Right Rose Right Place: 359 Perfect Choices for Beds, Borders, Hedges and Screens, Containers, Fences, Trellises, and More by Peter Schneider

I'm an amateur gardener and roses are the plant that I find most intimidating. Gardening for me is a go-with-the-flow activity in which I try things and hope for the best. Roses have always seemed to me to be too high maintenance for my style, but after reading this book I think I may give them a try. There are certainly some lower maintenance climbing roses featured here that seem quite doable.

Perennial Care Manual: A Plant-by-Plant Guide: What to Do & When to Do It by Nancy J. Ondra

This book is really a one-stop shop for just about everything you'd want to know about perennial gardening. In addition to an extensive guide to many specific perennial plants, it includes sections on designing and creating a perennial bed, caring for and maintaining perennials, and transplanting and troubleshooting problems with these long-lived plants. I can tell that this is a book I'll come back to many times.

Black Plants: 75 Striking Choices for the Garden by Paul Bonine

I am currently in the midst of a multi-year project of turning our front yard into a front garden and I've selected black, white, purple, and silver for my color scheme. This book is an excellent resource for choosing plants with either black flowers or black foliage. While a number of these plants overwinter only in tropical zones, there are a great many that will thrive here in zone 6. What a striking contrast they provide to plants in a more typical color palette.

Atomic Ranch: Design Ideas for Stylish Ranch Homes by Michelle Gringeri-Brown, photographs by Jim Brown

As the owner of a ranch home, I'm quite familiar with the challenges and charms of this modest style. I'm quite happy to have a smaller footprint (both literally and in terms of sustainability) but it can take some clever thinking to make the most of limited space. The houses profiled here range from full-on retro to classic mid-century modern to sleek contemporary, and common ranch architectural features are also profiled.

Do you know how much food you throw away each year? Ever wonder how much that's costing you? A new website, Love Food Hate Waste, has a ton of great information about how we can save money by wasting less. There are tips for making fresh produce last longer, recipes for using up the little bits of various foods you might have left over, and you can even add your own tips and join the community of folks to discuss and ask questions.

Photo by svacher used under Creative Commons license

It is (finally!) time to start planning your garden. More folks than ever are interested in gardening - for both health and economic reasons, and why not? It provides you with nutritious produce fairly inexpensively, it is good for the environment and it provides a great excuse to get outside and get your hands dirty. This year take it to the next step and make it an organic garden.

Get your bikes and hiking boots ready! The I-275 Pathway is receiving a major facelift in 2010. Work on portions of the trail is expected to start in the spring.

MDOT is hosting an open house to explain the planned improvements to the Hines Drive-Michigan Avenue sections from 6:00-8:00PM on Tuesday, March 2nd in the Freedom Room of the Canton Township Administrative Building on Canton Center Rd. south of Cherry Hill.

Check out Michigan Trails and Greenway Alliance for more info.

No, you’re not dreaming! This Sunday, February 28, visit the Canton “Mini” Farmers Market anytime between 10:00AM and 2:00PM inside the Cady-Boyer Barn at Preservation Park (500 N. Ridge Rd. just north of Cherry Hill Rd.). Buy local foods and select Michigan-made products, including apples, cider, honey, eggs, cheese, grass-fed meats, jerky, smoked fish and meats, jams, baked goods, pasta and BBQ sauces, salsa — even dog treats! Also, mark your calendar for the other two “Mini” Market dates: Sundays, March 28 and April 25. For more details, visit cantonfun.org.

Here are some great sites for frugal advice - all available in your feed reader:

• Lifehacker - for example, their article The Best Times to Buy Anything, All Year Round
• MintLife Blog - such as Ready, Set, Action! What TV Characters Teach Us About Money
• The Grocery Cart Challenge - Can your family's grocery bill be $60 a week?
• Money Ning - Has a frugality category for budget-centric advice
• Get Rich Slowly - Another personal finance blog, frequently with cost-cutting advice

Also, some books here in CPL's collection:

The complete Tightwad gazette : promoting thrift as a viable alternative lifestyle by Amy Dacyczyn, a.k.a. The Frugal Zealot

Suddenly Frugal : How to Happier & Healthier for Less by Leah Ingram

Chef on a shoestring : more than 120 delicious, easy-on-the-budget recipes from America's best chefs by Andrew Freidman

Power of Gardens by Nancy Goslee Power

This book looks at gardens designed by Power, providing details about their history and design in addition to stunning double page spreads of gorgeous photographs. Many styles and types of gardens are included. Power's goal in each garden is to provide a place where people can relax, refresh, and feel at home, and it's easy to see that she's been successful.

