The Twelve Month Gardener's Journal: A West Coast Guide

Susan Brown is a B.C. horticulturist, permaculture designer, and early
childhood education instructor.

A companion volume to The Twelve Month Gardener, this book is intended
for West Coast gardeners.

The journal is designed so it can be used for one year or several. Each
month features a different plant, followed by a monthly checklist of
things to do, things already achieved, and a list of local plants in
bloom, with a place to record what is blooming in the reader’s own
garden. There’s also room to record expectations for the coming year,
design ideas, garden notes and images, and reminders. The month ends
with a garden tip relevant to that month. There is an envelope for notes
glued inside the back cover.

Annuals, perennials and bulbs, trees, shrubs and climbers, fruits,
vegetables, herbs, lawn care, and general garden activities such as
composting are all covered in the monthly checklist. Plant
identification is consistently by genus and species as well as common
name. A strong point of the monthly checklist and monthly garden
highlights is the detailed treatment of landscape ornamentals found in
developed Pacific Northwest gardens and garden sales centres.

Gardening is very much a matter of what to do. Residents new to the
West Coast would be helped in adjusting to the unique Pacific seasons by
the timed reminders. Similarly, a coastal householder newly in charge of
a yard of perennials and shrubs would benefit from the experience of
these five master gardeners.

Even though half of its pages are blank, there is enough information
(valuable to suburban gardeners especially) for the journal to be a
reasonable purchase for public libraries in the limited geographic
reference area. The information is reliable, carefully chosen, and worth
listening to. Organic methods are used throughout.