T is for Thoreau on the A to Z Challenge.

Henry David Thoreau’s cabin – and me 2010

T is for Thoreau, author of Walden and many many journals in which “[he omitted] the unusual - the hurricanes and earthquakes – and described  the common.”  He had always recorded the weather and the natural scene in a sporadic and fragmented way, but in July of 1852 he declared a year of observation, a ‘year’ that lasted through 1861.  Amidst the the poetry of his prose, and his record of his own responses to the world, he began a careful record of the passing seasons, noting temperatures, leaf break, frost, and blooming seasons of many plants.

I love Walden and reread it from time to time, but I have not read much in the journals. It was with some surprise that I read in yesterday’s New York Times Book Review an essay by Andrea Wulf about the use that modern science is making of the journals. “Richard Primack, a professor of biology at Bsoton University, has collaborated with colleagues at Harvard to use the observations in Thoreau’s journals as the basis for groundbreaking studies in climate change,” she wrote.

Walden Pond

What the scientists have discovered is that the average tempeature of our springs  is 48 degrees, but Thoreau recorded an average of 42 degrees during his day. Also the first flowering of 32 species of flower has moved to 11 days early. Early blooming flowers have been more affected by the change in temperatures, than later blooming flowers, but the change is undeniable.

I wrote more about Walden Pond and my visit in 2010 here.

I have written about Andrea Wulf’s brilliant and engaging books about gardens and plant and American history here in a review of The Brother Gardeners featuring America’s first botanist John Bartram and his botanical adventures, and a review of The Founding Gardeners about Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Madision here.

To see what else begins with T click here at the A to Z Challenge.

S is for Sustainability on Earth Day 2013

Tom Benjamin

S is for Sustainability this Earth Day. Yesterday I introduced Tom Benjamin who designs sustainable, low maintenace landscapes to an attentive audience at our local ‘Little e’ (not the Big Eastern Exposition in Springfield) where the theme was saving energy.  The topic was Reduce Your Lawn and Increase Your Leisure. Since I have been writing about low-mow landscapes I was interested to hear how Tom calculated the benefits.

There are many. The first benefit, according to my husband, is less of his labor. But Tom pointed out that there are 40 million acres of lawn in the US. That is an area larger than the state of New York. Most of those lawns are fertilized, dosed with herbicides and irrigated. There are financial costs to all those aspects of growing a lawn, but there is also an environmental cost. Lawns use more fertilizers than farmers, and the run off from those fertilizers wash into our water systems. In addition, lawns do not support any wildlife, insects or birds.

In addition, an hour of power lawn mowing produces more air pollution than 5 automobiles driving for an hour. And, of course, there is the  gas and oil that it takes to run a power mower.

So, the question is, if we are looking for sustainability in our domestic landscape, how can we accomplish this. First there is hardscaping, patios and walkways, but make sure some of those use permeable paving materials.  We want to keep as much rain as possible on the land where it falls.

We can plant shrubs and trees and groundcovers that are drought tolerant and will not need irrigation. More money saved.  Using native shrubs, trees and groundcovers will also support the web of life. Sustainability means supporting biodiversity. This is a big topic and  fortunately there are a number of books that can help gardeners make sustainable decisions when they begin to reduce their lawn. After the  talk The audience spent a few minutes looking at the books I had written about. Energy Wise Landscape Design: A New Approach for Your Home and Garden, by our own local Expert Sue Reed is a book that Tom uses as a text in his teaching. Beautiful N0-Mow Yard: 50 Amazing Lawn Alternatives by Evelyn J. Hadden and Lawn Gone: Low Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternaatives for your Yard by Pam Penick deliver tons of information and inspiration.  In her book The Edible Front Yard: the Mow-less, Grow More Plan for a Beautiful Bountiful Garden by Ivette Soler takes a delicious tack on reducing lawn. I also want to  mention Covering Ground: Unexpected Ideas for Landscaping with Colorful, Low Maintenace Ground Covers  by Barbara W. Ellis. All of these books will give you ideas about ways to increase the sustainability into your landscape and garden.