Each year the Friends of the Rouge conduct a volunteer watershed Frog and Toad Survey. On Wednesday, March 3 from 7:00-9:00PM a training session will be held at The Summit in Canton. Volunteers will be trained to distinguish what type of frog or toad is making the various calls heard in local wetlands. The session is open to all ages (children welcome when accompanied by a participating adult). The session is free, but pre-registration is required. For more information or to register, call the Friends of the Rouge at (313) 792-9621 or email monitoring@therouge.org. To help you get a "jump" on the training, the Canton Library has many books on frogs and toads, such as A field guide to reptiles & amphibians: eastern and central North America.

Gardening with Shape, Line and Texture: A Plant Design Sourcebook by Linden Hawthorne

When designing a decorative garden, it can be quite helpful to think about the finished look as an artist might when painting. This book suggests plants and plant combinations selected with a painterly eye. These suggestions are divided into sections including horizontals and tiers, verticals and diagonals, clouds and transparents, and more. This is a book to spend some time with when in the design phase, or when something about your garden just isn't working and you need a new idea.

The Locavore Way: Discover and Enjoy the Pleasures of Locally Grown Food by Amy Cotler

Local eating has been in the news a lot the past few years, but how easy is it really? Easier than you'd think, and this book is chock full of ideas. It also outlines the many benefits, both personal and for the community and the world at large, of a locavore lifestyle. Looking for local food here in Canton? The Canton Farmers Market has fresh goods May through October and Calder Dairy delivers and is available along with other local goods at stores like Holiday Market. Are there other local options that you've discovered in Canton? Please share in the comments.

Eight workshops from the world's best quilt makers offers a unique opportunity to take classes without leaving home. The book Quiltmakers covers a wide range of quiltmaking skills like perfect piecing, applique, template making, adding straight and mitred borders and quilting. Each chapter gives a step-by-step instruction to the project.

'Tis the season for holiday decorating. Get some great ideas from our selection of holiday decorating books.

Beat Ebenezer Scrooge (your budget) and The Grinch (the economy) at their own game! Have a fun, festive and fancy Christmas Holiday without spending a lot of cabootle! Plan now and make your holiday season spectacular and stress-free. Everything you need is here to help stimulate your creativity; we have books ranging from 300 Ways to make the best Christmas ever to Christmas comfort and joy : 501 crafts, decorating and food ideas to make your holiday unforgettable. Be the envy of your friends and family and spend pennies for presents by checking out websites like http://simplemom.net/ and http://www.allfreecrafts.com/ for the frugal conscious!

Did you see this morning's Today Show feature about using energy meters to suss out the energy vampires lurking in your home?

If those energy meters seem like a pricey investment, consider checking out one of the library's Kill-a-Watt meters free of charge.

We all know that "Going Green" saves our planet Earth. But there's an added benefit, "Going Green" can also help you build personal wealth. In The Green Millionaire: A Practical Guide to Achieving Real Wealth While Helping to Save the Planet, author Nigel J. Williams explains how small changes like programming your thermostat or switching to rechargeable batteries can lead to savings. Then learn how to turn those green savings into wealth.

Are you looking for the perfect color to paint your living room but feeling overwhelmed? Check out House Beautiful Colors for Your Home for inspiration. Well known designers share their favorite color ideas. There are lots of color samples throughout this book to help you choose the perfect color.

They're always there amid the noise and bustle of our daily lives though we never quite notice them until the silence of a summer morning or the tranquility of a perfect twilight brings them into our awareness. Birdsongs; they're as close as our own backyard. Robins and bluejays, finches and sparrows all sharing their own unique language with us if we choose to listen.

We have a wonderful guide in our collection that not only gives vivid descriptions and beautiful color images but also the actual distinct calls made by each bird with just the touch of a button. Check out The Backyard Birdsong Guide by Donald Kroodsma for a really unique look into the lyrical world of our feathered friends.