Gardening and landscape-design books can take you away from your weeding while the weather's overheating. Here are a few good ones to check out.

What do you want in a plant? Flowers, berries, foliage color in summer and fall? Perhaps resistance to deer and drought? Should it be evergreen and low maintenance?

Most floral clocks are simply outdoor motorized timepieces with ornamental flowers in the shape of a clock. But what if you could coordinate the blooming so that the flowers would open and close at set times of the day? Now that would be an innovative way to tell time.

It's been raining a lot lately, this being hurricane season. While it's good to leave our drought of the past three years behind, it's clear that sudden drenching rains, or sustained heavy rain, can cause flooding and serious damage.

There's always something blooming in the Washington area -- even on the hottest days of summer.

One school holiday assignment I never minded was to read a book of my choice. So, here are my picks for some landscape and gardening books for your holiday reading and gift list this year.

When Bo Barefoot gives directions to his house in Bethesda, he stops with the turn onto his street. After that, he says, "You'll see the banana trees."

Here is a brief glossary of common landscape terms that may come in handy:

Gardens can make you feel relaxed or energized, depending on their design. Do you know how to balance the energy flow in your landscape design to ensure that it will be comfortable and harmonious with your surroundings?

Nothing beats curling up with a book in your favorite chair, except maybe being in front of a fireplace, too. Here are my book picks for this year's holiday shopping list: