Quilting group meets on the first Wednesday night of each month from 7:00-8:45PM in the Community Room. Bring your quilts to show and ideas to share with the other quilters. The library has a large collection of books on quilting. Browse through our collection and enjoy your evening.

My fave pet books and what I can't wait to read

Marley and me : life and love with the world's worst dog by John Grogan

Dewey : the small-town library cat who touched the world by Vicki Myron ; with Bret Witter

Homer's odyssey : a fearless feline tale, or how I learned about love and life with a blind wonder cat by Gwen Cooper

My name is Anne Heidemann. I am an amateur gardener who has been growing vegetables, herbs, and perennials for about 3 years. I don't have any formal training but have gained most of my knowledge from gardening books found at the Canton Public Library — along with advice given to me by fellow enthusiasts. There are also many green thumbs in my family who have shared their experiences with me.

Meet Anne and ask her your questions as part of our Living Books program. To learn more, drop by our Meet & Greet on Saturday, September 25, from 1:00-3:00PM.

Herb gardening for the Midwest by Debra Knapke, Laura Peters — Interested in growing herbs? This guide includes all you need to know about the herbs that thrive in this region and includes herbs of ornamental interest and of practical use. Details for each herb or plant include features, growing instructions, tips for best results, recommended varieties, harvesting and processing instructions, and uses. Everything is easy to understand and the color photographs are extremely helpful, especially for gardeners who have aesthetics in mind.

Young readers can turn to click magazine as a great alternative to clicking on the T.V. "Click," the mouse, is your narrator throughout the picture-filled pages. This fun science magazine offers stories, comics, interviews, and creative activities to encourage young curious minds. It is available in the children's department. So stretch your mind and click on something new today.

The Gossler guide to the best hardy shrubs : more than 350 expert choices for your garden by Roger, Eric, and Marjory Gossler ; foreword by John E. Elsley

Shrubs are one of the easiest additions you can make to your landscape and this guide offers a wealth of choices to fit just about any environment. Many shrubs require little to no maintenance and for those whose thumbs are less than green, this book even includes a chapter entitled, "How Not to Kill Your Plants." Filled with beautiful, full-color photographs, you can see the look of these shrubs and in many cases, how they can be used for lovely effect within a landscape.

Edible gardening for the Midwest: vegetables, herbs, fruits & seeds by Colleen Vanderlinden and Alison Beck
This guide will be useful for both beginning and experienced gardeners. It has an introductory section on starting your garden, and then concise, detailed information about the most commonly grown vegetables, herbs, fruits, and seeds found in Midwestern gardens. You should also check out Vanderlinden's blog In the Garden Online, or any of her extremely useful articles at organicgardening.about.com. She's a Michigan gardener with lots of great insights and a terrific sense of humor.

Come for a stroll at Canton’s 1^st annual Sound Garden event. It will be taking place at the Lower Rouge Recreation Trail on Thursday, August 12 from 6:30-8:30PM. Light refreshments will be available and live music is going to be stationed along the trail for your enjoyment.

Planting: the planting design book for the twenty-first century by Diarmuid Gavin & Terence Conran

This stunning oversize book is full of both great ideas for gardeners and gorgeous photographs of plants, flowers, and gardens. Looking to create a particular type of garden? You'll find philosophical and practical information, design layouts, and specific plant suggestions for each of several different types. Gardeners will also find inspiration in the lavishly photographed gardens and estates pictured.

Green Consumers

The consumer's guide to effective environmental choices : practical advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists by Michael Brower and Warren Leon

The virtuous consumer : your essential shopping guide for a better, kinder, healthier world by Leslie Garrett ; foreword by Peter Greenberg

Green Cleaning

Clean : the humble art of Zen-cleansing by Michael De Jong

Some fun facts about blueberries:

1. The blueberry muffin is the most popular muffin in the United States
2. The blueberry is the official state fruit of New Jersey
3. A single bush can produce as many as 6,000 blueberries a year
4. There are only three commercial fruits native to North America: blueberries, cranberries and Concord grapes

Learn more about National Blueberry Month.

