"Garden Gossips" is the name author Barb Gorges has given to the more than 100 experienced and enthusiastic Cheyenne, Wyoming gardeners she has interviewed. Their advice will help novice and veteran gardeners to...

Adapt to High Plains challenges: short season, high elevation, alkaline soil, antelope, cold, drought, hail and wind. Take you beyond the typical vegetable, fruit, herb and flower gardens and introduce you to the world of water, rock, rain, container, hoop house, straw bale, bee, native plant, raised bed and vertical gardens. Teach you to plant and maintain trees, to have a lawn with little water and work or replace it with ground covers, native plants and pollinator gardens. Create a Firewise home and care for your piece of native prairie if you live "out in the county." Enjoy the off-season with advice on winter sowing, creating winter interest and growing houseplants to keep your thumb green during the winter. Peruse 270 photos taken almost exclusively in Laramie County, including the Garden and Plant galleries. Look for the Plant List, Barb's Bookshelf, Resources and the Keyword Index.

Cheyenne Botanic Gardens founder and director emeritus Shane Smith wrote the foreword-along with nuggets of wisdom sprinkled throughout the book.

Author Barb Gorges started gardening in Cheyenne in 1989. She's been writing the Wyoming Tribune Eagle garden column since 2012. Her gardening successes are thanks to the generosity of the Cheyenne Garden Gossips, and yours will be, too.