| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Oct 29 2004 : 10:37:54 AM
Thought I'd start a new topic on our favorite garden books. I would love to hear about all your beloved garden tomes! In the fall and winter I love curling up by the fire with a cup of tea and my garden books that I have loved for decades. They are like old and loyal friends and always inspire and comfort in the dark days and nights. Here are some of my very best that I'd like to share with all of you
Herbs, Garden, Decorations, and Recipes by Eemlie Tolley and Chris Mead, Clarkson Potter 1984. MY very best all time herb book! Take note bayoubunch, this is the BIBLE of herbs...You would love this, beautiful photos, descriptions, history and uses for amazing herbs. Excellent recipes too!
Growing Myself, A spiritual journey through gardening by Judith Handelsman, Penquin Group, 1996. Here is a short synopsis, In this rich and beautiful book, the former garnening columnist for Voque and New Age Journal chronicles her personal journey through indoor and outdoor garnening to greater understanding of herself and the green world. Excellent book and really this lady GETS IT .
A Joy of Gardening by V. Sackville-West, Harper bros. 1958. A Classic above ALL. Need I say more?
Sleeping With a Sunflower, A Treasurey of Old Time Garden Lore by Louise Riotte Storey Communications 1987. Another classic... the mysterious medicinal powers of herbs, natural pest controls, guides to mushroom hunting and making flower wines and jellies, how to build a pond and douse for water, traditional beauty secrets, Native American lore, and on and on....
Herb Gardening in Five Seasons by Adelma Grenier Simmons E.P. Dutton, 1964. Hey Bramble I love Adelma too!!! Got this book 20years ago from my parents when they visited Conneticut, signed copy. She is a DIVA of Herbs. Lucky you to see her Caprilands.
This may or may not relate to gardens but I had to mention it... A Well Kept Home, Household Traditions and Simple Secrets from a French Grandmother by Laura Fronty and Yves Duronsoy, Universe 2001. Synopsis, A Well Kept Home transforms our approach to the daily chores surrounding the upkeep of our home. The practical advice and natural recipes make it possible to take real pleasure in those essential duties, while at the same time evoking atmosphere and spirit of a time gone by. You'll love this book, has instructions for a simple stained glass curtain that is beautiful, easy and cheap to make. I look forward to reading about all of your favorites!
Time Flies |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| KJD |
Posted - Nov 27 2005 : 2:25:38 PM
Clare,
I'm pretty sure I've seen Lasagna Gardening at Half Price Books - better get on down there and see (any excuse will do!)
I have this book "From the Potting Shed" by Stephanie Donaldson - great projects for the garden lover... |
| CabinCreek-Kentucky |
Posted - Nov 25 2005 : 6:56:41 PM
i love books on sunflowers and had many this past summer .. i took my grandkids to a sunflower garden house .. there were zillions of sunflowers and twice as many bumble bees!!!! i got bees but not where near so many! (the kids were afraid to run among the ones at the garden we went to for fear of stings. |
| CabinCreek-Kentucky |
Posted - Nov 25 2005 : 6:54:17 PM
i have sooooooo many gardening books and love them all .. don't think i could choose just one!
some are about 'one flower' .. iris .. sunflowers .. lavendar .. LOTS are 'herb' books .. some are on stone walls or furniture for the garden .. birdhouses and on and on and on!
in a couple months when 'cabin fever' sets in .. that is when i get them out and surround myself with them! frannie |
| Clare |
Posted - Nov 06 2004 : 5:01:53 PM
Somewhere, (can't find it now!), someone mentioned a book called "Lasagna Gardening" by Patricia Lanza as an efficient and less time consuming way of gardening. Happy to say this book jumped off the shelf and landed in my cart at Goodwill yesterday! Perfect timing, still want to garden, but any more efficient means of doing so is always good to learn about.... it has wonderful step-by-step instructions, great sketches, terrific descriptions of most vegetables and herbs too! Think I'll go make another cup of tea and settle in!  P.S. It came with a name and a phone number (horrors!) on the front...so I know that "Verna" once loved gardening too!
****Gardener, Stitcher, Spiritual Explorer and Appreciator of all Things Natural****
"Begin to weave and God will give the thread." - German Proverb |
| Eileen |
Posted - Nov 06 2004 : 4:02:08 PM
I was just looking at my herbal books and thought I'd share a couple of my favorites for health and healing as well as gardening. I have a pair (a set) "A Modern Herbal" in two volumes by Mrs.M.Grieve This is the set used as text in many of the herbal medicine schools.They were originally published in 1931 and re-published in 1971by Dover Publications. The cover page discribes it this way. The medicinal, culinary,cosmetic and economic properties, cultivation and folk lore of herbs, grasses, fungi, shrubs and trees with all their modern scientific uses.
