I also love to seek out old gardening books. I have several by Alfred Carl Hottes, published in the fifties, that are full of great info and absolutely beautiful, with lovely graphics and b&w photos, printed on glossy clay-coated paper. They flop open compliantly to any page.
So, you gardeners—got a gardening library?
― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 23:17 (nineteen years ago)
I've never been much of a gardener. Where I grew up, we had lawns and we had vegetable gardens and we had fields of corn and soybeans. We had a "woods" too, acres and acres of wild tangled maples, oaks, and hickories along the crick and a branch of Little White Lick. We didn't have houseplants really, though I grew a stunted avocado once for science fair. So I never had much exposure to gardens as I think of them now - oases of color and light and shade, places of beauty and contemplative work. I started to gain an appreciation when I moved to Seattle, where things grow willingly and people carefully develop small urban spaces into loveliness. A few years ago, I read Katherine White's collection of seed catalogue reviews (can't recall the title and am having no luck finding it at the moment), and I was hooked. We were living in a house nestled in a green belt, with a long neglected but interesting yard where forgotten perennials would appear at random. We were only there for 18 months before abandoning it for a downtown apartment, but I learned and pruned and planted and composted and reveled in the beauty of the things I could grow. And, started reading and collecting gardening books.
The main one I use for research and wishlisting is the Sunset Western Garden Book, but there's also Perennials for Washington and Oregon. For reading, Katherine White (of the New Yorker) - her collection of seed catalogue reviews and her letters to Elizabeth Lawrence, Elizabeth Lawrence's A Garden of One's Own and A Southern Garden, some collections of Gertrude Jekyll, and all of the gardening series from Common Reader.
The place we live now is challenging w/r/t making a garden, mostly because we don't expect to stay here. The soil is good, generally, but the climate harsh. The steppes of eastern Washington - broiling hot summers, severely cold winters, high winds, little rain. I'm more inspired to stay indoors most days, imagining a move back to Seattle.
― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 14:53 (nineteen years ago)
One year rabbits decimated my annual seedlings the first night after I planted them out. In a rage I consulted my books, only to find this entry in the Wise Garden Encyclopedia (first pub.1936—I have a '51 and a '59 edition. Sick.):
"Another eater of green vegetation who may possibly visit or take up residence in the garden is the cottontail rabbit, of which varieties are found throughout the U.S. Here is another case of the gardener's choice: Is the company of this timid and beautiful little creature worth his board in bark, grass, foliage and vegetables? He has nothing in his favor except attractive appearance and engaging manner unless it is the fact that he is nobody's enemy. He is not an insect eater, not does he prey on foes of insect pests."
There is also, under "Mulching" a picture of a shrub swaddled in fiberglass batting, captioned "GLASS WOOL, A NEW KIND OF MULCHING MATERIAL."
AND there's an entry on "Men's Garden Clubs!!!!"
Another rainy day. Maybe I'll go to the used book store!
― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 15:15 (nineteen years ago)
― Mädchen (Madchen), Thursday, 4 May 2006 11:50 (nineteen years ago)
Henry Mitchell, The Essential Earthman
― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 14:30 (eighteen years ago)
Anyone else read this?
― Aimless (Aimless), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 14:46 (eighteen years ago)
― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 11:24 (eighteen years ago)
― Aimless (Aimless), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 14:43 (eighteen years ago)