How much lawn do you need?

To see what else begins with S click here.

J is for Juniper – Revealed in The Drunken Botanist

The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart

J is for Juniper which is essential for the making of gin. Read all in The Drunken Botanist. Author Amy Stewart, author of of other tell-all tales of plants and insects, Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities, and Wicked Bugs: The Louse that Conquered Napoleon’s Army and Other Diabolical Insects recently published her new book The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Make the World’s Great Drinks.

Her description of juniper includes a kind of sexy description “[Junipers] are dioecious, meaning that each tree is either male or female. The pllen from a male shrub can travel on the wind over a hundred miles to reach a female.”  There is more information about the plant, the berries which take two to three years to ripen and the chemicals like a-pinene, myrcene and limonene that make up its essential flavor. Of course, to make gin the juniper berries. They are combined with coriander and lemon peel – that also contain those same compounds.

All gins are not the same. There are differences between Distilled gin, Genever,  Gin, London gin, Mahon, Old Tom Gin, Plymouth gin and sloe gin. Sloes(Prunus spinosa) are tart berries and they can be macerated in gin to make sloe gin. To find out the properties of the other gins you’ll have to go to the book.

The Drunken Botantist will also tell you all there is to know about alcoholic drinks made from agave (tequila) to wheat (beer). It will not surprise you to know that Amy Stewart’s garden includes a bar for imbibing.

For more about the letter J on the A to Z challenge click here.

G is for Gardening Projects for Kids on A to Z Challenge

Gardening Projects for Kids by Cohen and Fisher

G is for Garden Projects for Kids: 101 ways to get kids outside, dirty, and having fun by Whitney Cohen and John Fisher of LIfe Lab in Santa Cruz, California.

Surely, my regular readers would not expect me to get through a whole month of posts without including a book or two. And this book from Timber Press is a doozy.  Garden Project for Kids is not only about growing veggies, but about other designing the garden so that there is room for a fairy garden, a swing, birdhouses, a bed where they can just dig. The beautiful photos in this book suggest that it is for the parents of very young children, but it seems to me, that once you get children out into the garden, it will be hard to get them out of the garden as they gr ow. There is always something new to see in the garden, some thing to taste, something to wonder at, and something to turn into a science project at school. Young gardeners will never want for a science project. Have you discovered your Soil Horizons? Geology! Mathematics!

What with people talking about a ‘nature deficit’ among our children, and the prescence of so many screens in our life, parents and friends sometimes wonder who we are going to get kids back into the outdoors. Garden Projects for Kids will inspire and support the parents of young children about all the ways the garden leads to healthy playtimes. Of course, there is just plain playing in the dirt, which can lead to planting in the dirt, which can lead to harvesting and eating good treats, but it can also lead to looking at bugs, looking at all the life to be found in a square foot of ground, how to make birdhouses out of plants you have grown, and how to pound flowers into art. Lots more too.

To see what else begins with G today, click here.

Kiss My Aster by Amanda Thomsen

Kiss My Aster by Amanda Thomsen

With snow on the ground in Heath it is hard to believe that spring is here and gardening season has begun. I have seedlings planted and sitting on my new heat mat in the guest room, but not a shoot in sight. Yet.

Since this spring is somewhat delayed there is still time to think about planting a small vegetable garden, even if you have never had one before. Or maybe you wish you had a flowery place to sit outside. 0r maybe you wish you had shade and a cool place to relax. The wild and witty Amanda Thomsen of the famous Kiss My Aster blog has just given us Kiss My Aster: A Graphic Guide to Creating a Fantastic Yard Totally Tailored to You. This book for the beginning gardener with it jolly cartoon-ish illustrations will help you sort out what kind of gardener you might be to garden design.

Thomsen has real insight into the mind and psyche of the new gardener. You can tell because on Page 14 she asks, “Overwhelmed? Don’t be. You’re just reading a book. Wait until you’re knee deep in quick set concrete before you freak out.” Does that tell you what kind of gardener she is?

