The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants by Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox

The Gardener's Guide to Prairie Plants by Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox

This book came out this year. It's another brand-new book for gardeners and an invaluable reference for Prairie plants.

So, if you are working with native plants, putting together a tiny meadow, as we discussed with yesterday's book, Tiny and Wild, or if you want to add to your garden reference collection, then this book is truly a gem.

Oh, my dear horticultural enthusiasts, have you ever yearned for a garden that is a feast for the eyes and a sanctuary for the soul?

A place where the wild and the cultivated intertwine, creating a symphony of nature's most exquisite melodies?

If so, then The Gardener's Guide to Prairie Plants is your botanical bible.

Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox have crafted a masterpiece that is both informative and inspiring.

With a passion that is infectious, they invite us on a journey through the heartland of North America, where the prairie once reigned supreme.

This book is not merely a glossary of suggested plants but a love letter to the natural world. Each page is filled with exquisite photographs that capture the beauty and diversity of prairie flora in all its stages. From the delicate seedlings to the towering seedheads, these plants are showcased in their full glory.

Here's what Doug Tallamy wrote about this book.

If you are looking for the complete- and I do mean complete - guide to than this much-needed book. Diboll and Cox cover not only what prairie species look prairie ecosystems, you will not do better like each of their growth stages (a first!), they also dive deep into their historical and ecological roles in prairie ecosystems.

So overall, this book is an excellent book and reference guide.

Now, one feature I love about this book is the way they produced the cover. Even though it's a paperback, it's a little more firm plastic-coated cover, making it wipable. So I imagine having this book in the car with me or in the garden and handling the use and abuse.

I want to take a moment to review the book's structure, but I won't get too deep in the weeds here—no pun intended. 

So the book starts with the history and ecology of the prairie. They also talk about understanding your soil, which is essential for growing anything, much less prairie plants. Then, they discuss how to design, plant, and maintain prairie gardens.

Chapter five is significant because it discusses all the different types of plants; it's a prairie species field guide. They go into great detail about monocots and dicots, Grasses, and sedges. This is about 300-plus pages worth of data.

Chapter Six is all about establishing a flourishing prairie meadow, which dovetails nicely with yesterday's book, Tiny and Wild. So, this would be a great companion piece to that book. I would say that the book is more artistic and design-oriented, while this book is more of a reference.

Chapter Seven talks about burning your prairie safely.

Chapter eight is about propagating prairie plants from seed, which is pretty easy and also a great way to save money. If you're creating a prairie, you need to have plants in mass.

Chapter Nine is about propagating plants vegetatively. So two excellent chapters on propagation there.

Chapter 10 is an excellent addition to this book. It's about the prairie food web and takes a deep dive into it.

And then there is a superb Chapter 11 at the back of the book that goes through the various prairie seed mixes you might be intrigued by. So, if you are considering growing a prairie - I had a friend do this a couple of years ago, and they did a beautiful job - but anyone who's raised a prairie will tell you there is a science of growing a prairie, which is precisely what is covered in this book - And then there is the art of developing a prairie and maintaining a prairie. So it's a little bit of both. It's the yin and yang of prairies.

The Gardener's Guide to Prairie Plants is more than a visual feast. It is a practical guide that provides invaluable information on cultivating prairie plants in your own garden. Diboll and Cox offer expert advice on everything from site selection to plant care, ensuring that even the most novice gardener can create a thriving prairie ecosystem.

So, if you're ready to embark on a horticultural adventure that will leave you breathless, I urge you to pick up this book. It is a must-have for any gardener who yearns to connect with the natural world and create a genuinely extraordinary garden.

This book will be an indispensable guide. If you are serious and curious about prairie plants and native plants, especially if you're doing some restoration work, maybe you are a landscaper and need to work with a lot of native plants, or maybe you're just a gardener who has a passion for prairie meadows, wildflowers, and that type of thing, whatever your scenario, this is a great guide.

It's also a heavy book - but it's not so heavy that it's cumbersome or unusable.

This book is 636 pages- although it doesn't feel like it - of prairie plants. Everything you need to know and A truly definitive guide. "A one-stop compendium" is what they say about this book on Amazon.

You can get a copy of The Gardener's Guide to Prairie Plants by Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $25.