From the bookshelf. (gardening books)(Brief Article)

Both beginning gardeners and those wanting a new look can take cues from three books that have recently arrived on the shelves.

Margaret Roach offers a month-by-month approach to gardening, suitable for all levels of horticultural experience, in A Way to Garden: A Hands-On Primer for Every Season (Clarkson/Potter; $30; 176 pages).

Roach includes such topics as planting before the snow melts, starting seeds and mulching, as well as features on various plants.

A Way to Garden is easy to read and packed with information, but the pictures alone make it worthwhile.

Sometimes, plants alone don't make a garden, and Linda Joan Smith shares …