There are wonderful black and white picture plates and in all of my other herbals combined I do not have this much information. My daughter who studies homeopathic medicine told me about these fine books and I found a beautiful set used at the local old and antique book dealer in Port townsend for $13.95 the set.
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| Eileen |
Posted - Nov 06 2004 : 3:51:05 PM
Goody Goody , Can't wait to see them!
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Nov 06 2004 : 3:38:01 PM
I still hook rugs now and then, but sure not as often as I used to. Once I discovered spinning, and got my sheep, I do that alot more..but I still always have something around half done..haha. I will try to get some pictures taken. One of my favorite hooked projects are our familie's Christmas stockings. I hook them with wool strips and some yarn (if I need an elusive color) on burlap and I love them. I have made one for each child, my husband and daughter in law and grandbaby, and now will make one for our newest son this year (I better get started) I will get around to mine someday..I still have an old quilted one for me. I draw the picture I want on the burlap and then do a border at top with the first name of the person and then just hook the front. I use burlap for the backing.
The rugs were actually for Sharon's best freind Julie Whitmore's shop, but I saw Sharon there alot, and went to her shop alot too. It is a NEAT garden shop. The best pottpouri area ever too!! I got alot of small herb plants and books there.
I still have a few of the rugs I have hooked around..I will take some pictures this weekend...
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Nov 05 2004 : 10:04:10 AM
Oh Jenny that is so cool that you met and did rugs for Sharon Lovejoy!! She is the rock star of fun and funky gardens in my books! I will have to check out this new book Blessing of Toads. I agree Eileen toooo many projects toooo little time.
Time Flies |
| Eileen |
Posted - Nov 05 2004 : 09:31:23 AM
Jenny,
Do you still do hooked rugs?
Please post pictures! I am very interrested in learning that art as well. Another of my wonderful finds while junking was a special frame for hooking rugs. Haven't had time to figure out how to attatch the burlap to it yet but I have a large collection of wool for hooking so want to get started on it. Gosh, I will have to live to be a hundred just to do half of the things I still want to accomplish in my life. Who has time for tV with all this exciting stuff to do?
We grew scarlet runners this summer up a tee pee of bamboo. They are so very pretty.
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Nov 04 2004 : 5:35:22 PM
Oh...and Sharon Lovejoy, the gal who wrote Sunflower houses lived about an hour north of where I lived in Calif (she was in Cambria) and I visited her garden shop (Heartsease) and met her several times. She is as sweet as can be. Her best freind owned another shop in town and sold my hooked rugs...it was such a fun time. kindred spirits are always nice to find. Now she (Sharon) writes for country living gardens magazine, her column is called Heartsease. She lives part time on the east coast now too. I just got a new book of hers called "A Blessing of Toads". It is a book of her articles compiled. I love it so far.
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Nov 04 2004 : 5:32:17 PM
We did sort of a ladder framed house using scarlet runner beans..those just grow like crazy! and the kids loved that!!! I think its a fun book. I have had the potted herb for at least 10 years and still refer to it alot. When I got it I lived in a place where my herb garden was all on a big deck on the second floor of a rental house. I was pretty proud of what I accomplished..the book helped me alot. I wasn't as used to container gardening as straight in the ground. I still enjoy growing herbs in pots some now, even though I have space.
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Nov 04 2004 : 4:55:53 PM
Aunt Jenny I too have Sunflower Houses! I built a sunflower house for my girls using the Mammoth Russian Sunflower seeds. They grew to be around 11 feet tall but wind storms toppled the girls' houses and the next morning they looked like they imploded We also had fun building bean tunnels. Great ideas for kids gardens. We especially liked the round pizza garden using herbs.
Time Flies |
| Eileen |
Posted - Nov 04 2004 : 11:47:53 AM
Jenny, I also have a copy of "The Potted Herb" I found at a garage sale. I love it too!
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Nov 04 2004 : 11:14:43 AM
Many thanks jp! I will register so I can view them.
Time Flies |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Nov 04 2004 : 10:44:32 AM
Dear Meadowlark - here is a couple of links I found. The first one is the books, and the second is the china.
THE COUNTRY DIARY COLLECT
THE COUNTRY DIARY COLLECTION BOOK 19 COUNTRY CROSS STITCH. Item 2162535. $10.00. County Cross Stitch. mtlaurel (0) But wait! Are you registered yet? Product Description
www.popula.com/items_fp/item_description.cfm?item_fp_ID=2162535
www.1800replace.com/webquote/ARQCODC.htm
jpbluesky
Love those big blue skies and wide open spaces. |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Nov 04 2004 : 10:36:27 AM
Meadowlark - The company I worked for is no longer in business, so the needlework books are not readily available. However I have seen them on Ebay, and there are a few cross-stitch book distributors who still carry the books. They were published by Country Cross-Stitch, Inc.. We did two volumes.
