Since starting a shortgrass prairie garden in our yard in 2017, I’ve gone back to these books for reference and inspiration. I’ll update the list from time to time. If you have any to recommend, get in touch!
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Plants and gardening
Jewels of the Plains by Claude Barr (1983)
The Prairie Garden: a step-by-step guide to creating a shortgrass prairie garden by Rick Brune (1991)
Low-Water Native Plants for Colorado Gardens: Front Range & Foothills by the Colorado Native Plant Society (2016)
Low-Water Native Plants for Colorado Gardens: Prairies & Plains by the Colorado Native Plant Society (2016)
Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie by Kelly Kindscher (1987)
Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie by Kelly Kindscher (1992)
Messy Ecosystems, Orderly Frames by Joan Iverson Nassauer in Landscape Journal (1995)
Bringing Nature Home by Douglas Tallamy (2007)
Prairie Up by Benjamin Vogt
A New Garden Ethic by Benjamin Vogt
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Field guides
Prairie: A North American Guide by Suzanne Winckler (2004)
Peterson Field Guides: The North American Prairie by Ruth Carol Cushman and Stephen R. Jones (2004)
The Tallgrass Prairie: An Introduction by Cindy Crosby (2017)
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Natural history
The Prairie World by David S. Costello (1969)
The Shortgrass Prairie by Ruth Carol Cushman and Stephen R. Jones (1988)
Grassland by Richard Manning (1997)
Prairie: A Natural History by Candace Savage (2004)
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Fiction
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1940)
Plainsong by Kent Haruf (2000)
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1985)
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Narrative nonfiction
Great Plains by Ian Frazier (1989)
PrairyErth by William Least Heat-Moon (1991)
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold (1949)