Heirloom Country Gardens: Timeless Treasures for Today's Gardeners

Heffner provides six different heirloom garden designs to reflect early regional gardens from New England to the Southwest. Initially, she discusses how both climate and the ethnic background of area settlers contributed to each design, then she offers such particulars as the type (and even the number) of plants to include, along with their cultivation habits and growth requirements. Of special interest is the history and evolution not only of each type of garden but of individual plants. Onions, bachelor's buttons, grapes and nasturtiums all receive equal billing. Since, according to Heffner, country gardens ""reflect a wonderful combination of creativity, thriftiness, regional character and love of gardening,"" she also includes chapters on creating garden ornaments, utensils and crafts along with old-fashioned recipes contributed by living history museums. Valuable appendices include resources for heirloom seeds and sources of information about historical gardens. The book offers so many attractive ideas, it will be difficult for gardeners to limit themselves. (Jan.)