For all her smart aleck frivolity and word play, Thomsen walks you through figuring out what can grow in your area, including taking a camera tour through your neighborhood to see what other people are growing This tour will give you inspiration and information Then you can show the photos of the plants you like to the people at the garden center, get them identified and buy them. She is full of slick tips like this.

Kiss My Aster is helpful to the gardener when she is planning to make her yard more beautiful and/or needs more information about starting a vegetable garden. In either case Thomsen gives brief information about individual plants, trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals for sun or shade. Herbs, too.

Thomsen doesn’t think you necessarily have to read this book from beginning to end. She even encourages you to look here and there. “To create the privacy of a hermit, turn to What Neighbors? Page 75” or “For a new and improved be, border or berm, turn to Soil Yourself page 62” or “Got a problem? Consult Weeds Happen page 154.” She includes a sustainability quiz. You get the idea.

Amanda Thomsen is great fun, but she gives good information and advice. She doesn’t think you have to do everything yourself. She is happy to suggest getting in some temporary help to do heavy jobs. She pays attention to the limits of resources, human and natural. She is even willing to hire a professional gardener or a garden coach. Sometimes the garden coach can be a good friend, or a good friend who knows a good gardener. That’s my additional advice.

When I have talked to people about starting a garden, or wanting to ‘do something’ with their yard, I always start out by asking what they want. Do they want a vegetable garden? Keep the first one small, I always say. Think about what you like to eat and plant that. Dig in compost before planting. And then I tell them they can get good compost locally from Martin’s Farm or Bear Path Farm. They don’t have to wait until they have made their own.

If they want to do something with their yard I ask what they like to do in their yard? Or what would they like to do? Do they want a patio where they can barbecue and visit with friends? Do they want a privacy barrier between them and their neighbor? Do they want flowers but don’t know a daisy from a phlox?

After identifying what they want in their yard, patio, vine covered fence, or a flower garden, I usually ask how much time they have to garden. Couples with children at home usually have less time than couples whose children are grown, although they may have responsibilities to older parents. What are your family responsibilities? Community responsibilities?

After you consider your desires and your constraints, it is time to begin. I recently came across a quote from the avant-garde composer. John Cage (1912-1992). He said “Begin anywhere.”  I liked that. We might hesitate, but begin. What’s the worst that can happen? Change is the nature of a garden. It will change itself. Or you can make changes. Either way, change in the garden is inevitable. Begin and learn. Begin and embrace change.

Between the Rows  March 30, 2013

We Have a Winner!

We have a winner! Catherine,  who has a new house and will be putting in a new vegetable garden,  wins this useful and instructing blook which comes with best wishes from me and Timber Press!

Time to Order New Roses – Looking for Hardiness and Fragrance

Scabrosa rugosa

It is time to order new roses, even if I have to look at a wintry landscape for some weeks yet. I looked through the catalogs and agonized but I finally made my decision. I am ordering two roses from the Antique Rose Emporium (ARE) because they send large container grown roses. This makes the shipping costs more expensive but the healthy bushes are such a nice size that the extra cost is worth it to me.

Basyes Purple Rose – ARE

Basyes Purple, a rugosa cross, is my fail-safe choice this spring. It is rated as hardy to zone 4.  This promises to have a really rich unusual color.  I have several hardy rugosas, often bought because of the description and reputation of the color. Scabrosa is a big hardy shrub with single pink flowers.  It has been billed as ‘the best of the rugosas’ with “purplish-crimson’ flowers but I don’t think they are substantially different from the common rugosa beach rose. I will say the flowers are large with beautiful golden stamens and big orange hips in the fall. It is also true that the bush is vigorously spreading.

