Plants for the Winter Garden: Perennials, Grasses, Shrubs, and Trees to Add Interest in the Cold and Snow

Plants for the Winter Garden is a beautifully illustrated, well grounded compendium for adding winter season interest to the garden, written and curated by Warren Leach. Due out 5th Nov 2024 from Hachette on their Timber Press imprint, it's 256 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats. 

Winter is a challenging season for most gardeners in the northern hemisphere. For most, it's the season of rest after frenetic harvesting and cleaning up in fall... the season of waiting, when the catalogues come to us and we spend days by the fireplace dreaming of the next season. Everyone *wants* to have an attractive and inviting garden even in the bleakest depths of winter. 

The author has done a very good job introducing readers to interesting, often beautiful, options for form and structure in the winter season which are often also useful habitat/food for birds and wildlife and give our eyes a resting place through the window in our cozy dreaming. 

The author uses proper binomial classification (Latin names) as well as many common and cultivar names to make correct identification and sourcing as easy as possible. He has a phenomenal eye for the architectural design side of garden planning, and this book is a great source of inspiration and ideas for those of us whose garden "planning" tends to consist of wandering around looking for a spare bit of space to plonk new plants into. 

The content is grouped into sections thematically: form & color, signs of life (buds, winter fruits, perennials, etc), structure, and seasonal care & maintenance. It's photographed generously in color throughout. The author/publisher have also included a useful cross referenced index. There are no resources or bibliography listed, but many of the species and varieties can be sourced online or from local nurseries. It's slanted toward readers in North America in the temperate areas which experience a "real" winter season with freezing temps and snow/ice. 

Five stars. Beautifully done. It would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, for gardening groups/allotment/community garden, and for smallholders and home gardeners. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.