[.uk] Northwest (SmartGarden Regional Guides) (ISBN 0789493667)

Book Description:
A comprehensive guide to gardening in the Northwest -- includes Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Presenting a new way to think about gardening, the American Horticultural Society's "smart gardening" program teaches gardeners how to their own preferences and time availability, assess the possibilities of a location, and then create a garden that is in tune with the environment. A coding system, assigned to each plant, uses hardiness and heat zones, sun/shade, water needs, and plant size to help determine the perfect plants for any site.

Misguided geography:
Although this book is touted as a regional guide for the Northwest, it include almost the entire NW quadrant of the United States, including Alaska. It is impossible to combine all the USDA Hardiness and AHS Heat zones found the Great Plains, the Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountains and the Southwest Desert areas and expect to have a useful catalog of successful plants. Like most DK books, there are many beautiful photos, however many the same photos of individual plants reappear throughout the book. The photo of the blue lacecap hydranga 'Blue Wave' appears five times, Scots Pine six times, and probably at least 50% of the plants, two or more times. Either the book could have been reduced in size or cost, or photos of other plants could have been used. At least then it would be a more useful photographic reference book.