Abraham Darby – ARE

The gamble I am taking this spring is David Austin’s Abraham Darby. David Austin’s goal was to create modern fragrant everblooming roses that looked like the romantic roses of yesteryear.  His roses are beautiful, and fragrant and so far have been too tender to survive for more than a couple of years here at the End of the Road. However, I am going to try to grow Abraham Darby once again because it is such a beautiful big fragrant rose whose petals shade from apricot to yellow to pink. Just luscious. It is billed as a tall shrub or short climber. It never got too big for me, but when I gave one to my daughter who lives is what is theoretically zone 5 it grew into such a vigorous climber that her husband decdided it was too ‘messy’ and took it out.  Our climate has definitely changed over the 32 winters we have lived here and are now listed as zone 5, but I have to remind myself that it is more than average temperatures that make up one’s zone. The Antique Rose Emporium does list it as a hardy rose so we will try again. The photograph here does not truly suggest the delicious buttery-ness of the large blossoms.

I’m not guaranteeing I won’t buy another rose or two this spring, but this is today’s order.

Don’t Forget – Still time to enter the BOOK GIVEAWAY of The Speedy Vegetable Garden. Click here and leave a comment. Drawing will be Thursday morning, Valentine’s Day!

Garden Books for the Young

Planting the Wild Garden by Kathryn Galbraith

I’ve written  about a number of garden books for  the young over the past year. They are not how-to books although there are books that do lead a child  into  the garden with real instructions. My friend Kathryn Galbraith wrote Planting the Wild Garden and turned science into poetry. She reveals all the ways that Mother Nature spreads seeds over the landscape using the wind and rain, and hot sun that makes seed pods burst. The rivers and streams carry seeds long distances, and animals move sticky seeds from here to there and the birds drop seeds in their own inimitable way. Even we humans carry seeds when they stick to our sweaters and socks.  Wendy Anderson Halperin created the beautiful delicate and accurate illustrations.

Kathryn takes a different tack in Arbor Day Square, the story of a family that was part of the pioneer move westward, building towns where there had only been grass and woods before. The young girl in the story knows that trees have more value than utility, they are  for beauty too. As the story unfolds it is clear that trees are also about building community. A tender story that we can all identify with today. The illustrations by Cyd Moore are as bright and cheerful as a quilt.

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

For the very youngest potential gardeners Lois Ehlert has given us a board book that teaches colors and the rainbow sequence while showing bold stylized flowers.

When my five children were small the happiest part of my day was bedtime (so often the case for us busy mothers) when the children were bathed and in their jammies, and we could all sit down, and slow down, together to read. A whole wold of wonderful children’s books opened up for me and them at the same time.  Then we acquired 9 grandchildren and when they visit we have moved on from my reading to them, to evenings of Reading Aloud when we all read to each other, and sometimes we even invite other guests to join us. We even have two great-granddaughters now. I have not had many opportunities to read to them, but as a new kindergarten student Bella is already to read aloud to us!

While I cannot claim that my book, The Roses at the End of the Road is suitable for bedtime reading for the young, it does work very well for us older gardeners. Right now, for those who buy it directly from me, I am offering a sale price of $12 and free shipping until the Twelfth Day of Christmas, January 6. It is also on sale at the Kindle Store for $3.95.

The Roses at the End of the Road

With these suggestions come my wishes for a happy Christmas and a year filled with happy hours of reading, about plants, and gardens, and gardeners, and every fascinating thing out in our beautiful world.

We Have a Winner!

Beautiful No Mow Yards by Evelyn Hadden

We have a winner. Eileen Taylor will recieve a copy of Beautiful No Mow Yards from Timber Press and a copy of The Roses at the End of the Road from me. Congratulations, Eileen!

Thank yous to all who helped me celebrate my fifth anniversary of blogging.

Last Chance for Celebratory Book Giveaway

Roses at the End of the Road

Today is your last chance to leave a comment here  by midnight tonight and participate in the my book giveaway. You could win a copy of Beautiful No Mow Yards AND my own book The Roses at the End of the Road. I have enjoyed these past five years that has brought so many wonderful new people into my life. And useful and inspiring books like Beautiful No Mow Lawns from Timber Press.

I will choose a name randomly tomorrow morning and will announce the winner. Good luck!