Growing Wise : garden books

Gardening in Hard Times II

Elisabeth — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:16:00 GMT

Gardens get people through hard times. The most obvious way is by providing food. A little less obvious, but still very important, is the psychological and physical value of gardening. America's settlers crossed oceans and frontiers with seeds and cuttings of favorite ornamental as well as edible plants stored in boxes and bags. The sight of a favorite nasturtium or lilac helped remind people of home and inspire them to do the hard work necessary to clear land, plant crops and begin new lives.

Our challenges are different now, but the value of gardening hasn't changed. A previous blog post covered food gardening. Now I want to give a bit of advice to cost conscious gardeners who focus on ornamentals. The following are the best tips for saving money right now:

Page through catalogs and click through websites. Make a list of plants, trees and shrubs that you need and/or want. Prioritize your list. Once that is done, look for early bird specials, free shipping and free plant offers (usually free with purchase). If any of your "must have" plants are offered by vendors with such promotions, take advantage of them
Multiples: If you need or want more than one of something, check for vendors who offer discounts on multiples of a single plant or plant group.
Team up with the neighbors: You can often save plant costs and/or shipping costs by splitting orders with a neighbor or friend. For instance, if you and your neighbor both want daylilies, find a vendor that offers discounts for multiple daylilies, combine your order, divide up the cost, and have the daylilies shipped to one address or the other. You may also save shipping costs this way.
Consider planting "easy" ornamentals (especially annuals) from seed. Even if you don't have the sunny space to start them inside, you can still get them going outside as soon as spring begins. Annuals will bloom later in the summer. It's a lot cheaper to grow 20-40 zinnia plants from a $2.25 pack of seeds than to buy flats at $9-$12 apiece. Check websites and catalogs for discounts on early seed orders. Store seeds in a cool dry place until you are ready to plant them.
Plan ahead and think about plants already in your garden that can be divided. Find a like-minded friend or neighbor and arrange swaps.
Learn more about plant propagation. A great book on the subject is Making More Plants by Ken Druse (Clarkson Potter, 2000). Check it out of your local library or buy it in paperback.
For a little humor plus inspiration on swapping or "passing along" plants, get your hands on Passalong Plants by Steve Bemder and Felder Rushing (University of North Carolina Press, 1993). It is also available in paperback.

Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden by Eleanor Perenyi

Elisabeth — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:17:00 GMT

One of the nice things about the post-Christmas period is the chance that it gives gardeners to think, plan and read. If you are looking for some gardening inspiration for the long days of January and February, pick up a copy of Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden, by Eleanor Perenyi. Originally published in 1981, it was reissued in paperback several years ago and is still available from online booksellers and public libraries.

Green Thoughts is not a typical gardening book, in that Perenyi, a former fashion editor, magazine contributor and biographer of Franz Liszt, was an amateur, rather than a professional gardener or garden writer. She only produced one gardening book, but it is a great one.

If I had to use one word to describe the seventy-two short essays in the book, it would be "spicey". If you have ever had a very intelligent, talkative and opinionated neighbor, you will recognize the tone. Eleanor Perenyi had pronounced likes and dislikes and was not shy about expressing them. Most modern daylilies left her cold, for example, while she sang the praises of many underappreciated older plant varieties. She also spoke freely about the challenges of maintaining a garden after hours and on weekends while working full time. The topics are arranged alphabetically--from "Annuals" to "Woman's Place"-- and, because each essay is distinct, it is very easy for the reader to dip in and out of the book.

So, pick up a copy of Green Thoughts, sneak off to a quiet place somewhere with a hot beverage of your choice and dig in to some great garden writing. Eleanor Perenyi is sure to add a new dimension to your own "green thoughts".

Winter Reading

Elisabeth — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 13:46:00 GMT

Starting on December twenty-second, daylight begins returning. For most gardeners, though, it will be at least two months before the very first signs of spring begin to make themselves known. In the meantime, good gardening books can sustain flagging inspiration levels and warm the soul. One of the warmest and best of these books is Passalong Plants by Steve Bender and Felder Rushing (The University of North Carolina Press, 1993).

Bender and Rushing are veteran gardeners and garden writers. They are also southerners with the characteristic southern gifts of earthiness, humor and highly descriptive prose.

"Passalong plants" are not unique to the South. Anyone who has ever gotten a cutting, root, division or a handful of seeds from a friend or relative has become the owner of a passalong plant. The plants that Bender and Rushing describe are easy to grow (sometimes too easy) and easy to love. Some of them, like star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum), can be downright invasive under the right circumstances. Another, kudzu, is beyond invasive, having passed itself around so thoroughly that it has engulfed parts of the South. In the case of kudzu, the authors don't so much encourage people to grow it as pay humorous tribute to its tenacity.

