Temple Square Gardening
by Christena Gates, Diane Erickson, Shelly Zollinger, and Larry Sagers

Reviewed by Laurie Williams Sowby

Pros offer inside secrets of the beauty of Temple Square gardens, along with down-to earth advice on how to get similar results at home.

For years, they’ve been making the grounds around Temple Square and the Church Office Building Plaza beautiful, and for years, people have wondered how they do it.

Now all is revealed in a beautifully photographed book, Temple Square Gardening, new from Eagle Gate (retail $26.95). The large-format, 182-page hardcover book contains not only lovely photos of the gardens, but specific info on how their beauty is attained and
maintained through soil preparation, design, color, plant selection, and weed and pest control. A brief history of gardening on Temple Square introduces the book, whose information is necessarily geared toward Salt lake City’s climate but can be adapted for other areas.

Besides the down-to-earth advice on all of the above, the book contains a valuable list of the gardeners’ favorite perennials, annuals, bulbs, roses, trees and shrubs, and grasses — helpfully listed alphabetically by scientific and common name below photos of
individual plants, and offering such other info as growing season; maximum height and width; light, soil, and watering requirements; and heat and cold tolerance. A comprehensive index also aids in locating specific information.

Just as the gardens are the result of a choreographed effort by many people, the book represents the collective effort of authors Chistena Gates, Diane Erickson, Shelly Zollinger and Larry Sagers. As retiring head gardener Peter Lassig writes in the foreward,
“Temple Square gardens have always been a joyful collaboration among equals . . . The success of the gardens has been a shared process, setting the pattern for the shared authorship of this book.”

And like the gardens, Temple Square Gardening is a lovley sight to behold.


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