A Handful of GardenBooks – Reading Roundup

  • Post published:12/16/2014
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Books are the perfect gift for every occasion, and every season. Here are a few of the garden books I have enjoyed this year

Slow Flowers by Debra Prinzing Slow Flowers: Four Seasons of Locally Grown Bouquets from Garden Meadow and Farm  by Debra Prinzing is an encouraging book. Debra’s 52 weeks of bouquets from local flowers from ‘garden, meadow and farm’ are full of surprises and inspiration for those of us who are fearful and reluctant flower arrangers. She says she always put herself in that company of timid arrangers but the  work she did with flower farmers and arrangers for her earlier book, The 50 Mile Bouquet, with gorgeous photos by David Perry, gave her more confidence.  Each two page spread in  the  book includes a photo and description of a seasonal arrangement with a list of ‘ingredients.’ We don’t have flowers from our own gardens  at this time of the year, but we may be thinking about the flowers we want to grow that will help us make our own beautiful arrangements. Slow Flowers will also make us look at the bouquet we get with  our weekly CSAorder quite differently. We love local flower growers! Like so many garden books Slow Flowers has beautiful photographs.

Five Plant Gardens by Nancy OnFive Plant Gardens: 52 Ways to Grow a PerennialGarden with Just Five Plants by Nancy Ondra. This book has something for everyone, but it provides an extra measure of design confidence for the novice gardener.

Ondra’s book is first divided into two parts, sunny gardens and then shady gardens. Within each section are 25 five plant combinations, but with some alternate plants in case you want to provide a little more variety when you are extending the original plan. For example, theWelcomeSpringGardenappeals to me because I am so hungry for flowers after our long winters. The five suggestions are Jacob’s ladder with its tall lacy foliage and clusters of blue flowers, deep blue Caesar’s Brother Siberian iris, ‘Corbett’ a yellow wild columbine and a striped bloody cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum var. striatum) and ajuga ‘Burgundy Glow.’ I was pleased that Ondra gave a warning about the vigor of ajuga. Ajuga is wonderful because it so quickly covers a lot of ground but it is so vigorous that it is difficult to contain. I don’t mind the ajuga that has invaded a section of my lawn because I am no devotee of fine turf, but it is good to be warned.

Square Foot Gardening with KidsSquare Foot Gardening With Kids by Mel Bartholomew. Those who are familiar with Mel Bartholomew’s unique Square Foot Gardening techniques may be surprised to see how they can lead children not only into a successful garden, but into science and math understanding. Mel begins with a sensible overview of how to use the book with different age groups, and continues with basic information for all.

Bartholomew’s book will be valuable to parents, but it will also intrigue children with various experiments, making functional trellises, and even a season-extending plastic dome. A final section gives growing information about the most common herbs and vegetables. Advice to any new gardener, child or adult, is to keep the beginning small so that it does not overwhelm. Teachers might find these garden books helpful as well. Right in our own area we have an elementary school with an agricultural curriculum, and many other schools are starting their own school gardens.
Gardening Labor For Kids While Square Foot Gardening for Kids is mostly geared to school age children, Gardening Lab for Kids: 52 Fun Experiments by Renata Fossen Brown is designed to help the parents of young children find their way into the garden with a series of discrete projects. A list of the short chapters shows the variety of approaches from Planting Spring Seeds, Make a Rain Gauge, Plant an Herb Spiral, Make a Bird Feeder and Make a Sweet Pea Teepee.

Fossen is the Associate Director of Education at the ClevelandBotanical Garden where thousands of children come with their classes or with parents to learn about butterflies and pollinators and all kinds of plants so she is familiar with the many tactile ways children engage with nature and a garden.

Old or young, there is a lot to learn in the garden, and inspiration to be found. Who on your gift list doesn’t know that these books provide just the information and inspiration they need?

 

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