BOOKS ARE SEEDS
by Daiva Chesonis
Published in "Lawn & Garden" by the Telluride Watch
What a great time of year it is when mountain town farmers
markets start popping up like a favorite perennial! It’s a sign that we’ve made
it to almost summer and even though the pickins are just above slim, the anticipation
of future abundance lends itself to thinking about the opportunity to try new
things. In this issue, Between the Covers is highlighting narrative books
that will help take you to the next level in your yard, your purchasing power,
your understanding of what’s beneath, what’s in our past, and what’s in your
heart. From the historical to the quirky, there’s a life science book for
everyone.
1. “Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation (Knopf, 2012) by Andrea Wulf
The people that Wulf refers to in “Founding Gardeners” were
our first four presidents. She calls them “passionate botanists whose country
seats became laboratories for their grander vision of an independent agrarian
republic in the New World.” A government’s gotta eat, right? When it came out
in hardcover in May of 2011, it was reviewed by the New York Times quite favorably. It’s just out in paperback and will
be immensely interesting for readers who are lovers of both gardens and
history. The estates of the New World’s leaders are a wonderful lens on the
times and the oft-stubborn mindset that the founders hoped would lead to not
only liberty but survival too. Written by a British author, she did her
homework. She went to their
houses, walked the grounds, and sifted through their correspondence, much of
which has an unexpected wealth of references to gardening. Speckled throughout the
letters back home are examples of the never-ending maintenance of gardens as if
it were a fundamental part of the war kit. For example, George Washington took
a moment right before an imminent invasion by the British to craft a letter to
his estate manager about a gardening matter. In addition, Benjamin Franklin was
sending seeds home to his wife for themselves and their Philadelphia neighbors
to ensure that at the least, they could eat, regardless of the outcomes on the
battlefields. We are asked to envision an unlandscaped District of Columbia, a
White House basically in a mudflat. Wulf also acknowledges that the behemoth
effort to garden and farm in the New World was on the back of slavery. Flipping
soil is part and parcel to our identity, whether acknowledged through an
informed narrative like “Founding Gardeners” or through a daily trowel habit, and
it feels very American.
2. "Plant Whatever Brings You Joy: Blessed Wisdom from the
Garden" (Estrella Catarina, 2010) by Kathryn Hall
This Northern California-based author called us to see if
we’d like to carry her self-published book. As an independent bookstore, we try
to support as many writers as possible across the spectrum of first-timer to been-there.
We talked about why her book is unique amidst all the others. The garden as a
metaphor is by no means a new literary concept but this is a fabulous packaging
of that idea. Just shy of 70, this gardening blogger and book publicist has
mashed up the sentiment of gardening into the reality of life (which means it
gets shelved in several sections of the store). Thematic titles abound:
Appreciate Small Returns, Move Gently Among the Bees, Reframe All Error as
Learning, and Clean Up After a Storm. Fiercely Guard the Seedlings is a sweet
paralleling about children. The format—52 lessons through 52 stories—lends
itself to a once-a-week devotional. At three to five pages each, they’re easy
to fit in as a quick grounding. But don’t just take our word for it; there’s a
blurb from the cultural anthropologist who wrote “The Second Half of Life” that
heralds “Plant Whatever Brings You Joy” as an “invaluable resource for
understanding the garden as a source of healing, growth, solace, joy, wisdom
and inspiration.” This small book is proof again that what we all really need,
we probably already have or have access to, whether that’s proper gardening
tools or the therapy that pulling weeds, helping things bloom, and indigenous
wisdom can mete out.
3. “The 50 Mile Bouquet: Seasonal, Local, and Sustainable
Flowers” (St. Lynn’s Press, 2012) by Debra Prinzing
This 8x8, full-color book of photos and important
information by the newly elected president of the Garden Writers Association of
America who calls herself an “outdoor living expert” is a next level look at
the flower industry and the power of choice held by its consumers. In the
spotlight is the “major transformation in how cut flowers are
grown, designed and consumed, which closely mirrors the locavore/slow food
revolution in the culinary world.” So yes, there’s an antidote to mass-produced,
chemified, or imported flowers: The slow flower movement. Stabilized by the
love triangle between organic growers, sustainably thinking floral designers,
and the public that supports floriculture, “The 50 Mile Bouquet” is an
extension of the green journey many of us are already aboard. It has come time
to ask: “From whence, sweet peony, have you come?” Must mention that the
foreword is by Amy Stewart, author of the bestseller “Flower Confidential” and
those great gifty books about wicked plants and poisons and bugs and weeds.
