Books: A Child’s Garden and The Truth About Organics
Here on the hill in Heath the snow still covers the landscape. The drifts are deep. I can’t get down to the vegetable garden or into the Sunken Garden to prune the Sargent Crab. So I continue to read.
One book that I have been dreaming over is A Child’s Garden by Molly Dannenmaier (Timber Press 19.95) with all its “60 ideas to make any garden come alive for children”. As grandparents my husband and I spend time thinking about the ways our grandchildren see and use our country landscape.
When I was a child living on a farm on Lake Champlain no one would have dreamed of ‘designing’ a space for children’s play. Everything we needed was right there. The lake. The woods. Lawns. A sandpile next to the garage where my grandfather had his woodshop. There were cows and chickens to help with. There were fields and fields and the family vegetable garden.
The essentials Dannenmaier lists to give children spaces that will provide delight and a doorway to imaginative play are no surprise to me.
The first is water, and I don’t think any parent or grandparent doesn’t know this. Give a child access to water and the child will be happy and engrossed for hours.
Then comes heights. Tree climbing anyone? Followed by refuge, a place to hide or be alone, and a place for expansive movement. I knew there was a reason we have lawns. She also talks about make believe, a place to nurture plants and animals and a place to dig. All of these places also provide a place to learn about the world.
It is natural that parents should worry about the safety of their children, but as Dannenmaier says ‘Hazards are different from challenges.” She says, and I agree, that water, heights, and sometimes plants can pose challenges. Children have to be taught to be careful, but I think we parents also have to trust their instinct for self preservation. We can’t protect our children forever. Bruises and bumps are a part of life, and managing them in a relatively benign landscape can help.
The book is beautifully illustrated with photographs of young children in the gardens and playspaces that exist in private homes and public gardens. Some are very simple, others are elaborate, but all will get our parental imaginations humming.
Some of us will find ideas and photos that may take us back to the delights of our own childhood. One hideaway and refuge was a weeping mulberry tree – and it was just like the ‘mulberry bush’ in my cousin’s suburban yard, where we spent a lot of time hiding and whispering, feeling very far away from the adults. There were other examples of simple refuges made with fast growing vines
An appropriate companion to A Child’s Garden is Dr. Jeff Gillman’s new book The Truth About Organic Gardening: Benefits, Drawbacks and the Bottom Line. (Timber Press $12.95).
One of the reasons I have always been an organic gardener is because I don’t want any poisons in my garden to harm children or other wild life.
Gillman first explains organic basics, and then gives information about 100 techniques and products with a summary of the benefits, the drawbacks and finally the bottom line which is his recommendation. This format is useful and I appreciate getting his own opinion which he sometimes gives .
The book ranges through understanding pesticides, soil enrichment and fertilization, weed control, insect control, disease control, controlling wildlife, and organic practices and our ecosystem. This kind of organization makes it very easy to look up information about specific problems or concerns we might have, but there is also an excellent index.
A basic and important point he makes right at the start is that it is imperative to read labels on the products we buy. It is confusing and intimidating to read all those chemical names but it is essential that we know exactly what it is we are buying and planning to use.
One of the important points he makes is that sometimes chemicals are the safest solution and that just because it is ‘natural’ does not mean a substance is safe. For example, Roundup which has always sounded like a horror to me, actually has a very short life in the soil. When eradicating invasive plants Roundup would be a good choice. Always the warning is that any product should be used carefully and according to directions.
On the other side, rotenone is often listed as a natural way to control insects. Gillman points out that while it is a potent poison for insects you want to kill, it is also dangerous to beneficial insects and it also kills aquatic life. It is also more toxic to humans than other pesticides. As far as Gillman is concerned, “Why would any same person use this pesticide?”
The book is full of excellent scientific information, citing studies and explaining the significance of those studies. Sometimes we have a piece of information but we really don’t know what it means. Gillman doesn’t allow that to happen.
This is an excellent book to have on hand when you are in the garden center looking at the vast and colorful array of available pesticides and herbicides. We all should know exactly what it is we are putting in our gardens.
Don’t forget the Master Gardener’s Symposium at Frontier Regional High School in South Deerfield today, March 29 from 9-1:30 pm. Partners in Paradise: The Art of Edible Landscaping is exactly what I want to know more about.
March 29, 2008