We’ve had spring-like weather for most of a week – it’s raining today – and I’m itching to get out in the garden.  The reality is that the snow and cold will come back in less than two days and outdoor work is not how I can get my gardening fix right now.

Instead I turn to books to help me plan to make next year’s garden even better.  One of my go-to books for selecting plants is Tracy Disabato-Aust’s 50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants.

Disabato-Aust’s first book, The Well-Tended Perennial Garden:  Planting and Pruning Techniques has been my bible for perennial gardening for the past 20 years.  Now that we’ve remade the entry yard of our home completely into a flower garden I’ve found that her compendium of high impact plants suit an additional need – making the entry to our home a show stopper from May to October.

One of the reasons I like Disabato-Aust’s work so much and why it’s such a good guide for gardening is because she’s got the education and experience that shows in everything she writes.   She has bachelors and masters degrees in horticulture and she’s worked as a landscape designer and horticultural consultant.  That tells me she knows science and she’s experienced.   Best of all, the plants she writes about are all things she’s tested.  

As a result, reading this book has moved me to grow Siberian iris. Caesar’s Brother is the variety featured in the book and it is a showstopper.  That was a big change for me as I grew up loving the German bearded iris in my mother’s garden.   But as Disabato-Aust correctly points out the foliage of the German bearded iris declines too early in the season to use it in an entry garden.  I still grow it but in places where it is less visible.   Meanwhile the Caesar’s Brother in the entry garden flourishes and adds a great pop of deep purple color early in June. 

We’ve decided to add some new plants to the entry garden this year, moving some others around and 50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants will be my bible for these changes.   On these spring-like January days I’ve already gone through and picked out a few spectacular blooms to try out this year including Tumbleweed Onion (minimal or  no deadheading and minimal or no pruning caught my eye)  and Raydon’s Favorite aromatic aster.   That’s something to add to the spring mix of color and something for the fall mix.  Now on to picking out something for summer…

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