New flower garden book

•“The Well-Tended Perennial Garden” by Tracy DiSabato-Aust. Timber Press. 383 pages. $34.95.

Flower-bed maintenance is not a topic most people embrace as good reading. But this book possesses so much good information, presented in a clear, readable manner, that you might just start to see pruning, deadheading and other routine tasks as fun.

This is an expanded edition of a book by the same title published several years ago. That one sold 130,000 copies, the publisher reports. The new version has more and better pictures, a large maintenance journal for record keeping and 114 more pages.

The most valuable section is an encyclopedia of perennials that includes information about hardy perennials. Details of size, exposure, flowering time, pruning and other maintenance tasks are given for each, along with a picture.

There is plenty of overall advice about planting, problems, site preparation and renewal of old beds.