Eat your yard Well-timed for the growing local movement, "The Family Kitchen Garden" (Timber Press, $24.95) aims to get you and your family planting, harvesting and enjoying the fruits of your land.

Don't let the photos of little kids fool you. The content is aimed at adults who want to get serious. The tips for beginners about not sowing an entire seed packet graduate quickly to more technical instructions for crop rotation and succession planting. Easier reading is found in the month-by-month section, where the authors match what to grow with ideas for what to do with your crop. Minnesotans will get a kick out of the things we're supposed to be able to grow and fix in February. With a little adaptation though, northern gardeners can enjoy this fact-filled guide to growing herbs and vegetables.

Easy-care gardening For those of us who want to work less and play more in the garden, Tracy Disabato-Aust offers a way to sit back in style. "50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants" (Timber Press, $16.95) is a guide to plants that can be focal points in your perennial border without hours of staking, dividing and deadheading.

Disabato-Aust makes a convincing case for each plant. Each gets three pages with a description, photos and its grades on her 12-point maintenance checklist. Each plant also had to meet her criteria for "high-impact traits," such as long-lasting bloom and architectural form.

Happily for Minnesotans, 29 of the 50 plants are hardy to Zone 4. If you give in to "zone denial," you could try them all. Only one quibble: Endless Summer hydrangea needs more watering than a lazy, er, low-maintenance gardener like myself might want to do.

MAUREEN MCCARTHY