Harvesting nuggets of helpful garden information

Garden books are stacked so tall beside my recliner that my husband calls that corner of the room my "information compost."

Some of my favorite gleanings from this winter's pile:

• "Newspapers, Pennies, Cardboard & Eggs for Growing a Better Garden," by Roger Yepsen and the Editors of Organic Gardening (Rodale, $17.95). An easy read, the book contains 200 short tips or techniques for using everyday items to make gardening more fun.

Here's one project you can get started on this winter: Gather newspapers, flour, a disposable icing decorator bag and seeds to make your own seed tapes. It's a great project for any age. Come spring, seed tapes make it much easier to plant small seeds such as carrots and lettuce as well as virtually eliminating the chore of thinning crowding seedlings later.

The book also shows easy ways to tame weeds under fences and paths, and has a whole chapter on beating garden pests.

• "The Complete Flower Gardener: The Comprehensive guide to Growing Flowers Organically," by Karan Davis Cutler and Barbara W. Ellis (Wiley Publishing, $34.95). I like the pretty photographs and the numerous boxes with at-a-glance information, such as lists of plants for hot or dry spots, foolproof annuals, tall plants, plants for thin soil and much more.

New flower gardeners will love the detailed information on how to get started. Almost any gardener can appreciate the extensive plant portraits, with alphabetical entries of more than 175 annuals and perennials. Each entry includes everything you need to know for environmentally-friendly success.

• "The Authentic Garden: Five Principles for Cultivating a Sense of Place," by Claire E. Sawyers (Timber Press, $34.95). I can almost promise you that you'll look at your garden in a new way after you read this book.

The author, who grew up as a Midwest farm girl, worked in gardens all over the world before becoming the director of the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College in 1990. She advocates studying both the unique characteristics of your site and also the local landscapes and history in order to create a garden that is more satisfying and also easier to maintain. It makes little sense to imitate gardens from a foreign culture, she says, when we have such lovely native scenery from which to draw inspiration.

Sawyers recommends allowing self-seeding plants to create natural-looking patterns and overcoming the tendency to space trees an equal distance apart, in neat rows. If nothing wants to grow on top of the shallow roots of a maple, she says don't plant anything there and instead admire the patterns of the exposed roots and the beauty of the trunk flare.