As a person who collects and disseminates information about gardening, I have a one-word review of the new Mid-South Garden Guide: Wow!

Dr. Carolyn Kittle, who wrote and edited the book published by the Memphis Garden Club, did a masterful job of presenting tons of succinctly written information and user-friendly-charts. She is pictured above with some of the local experts who contributed to the book.

Kittle, a remodeling contractor with a doctorate in analytical chemistry, loves details and fun facts" about plants and gardening.

The Mid-South Garden Guide, first published in 1954, was last revised in 1984. The last edition had no information on water gardens or tropicals and only a little on hostas. It also suggested lots of synthetic fixes for problems.

Kittle advocates natural remedies and fertilizers as well as beneficial insects and animals as the first-choices resources for gardeners.

She said: There have been many improvements in disease resistance in the plants themselves. I am just blown away by how everything in nature works together.

One of the charts spotlights plants that are tropical and hardy here in Zone 7 such as elephant ears, needle palm (which can survive -10 degrees), ginger lily, some non-invasive bamboos, calla lily, canna and hardy banana.

In the lawn chapter, Kittle discusses a common problem: yellow spots on turf due to pet urine. The problem can be remedied by diluting the urine with water within 5 hours after it is deposited on the grass. But few home owners can be so diligent.

Bermuda and fescue are the most urine-resistant grasses, Kittle said but then presents another idea: clover lawns.
Clover, which was routinely a part of lawn seed mixes before 1950, does not turn yellow from urine, is drought-tolerant, requires no fertilizer, adds nutrients to the soil and is naturally low growing.

Most of us consider it a weed in lawn but maybe we should re-examine our feelings about clover. I did a Google search and there a quite a few experts advocating clover lawns.

The book includes charts on identifying problems in the gardens and their remedies, pruning tables, a month-by-month look at gardening chores and a list of flowering shrubs by month of bloom and lists of shrubs recommended for fall color, bird food and berries.

More detailed chapters were written for important shrubs in our landscape: azaleas, boxwood, camellias, gardenias, hollies, hydrangeas, roses and viburnums.

She notes that dead-heading or removing spent flowers does more than keep the plant looking good, It stimulates more blooms in many but not all perennials, which Kittle identifies on another useful chart.

The book also includes great tips on container gardening, bonsai, orchids, begonias, vegetable growing, flower arranging, flower preservation and poisonous plants.

The one thing the book does not have is a color photo for each of the plants it describes. For that, we would be looking at 1,000 pages and a price tag much heftier than the $21.95.

The book is now available at several places in the Memphis area: Dan West Garden Centers, Checkerberry Shoppe in Germantown, Dabney Nursery, Davis-Kidd Booksellers, Trees by Touliatos and the Urban Gardener.

A list of other retail outlets in the region can be found at the website of the Memphis Garden Club, which is affiliated with the Garden Club of America: memphisgardenclub.org