Gardening with Prairie Plants

How to Create Beautiful Native Landscapes

2002
Author:

Sally Wasowski
Photography by Andy Wasowski

Practical, comprehensive, and packed with information—the indispensable guide and resource for prairie gardening

Lavishly illustrated, Gardening with Prairie Plants includes thorough descriptions of plants native to most of North America—from New York to Colorado, and from Texas north to Minnesota and the western provinces of Canada. If you want to create a landscape of maximum beauty with minimum upkeep, Gardening with Prairie Plants tells you everything you need to know to begin and to develop a beautiful, earth-friendly prairie garden.

This book will be an anchor for prairie enthusiasts for years to come.

Floyd Swink, Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois

Why have home gardeners, professional horticulturists, and landscape preservationists increasingly been attracted to prairie plants? The beauty and hardiness of these flowers, grasses, trees, and shrubs, along with their easy maintenance and environmental friendliness, have spurred a surge of interest in prairie gardens. Whether you are considering adding these plants to a more conventional landscape or intending to "go native" all the way, Gardening with Prairie Plants is the most comprehensive resource and guide available.

Award-winning gardening author and landscape designer Sally Wasowski provides accessible, practical information on every aspect of prairie gardening:

Getting started: how to plan and install small and large landscapes

Working with your space: how to adapt prairie landscapes to suburban neighborhoods or modest city lots

Planning your plants: how to find the right plants for your yard, with comprehensive listings for more than three hundred species, charts addressing soil and light conditions, range maps, and color photographs

Choosing flowers: how to select recommended flowers, listed by season, to ensure continuous bloom and to attract a variety of birds and butterflies

Lavishly illustrated with stunning photographs by Andy Wasowski, Gardening with Prairie Plants includes thorough descriptions of plants native to most of North America—from New York to Colorado, and from Texas north to Minnesota and the western provinces of Canada. If you want to create a landscape of maximum beauty with minimum upkeep, Gardening with Prairie Plants tells you everything you need to know to begin and to develop a beautiful, earth-friendly prairie garden.


Sally Wasowski is one of the country’s leading authorities on landscaping with native plants. A founding member of the Native Plant Society of Texas, Sally has been featured in Southern Living magazine as one of the top ten gardeners in the South. Together, Sally and Andy Wasowski have collaborated on eight books on native landscaping, including Gardening with Native Plants of the South (1994), Native Texas Plants (1997), The Landscaping Revolution (2000), and Native Landscaping from El Paso to L.A. (2000).

Andy Wasowski is a freelance photographer and writer specializing in gardening and environmental issues. His work has appeared in such publications as Sierra and Fine Gardening, and he has done on-air commentaries for the National Public Radio programs Living on Earth and The Cultivated Gardener. Together, Sally and Andy Wasowski have collaborated on eight books on native landscaping, including Gardening with Native Plants of the South (1994), Native Texas Plants (1997), The Landscaping Revolution (2000), and Native Landscaping from El Paso to L.A. (2000).

This book will be an anchor for prairie enthusiasts for years to come.

Floyd Swink, Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois

Excellently produced, 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. Not only extraordinarily useful, it is also exceptionally beautiful—a lavishly designed book for enthusiast and dreamer alike.

Native Plant Society of Texas

Though the word prairie evokes images of vast, windswept plains, Sally Wasowski skillfully demonstrates that no yard is too small for a patch of native wildflowers. This lavish book takes us on a tour of native prairies and prairie gardens to show how easy it is to plant and maintain your own beautiful prairie garden.

C. Colston Burrell, award-winning author of A Gardener’s Encyclopedia of Wildflowers and Perennial Combinations

Landscape designer Sally Wasowski offers practical advice and detailed directions for anyone interested in prairie gardening. Detailed listings for more the 300 species provide the gardener interested in native plants with ample choices and the cultural information they need to grow them successfully.

American Gardener

Gardening with Prairie Plants, is one of the best gardening books I’ve ever read. The astounding amount of information they’ve managed to include—all of it presented with careful attention to detail and subtlety—is testament to the fact that they spent four-and-a-half years working on this labor of love. Everything—and I do mean everything—you need to know about prairie gardening is here, in this luscious and inspiring book. The essential guide to prairie gardening—a stunning book.

Wildflower

Lavishly illustrated with photographs by Andy Wasowski, Gardening with Prairie Plants includes descriptions of plants native to most of North America—from New York to Colorado, and from Texas north to Minnesota and the central provinces of Canada. Written for experienced gardeners and brown-thumb homeowners alike, the book contains practical information on every aspect of prairie gardening.

Wild Ones Journal

One of the best gardening books I have ever read. Everything—and I do mean everything—you need to know about prairie gardening is here, in this luscious and inspiring book. The essential guide to prairie gardening—a stunning book.

The Blazing Star: Newsletter of the North American Plant Society

Half coffee-table book, half encyclopedic resource. This new guide to creating native landscapes is inspirational as it is practical.

Abode

Designers interested in using prairie plants will find Gardening with Prairie Plants a valuable resource.

Landscape Architecture Magazine

Filled with inspiring photos and gentle writing.

The Fringed Gentian

It’s a definite inspiration, full of wonderful detail.

Loving Nature’s Garden