4. Great segue to the
author of the next top-off-your-iced-tea-and-sit-
"The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms " (Algonquin Books, 2005) by Amy Stewart
"The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms " (Algonquin Books, 2005) by Amy Stewart
Winner of the California Horticultural Society's Writer's
Award the year it was published, it reads like an homage to a favorite uncle
and that uncle is Charles Darwin. Did you know that Darwin spent the last years
of his life studying the slick and spineless? Inspired by this, Stewart sought
out devoted oligochaetologists as good research dictates and then she walked
out into her yard and went subterranean. If you’ve read her work before, you
know that the writing makes you forget you’re learning. You’ve heard her on NPR
and perhaps seen her on CBS Sunday
Morning quite a bit in the last few years but this particular ode is from
before all of that hubbub. The Boston
Globe claimed "Stewart's book paddles along in [Rachel] Carson's wake.
Read her book and you'll start to see how the rhododendron bed in front of your
house is a kind of Mars for frontier science." You’ll realize that you’ve
never really thought about whether earthworms like to be touched, or know that
they include geometry in their daily grind. The disassembled land mass folks
are comparing worms along continental drift zones to add another layer of
substantiation. And you’ll not go throwing those leftover store-bought fishing
worms in the woods anymore! It’s a motivator for avid gardeners to start up
their own worm bin, to go full fertile. Stewart’s enthusiasm is unwavering,
exhausting at times, but always positive. Many people find her writing to be infectious
as a vessel of red liquid to hummingbirds. She takes on a topic and can’t stop.
Apparently, she had a pot of worms on her desk while writing.
5. "Treehouses and Other Cool Stuff: 50 Projects You Can Build"
(Gibbs Smith, 2008) by David & Jeanie Stiles
When speaking of lawns and gardens, the logical use of space
is a constant. Throw some kids into the mix and you can somewhat cheaply
provide what they need to be enticed to stay outdoors until they’re called in
to wash up for supper. What better way than to maximize some of it for their
use, expanding your family’s personal landscape. The authors of this
illustrated how-to weave their knowledge as architectural renderer/playground
designer and actress with a BA in English Literature into a tapestry of super
fun possibilities. Their credentials are solid, having built a treehouse during
an episode of The Today Show right
there at Rockefeller Center. Once beyond the simple carpentry tips the book is
organized into Stuff To Do in Your Treehouse, Things That Move, Treehouse
Accessories, and Weekend Projects. The renderings are full-on pro. There are circle
swings, zip lines, ski sleds, lemonade stands, and outdoor musical instruments
to be hung from a tree. One of my fave projects of the 50 is the Wheel of
Fortune, the last project in the book. Surely there’s an old mountain bike tire
leaning against something somewhere that wants to become its next incarnation? Using
some old lumber, white stick-on numbers, and a plastic jug, that lone wheel
transforms into a spinning wonder to be used for all kinds of games and
betting. The ratcheted sound as it slows to a top will remind you of annual
spaghetti dinners in church basements. I know, it’s not a narrative book. The thought
behind including it here is that if you keep the kids or grandkids occupied,
you get to read. What it is however, is a smart Father’s Day gift because not
only does it involve power tools but it could inspire a physical legacy of
place-based memories and will make your yard all the rage.
From appreciating our horticultural heritage as well as one
of the amazing organisms that make it so, to metaphorical self-healing, fair
flowering, and the pure pleasure of play, there is a wealth of reads that
encourage relationships with our natural surroundings. Summer’s around the
corner! Jump in feet first, with a book in your hand, and always sip slowly.