Rushing and Bender celebrate the beautiful plants like cleome, fragrant specimens such as tuberose and even unusual species like Rosa viridiflora, the green rose. Quirky section headings including "Wherefore Art Thou Deutzia" and "A Chaste Tree Kept Them Pure" add flavor. The penultimate chapter, "Well I Think It's Pretty," pays tongue-in-cheek tribute to outstanding examples of southern yard art like pink plastic flamingos, bottle trees and crown tires.

Like all the best gardening books, Passalong Plants instructs, inspires and makes you want to run out into your own garden. Even if you've never been south of the Mason Dixon, you will relish Passalong Plants.

Garden Goods

Elisabeth — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 22:35:00 GMT

Yesterday the weather was foul--too foul to work outside, even though my front walk was completely blanketed with fallen leaves. Leaving our sad looking yard and garden behind, my husband and I set out to visit antique shops in a town not far away.

I like to gawk at high end antique furniture and other things that I cannot afford, but what I look for on these trips are pieces of "gardenalia". Gardenalia can be interesting old tools, baskets, plant pots or vases, not to mention worthwhile gardening books, old catalogs and magazines. If you go to the right places--usually shops that are a little dusty and disorganized, you can sometimes find some interesting items. Not all of them will be antiques, but many will be better constructed and cost less than their newly manufactured counterparts.

Last summer I found a shop that displayed several old-fashioned wire egg baskets in a back room. I bought one for a very good price, filled it with a coir liner, potting soil and a large ivy-leafed geranium and displayed it on my front porch. The egg basket also had a sturdy handle, so it would also have made a good hanging basket.

I still treasure a 1947 garden catalog that I bought for one dollar a few years ago. It's fascinating to see what has changed in gardening in the past sixty years and what has remained the same.

Yesterday I considered any number of baskets, but I ended up coming home with Flowering Houseplants and Foliage Houseplants, both from The Time Life Encyclopedia of Gardening, which was published in 1971. The primary author of both volumes was James Underwood Crockett, a noted nurseryman and writer who was also the very first host of the PBS "Victory Garden" series that is still produced by Boston station WGBH. The books are extremely accessible and comprehensive with great illustrations. I paid four dollars for the two volumes, and have already assigned them to a prominent place on my garden library shelf.

I also came home with three little terra cotta flower pots made by the now-defunct Ward firm of Darlaston, Staffordshire, England. They are elegant little four-inch diameter vessels, miniature versions of the classic English "long tom" pots. They are perfect for young plants. Two of them will be home to the immature clivia and jasmine plants that I recently acquired. They aren't particularly old, but they weren't particularly expensive, and they will look handsome in my indoor garden.

In these times when we are once again espousing the "reduce, recycle and re-use" philosophy, I can't think of a more entertaining way to acquire inexpensive gardenalia than prowling through tag sales, flea markets and antique shops.

Henry Mitchell

Elisabeth — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 22:40:00 GMT

At this time of year, people who are a bit proactive start thinking about holiday gifts. If you are looking for the perfect gift for a gardener, look no further than Henry Mitchell.

Mitchell, who died in 1992, was a Texas native, a veteran journalist and a passionate gardener. For twenty years he wrote a column, "The Essential Earthman," for the Washington Post. His columns were published in book form, and those books include One Man's Garden, The Essential Earthman and Henry Mitchell on Gardening. America has produced many fine garden writers, but in my opinion, Mitchell was the best. His work was accessible, earthy, funny and inspiring. He was literate without being pedantic and sincere without being cloying.

Mitchell wrote about everything from daffodils to water gardens, and most, if not all, of his writing was based on his personal experience. Some of the chapter headings from One Man's Garden provide a nice sample of the flavor of Mitchell's writing. "Maintaining Your Garden and Maintaining Your Sanity" deals with the pleasures and pitfalls of doing your own garden maintenance; "I Try Not to Do Stupid Things," is about planting large vines spaces that are too small for them; and "In Some Gardens, Only the Shadow Grows" is about trees and shade gardening.

Mitchell's best columns contain information on growing a specific plant or type of plants, together with good doses of wisdom and humor. The columns are short enough so that you can read one or two of them before you fall asleep at night. I can't think of a better way to end the day.

Mitchell's books are still in print and are available in some bookstores as well as from the major online booksellers.