The rock garden plant primer : easy, small plants for containers, patios, and the open garden by Christopher Grey-Wilson

If you have a rock garden and are looking for plants, this book is for you. If you don't have a rock garden but are looking for groundcovers or low-growing flowering plants, this book is for you, too. Inside you'll find detailed descriptions of hundreds of plants, as well as lists of which ones grow best in particular conditions, and general information about how to create your own rock garden. Many of these plants work well in weather like we're having right now (hot!).

The green home by Bridget Biscotti Bradley and the editors of Sunset Books

How green is your home? What impact on your health and well-being do the materials and items in your house have? It could be a lot, and if you're planning a renovation or even just redecorating, this book has a lot of great information about how to make environmentally responsible choices that are also aesthetically pleasing and useful in everyday real life.

So you've heard about the declining bee populations as well as how important these pollinators are to the environment. One-third of our food supply relies upon them for pollination which is essential for the reproduction of the plants the bees service. If these are not reasons enough to keep bees there is also the delectable honey. If you have been entertaining the idea of keeping bees you probably already know this, but you might not know the next step. First, you should consider the negative aspects of keeping bees.

The bizarre and incredible world of plants by Wolfgang Stuppy, Rob Kesseler, Madeline Harley

Ever wondered what happens inside a seed? Or why some flowers are pollinated by bees, others by birds, and still others by bats? Curious what pollen looks like at a microscopic level? This book shows all of these and more, offering stunning color photographs of flowers and other plants. Gorgeous to look at and filled with scientific facts about the plants pictured, this book is enjoyable on several levels.

Small plot, high yield gardening : grow like a pro, save money, and eat well from your front (or back or side) yard 100% organic produce garden by Sal Gilbertie and Larry Sheehan

Organic gardening has become quite popular in recent years, and this book is a great guide to creating and maintaining your own organic garden in whatever space you may have available. It includes a wealth of information, big picture planning and organic philosophy stuff as well as little hints that can be extremely helpful (such as: grow onions or some variant around the edges of your garden to deter pests). Even the book itself has an earthy feel, with rich soil-colored text on creamy white pages. A treat for organic gardeners of all levels.

Kitchen garden : month by month by Alan Buckingham

This book is truly a step-by-step guide to growing your own food. It starts at the very beginning with planning and goes all the way through to the payoff of harvesting. Some of the tasks listed for the winter months are suitable for those lucky enough to have a home greenhouse or coldframe, but these are easily pushed back to spring thaw for those of us without. The most useful part of this book for me, though, is the Crop Planner. It includes detailed information about a variety of edibles, and I'll definitely be coming back to this section again.

The American meadow garden: creating a natural alternative to the traditional lawn by John Greenlee; photography by Saxon Holt

This book is chock full of ideas for both individual plants and combinations that work well in a meadow garden. There are many grasses, both flowering and not, as well as other plants common to meadows. Many of these plants can be used in a suburban home landscape, even if you don't have room for what feels like a whole meadow. The photographs of existing meadow gardens are also beautiful and inspirational.

We're celebrating Earth Day all week (April 18 - 23) and want you to join us! There will be events for adults, teens, tweens and children, including:

• Earth Week Mural Art Creation — Sunday, April 18, 1:00-3:00PM
• Recycled Crafts — Tuesday, April 20, 5:00-5:45PM
• How to Become a Master Gardener — Tuesday, April 20, 7:00-8:30PM
• A Michivore Life — Wednesday, April 21, 7:00-8:30PM
• Energy Alternatives — Thursday, April 22, 7:00-8:30PM
• Scrapbox Fun! — Friday, April 23, 10:00-11:00AM

Also, be sure to share your green tips and tricks with the community by posting on the Electronic Green Board.

With a little ingenuity, some quality tools, and the right raw materials, you can create a noteworthy living/work space from scratch. Yes, you!

It seems like every blog out there has featured posts lately about making and/or hacking furniture and decorations. Here are some of the best:

• Dollar Store Crafts highlighted a wonderful $15 makeover of a renter's kitchen
• Unplggd has 5 Ways To Make Your Office Chair Suck A Little Less
• They also have a guide for How To Choose the Right TV Wall Mount
• ikea hacker has great new ideas all the time
• Lifehacker readers have been posting their workspaces to this Flickr pool
• wikiHow has an interesting page about