The Prairie Rock Garden

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

The third volume in Red Deer Press’s series on specialty gardens for
the prairies is a complete guide to the design, construction, planting,
and maintaining of rock gardens on the prairies.

The author begins by asking, “Is a rock garden designed for plants
with rocks in mind or designed for rocks with plants in mind?” In the
end, the “plants side” wins out. While there is a chapter dedicated
to selecting rocks, the most detailed part of the book is the chart of
plants appropriate for rock gardens. In addition to useful botanical
information, the list gives preferred location, height, bloom color, and
estimated month of bloom. Comments such as “good for planting in
cracks,” “difficult to source, but worth the effort,” and “may
look messy after blooming” are the kind of tidbits that anyone
experimenting with a new plant would appreciate. Also welcome is a
gardening manual written with the rigorous climate of the Canadian
prairies in mind; the chapter on seasonal care is particularly helpful.

The Prairie Rock Garden would serve as a handbook for anyone wanting
to build a rock garden in a prairie environment. Highly recommended for
prairie public libraries and any library that supports a horticulture
collection.