscaping. Gardening with Prairie Plants is not only extraordinarily useful, it is also exceptionally beautiful-a lavishly designed book for enthusiast and dreamer alike.

William J. Scheick, a former NPSOT vice-president, is also a member of the Central Texas Horticulture Council and a frequent contributor to Texas Gardener.

Excerpts from the Wapsipincon Review (2002/03 issue), book reviewed by Floyd Pearce. "This book is an excellent sampler and, for many, could provide an introduction to these distinquished poets. You don't read poetry? Try these poets! If you are as tired as I am of swagger and irony a la mode of so many modern poets, welcome to the farm."

This book features the poetry of Paul Engle (Robert Dana), William Stafford (Denise Low) and James Hearst (Scott Cawelti) with a foreword by Iowa farm poet Michael Carey. This book is a companion edition to the 5th Harvest Lecture held October 17th, 2002 which dealt with poetry, landscape and popular spirituality.

There are big ugly gray grasshoppers in it! It was very fun to read and it made a good bedtime book. It was just my kind of book. Not too easy, not too hard. You will love it!

This is a very good book. In this book I found very interesting ideas and stories.

This cassette has all the things you need for Halloween. I like the chilling stories from Lake Wobigon, and the musical performances. Plus! Garrison Keillor's performance of Edgar Alan Poe's The Raiven. Some of the broadcasts from A Prairie Home Companion are halarious, and very nice to listen to. This is the great book. It's highly recommended to all future Garrison Keillor fans.

Garrison Keillor's "Horrors" is not only one of Keillor's great works of all time, but it is a marvelous take on Halloween itself. This cassette series has everything fans of Keillor could possibly want from brilliant, unique stories to sharp, witty skits to wonderfully appropriate music for Halloween. The best thing, in my opinion, on this series, however, is Keillor's unsurpassed reading of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven". To sum up, this cassette series is enjoyable year around and is a must-buy for any fan of Garrison Keillor and "A Prarie Home Companion".

This book is an engaging mixture of the author's personal experience woven into a wealth of natural history of the Plains region. The illustrations by her husband are an added bonus.

Land of Grass and Sky is like your first drink of morning when you shake sleep from your limbs and stand at the window, breathing deep and stretching. It is fresh and clean and wakes you to a new vision of what may have seemed a stale landscape.

Mary Taylor Young's song of the prairie alternates classic images of big sky and waving fields with practical tips and throat-gripping stories of survival. When I tried to read the dust-storm passage aloud to my husband, I could barely finish, my voice shook so much and my chest felt so tight. It is a terrifying passage, perhaps too close to home as we face the worst drought in recent memory.

In the end, I reluctantly closed the cover of the book, feeling as if I was just returning from a lovely and soul-nourishing morning walk on the Great Plains.

Cute and witty! I checked this book out at the library to read to my boys and wound up buying it for my grandmother! For all tractor-driving grannies or people who love them, this book is a big hit! I love the recipie in back, too. (Great literature tie-in activity!)

What would the Brothers Grimm say if they could read this? Could they have predicted a savvy bike-riding "Little Red"; or a Muffin-Loving Wolf; or a liberated, tough-talking Granny, who is also a very good cook? How could they object to such a delightful interpretation of their sometimes gruesome story? Kids love this book, and so do I!

This book is about a boy and his uncle. The boy really likes his uncle. His uncle owns a store. The boy likes a bear at the store. One day after a visit to Uncle Tim's house he found out that Uncle Tim had Aids. When the boy went to Uncle Tim's house, one of his friends had to walk him to the bathroom. Uncle Tim died. The boy was really upset. The boy got a lot of the stuff from the store and that helped him to remember Uncle Tim. I feel sad that Uncle Tim died. There should be a cure for Aids.

This book offers a realistic, kind explanation of terminal illness in a manner that children over age 4.5 can understand. It deals with a death from AIDS. Don't let this dissuade you, we used it to explain terminal cancer. It also addresses being angry as part of the grief process.

As a high school science teacher on the Omaha Indian Reservation, both my students and myself found this book to be an invaluable resource this past fall. As my students did their ethnobotanical survey of the reservation, I often found them waiting to use my one copy of the book. (I will be getting additional copies for the upcoming school year.) We found the information to be both accurate and thorough. The students especially enjoyed the well drawn pictures and easy to follow format. I would suggest this book to anyone interested in plains ethnobotany.

Medicinal Wild Plants contains information on nomenclature, habitat, Indian use, Anglo folk use, use in medical history, some entries for recent scientific research, and cultivation. Kindscher frequently cites Eclectic medical use for the plants. These books are authoritative. Kindscher has thoroughly studied the ethnobotany of each and presented the most useful information. What is most striking to me about these books are Kindscher's frequent comments revealing that he has personally seen and tasted these plants, and sometimes tested the methods he writes about, something rare in the ethnobotanical literatue of North America.

This exquisite volume is a MUST for anyone who loves 19th and 20th century American landscape art. From Keith Jacobshagen's breathtaking "Crow Call (Near the River)" to the works by Grant Wood and Alexandre Hogue, to the photos by Wolcott and Gerster, this catalog is a strong document, chronicalling the changing face of, and attitudes toward, the prairies. Buy it for the stunning artwork, cherish it for the depth of feeling

If you missed the exhibit during its tour,you must own a copy of this beautifully produced tribute to the art of the midwestern landscape

This book is a wonderful book!!! It really is a great adults book. You feel like one of the gobblers! This would make a great Rob Reiner movie!

The Prairie Adventures of Turk and the Gobblers will keep you in stitches, long after the last page is read. This novel is entertainment at its best!