By Virginia Roberts
Rhinelander District Library Director

Spring has arrived at the Rhinelander District Library! Vernal equinox was Saturday, and temps skirted 60 on Sunday, but there is still a pile of snow in the parking lot, here. We’re ready to help you get prepared for the spring weather to come! Along with an upcoming Crafternoon craft, a hanging felt succulent basket, to green things up Tuesday, March 23, there are a new crop of gardening books out.

Grow Food For Free, by Huw Richards, shows how to use found objects (pallets) to make a raised bed, cuttings from your kitchen vegetables to propagate new food as well as how to sow, keep your soil healthy, and harvest, included in its useful information. Garden Alchemy, by Stephanie Rose of Garden Therapy, explains making organic fertilizers, critter deterrents, compost boosters, and back yard wild life food. Part how-to and part cookbook, here are recipes for hummingbird nectar, instructions on how to make your own citronella candle, and best practices for composting.

The Modern Cottage Garden, by Greg Loades, may help update your existing garden with bright fresh colors, and Ann Banhagen’s Midwest Native Plant Primer has 225 native plants to make your garden more habitat friendly.

Don’t do outside gardening? Houseplants for All, by Danae Horst might help you green up your interior. Love nature but don’t want to maintain it? The Oak Papers by James Canton, may be just the book for you. It explores human connections with nature in the boughs of an ancient oak.

So until those days when sixty degree weather is the norm rather than the exception, you can enjoy nature to your heart’s content with books from the library. Interested in these books or want to join in on the Crafternoon? Call RDL at 715-365-1070 or check out or website www.rhinelanderlibrary.org.