Between the Covers in Telluride

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-back book:
"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.