Homekeeper's Library: Gardening Books, Part Two
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| photo: John C. Wilson |
We welcome the return of sun and warmth just as we welcomed
the wet winter that helped, if not alleviated, the California drought. Our
beloved California laurel, which hung onto its leaves in defense of want, has
finally shed them, only to burst into curls of new growth seemingly overnight.
In the laurel's shadow, the baby palm has put forth annual new fronds, curled and spiky, folded in upon themselves.
With water and sun, they will open as the arms that they are to embrace sun and
sky. The hummingbirds and bees are fussing for sweet nectar, and between the
corners of the old rock wall, a spider web attests both to new growth and to
spring housekeeping.
Shadows are cool and invigorating, sweetened with the perfume
of lemon blossoms that is unmistakably the fragrance of springtime in Los
Angeles. Amid the sunshine and perfume, the patio beckons, as do the sidewalk,
the park bench, the tennis court. And so does the garden patch. Our elemental
selves resonate with the turning of the seasons. We are deeply touched when we
touch the soil. While there is no substitute for getting your hands
dirty, gardening letters are an important shelf on the homekeeper's library. Reading
about gardening is inspiring and educational, from basic gardening to
specializing, from useful reference tomes to gorgeous photo essays. Following
my first column about gardening books, here are some further titles to beautify and inspire not just your gardening library but, most importantly, your garden.
Gardening Books, Part Two
As with all guides at Urban Home
Blog, this is not meant
to be a comprehensive list but one of suggestions based on my own experience as
a lifestyle writer and homekeeper. As always, none of these is a compensated
endorsement.
Conservation is a core value in our urban home, and outdoor living is a crucial element in that. We feed hummingbirds and advocate for bees
to make our patch of yard as hospitable to possible to the creatures who not
only share our garden, but care for it in partnership with us as part of the
great family of Mother Earth. No one wrote more eloquently about stewardship for Mother Earth and our responsibilities for care and conservation than Rachel
Carson. Her Silent Spring is a
pillar of conservation, as powerful and important a read now as when it was
initially published. Among the titles on the conservation shelf of our homekeeper's library are books about Frogs, Rats, Bats, and The Kingdom of Fungi.
The studies of ecology and conservation encompass everything
from entomology to hydrology, with any topic therein being relevant to
gardeners. The fundamental discipline for gardeners is botany, and the home gardener could
hardly find a more beneficial guide to the study of plants than Geoff Hodges' Practical Botany for Gardeners. Plants are an advanced, highly adaptable kingdom, with respiratory systems, methodologies for marking time, even communication systems amongst themselves and with their caretakers. This
book is written to be understandable and useful, which values reveal themselves
as you find yourself interacting with your plants as the
living beings that they are. As a bonus, this book is
beautiful; the kind of book you leave on a table not just to dip into for the
writing but for the gorgeous illustrations.
A basic gardening guide is invaluable for the gardening
bookshelf. As noted in the first column about gardening books, Better
Homes and Gardens New Complete Guide to Gardening is a comprehensive
resource for the home gardener. The Best of Martha Stewart Living Gardening 101 and its rare companion volume Gardening from Seed are less
encyclopedic than BHG, but as
practical and inspirational as their creators intended them to be. Anyone who
saves seeds will benefit from Gardening
from Seed, whereas Gardening 101
is as thorough as its directions for plotting a garden, caring for soil, and growing common home garden plants from fruits and vegetables to
trees, shrubs, and grass. Gardening 101
also contains an important section covering stewardship that
every gardener must become familiar with, such as USDA heartiness zone and
seasonal considerations such as weather.
Home gardening is not just an outdoor pursuit. For many home
gardeners, indoor gardening is the preferred method and for some it's the only
option. We've previously covered resources for container gardening, but two
invaluable vintage titles are Ward & Peskett's Indoor Plants and All
About House Plants by Montague Free and Marjorie J. Dietz. They are easy to
understand but comprehensive in usability. With them, the indoor gardener
learns the vital skills of determining what indoor plants are suitable for
their home environment along with the particular care and conditioning that
indoor plants require. This is very important for, as I always counsel, plants
are members of your family, and must be cared for as such. You can augment
these selection and care manuals with Sunset's
Decorating with House Plants. I found these three vintage titles in a
favorite hideaway used bookstore, where I love to shop for the treasures that
invariably await, to support local business, and to keep books and the
knowledge they contain circulating through usage.
One of the joys of gardening is the community of gardeners,
and one of the pleasures of plugging into that community is interacting with
each gardener's individual personality. Sometimes those personalities lead to
passions, and it is always interesting to encounter the cultures of gardening
specialists. As they would be, gardening specialties are as varied as botany
itself. There are gardeners who specialize in roses, in herbs, in cacti and succulents, in tropicals, in bonsai, in florals, in aquatics, in terrariums, and
so forth across the species of plants. If you're an herbalist, you may already
know about Breverton's Complete Herbal and Llewellyn's nifty Herbal Almanac series, and if your specialty is coastal gardening, you will find
beautifully presented inspiration in Molly Chappellet's Gardens of the Wine Country. As I care for my baby palms, I have
found Betrock's Essential Guide to Palms
indispensable both for it care and cultivation teaching and for the cultural history and ecological significance of this magnificent species.
I have long been fascinated by the specialty of moss,
lichens and worts. So has George Schenk, whose scholarly Moss Gardening carries the seal of approval of no less an authority
than the American Horticultural Society. In Gathering Moss, Robin Wall Kimmerer gathers her own indigenous history unto some of the most knowing, beautiful writing about Mother Earth
that I have ever read.
I must admit that, if I dared, I would specialize in
poisonous plants. I do grow wormwood, which if not poisonous is mischievous,
and earns a place alongside the nightshades, weeds, intoxicants and other Wicked Plants in Amy Stewart's book of
the same name. Stewart's writing is vivid and naughty, as befits her topic, and
since I don't dare grow poisonous plants out of deference to animal life, I
will have to content myself with a visit to one of the poison gardens included
in the book.
Finally, some of the nicest books about gardening come from learning
centers such as museums and botanical gardens. Insects and Flowers and The
High Line Field Guide are two such, the first from an exhibit at The Getty Center and the second from the book stall at New York City's famous elevated park. Check out both of these online resources, along with The Huntington Library and The Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Resources
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