The china is also very rare now, but I will try to run down the name of the company who produced them for you.
jpbluesky
Love those big blue skies and wide open spaces. |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Nov 03 2004 : 10:03:20 PM
I have most all the books you mentioned, Jenny! I love Sleeping with a Sunflower, and also "The Potted Herb" is another favorite of mine. I like the Sharon Lovejoy books: "Sunflower House", "Root, shoots, buckets and boots" and gosh, so many others. I have a hard time resisting a gardening book! The Four Season Garden, by Eliot Coleman and Square Foot gardening by Mel Bartholomew are must haves too.
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Nov 03 2004 : 1:48:21 PM
Thanks Clare, I'll try this idea for overwintering my geraniums.
Time Flies |
| Eileen |
Posted - Nov 03 2004 : 10:45:21 AM
Clare,
That reminds me of what we did with unripe tomatoes. We pulled the entire plan out and hung it upside down in the root cellar with a paper bag wrapped around the tops to catch any tomatoes that might fall off. It ripened them right up within a few weeks. I would never have thought this would cause a sort of winter sleep to a plant such as a geranium. I will have to try it. I wonder, is the temp and humidity a factor in the success? I want to dig a root cellar in the side of the hill near where we are going to build our house and make cobb walls on the outside. Still in the planning stages for that project. I know it will stay warm enough not to freeze but I wonder about the humidity. Hmmm?
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| Clare |
Posted - Nov 03 2004 : 08:44:38 AM
My mother-in-law was frugal, and quite successful with her geraniums. We have cold, frigid, snowy winters here, so leaving the plants outside was not an option. She would uproot them, trim them back somewhat, and hang them by their root balls in the cellar until springtime. She would then bring them out, wake them up in a pot of water and sunshine, and before you knew it, they were leafing out again.... I haven't tried this in years and years, but I think I had only moderate success with this... my green thumb wasn't very developed back then! But, in her memory, maybe I'll try that this year!!
****Gardener, Stitcher, Spiritual Explorer and Appreciator of all Things Natural****
"Begin to weave and God will give the thread." - German Proverb |
| n/a |
Posted - Nov 03 2004 : 08:31:38 AM
Scented geraniums are hard to over-winter inside, unless you have a window that faces South. Skies of Italy is a varigated-foliage geranium that does not bloom in the Winter, even in sunny room. I keep two scented geraniums, rose and peppermint, in the windowsills, and along with the rosemmary tree, these carry me through till Spring (smil) |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Nov 03 2004 : 08:11:08 AM
I can see I have a lot in common with all of you winter garden dreamers! Eileen and jp I love Edith Holden and have both of those books! Her illustrations are exquisite and those birds she paints I adore. jp that is so cool that you helped design a line of cross stitch pattern based on The Country Diary! Can they be purchased online? Oh and the china!!! I would love to add that to my naturalistic pieces of china I collect! What company manufactures them? Eileen I also have The Island Garden by Celia Thaxter. Did your book come in a green jacket? It is a beautifully written and illustrated classic. In reading it I was transported to that moment in time and the island where she lived and worked her beloved gardens. The chapter on the sudden summer thunderstorm was so vivid I could almost smell the freshness of her flowers! Chickendave I will have to check out your recommendations on bringing scents into the garden. You posted somewhere that you love scented geraniums. I am also a devotee. I have raised Cinnamon and apple scents, but they don't overwinter well because my house and our winters are soooo dry! You mentioned a new variety called Skies of Italy? What does it smell like and where did you locate? Sounds beautiful!
Time Flies |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Nov 02 2004 : 9:24:36 PM
Edith Holden also had a naturalist diary published prior to the Nature Notebook called The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. Actually her family allowed these to be published from her original notes and drawings. I have read it several times and even adapted her art to cross-stitch patterns with the agreement from the publishers and copyright holders. Those florals and illustrations made beautiful table linens and I know there was even a line of china with Country Diary florals on it. While adapting those illustrations I soaked up her books and read all the poem excerpts she inserted. It was the most fun I have ever had and gotten paid for!
jpbluesky
Love those big blue skies and wide open spaces. |
| n/a |
Posted - Nov 02 2004 : 8:06:01 PM
Checked the bookshelves and the two I most enjoy reading over and over from year to year are: The Fragrant Garden: A Book About Sweet Scented Flowers and Leaves by Louise Beebe Wilder and The Fragrant Year: Scented Plants for Your Garden and Your House by Helen VanPelt Wilson & Leonie Bell. These are the two that I invariably return to each Winter. |
| Eileen |
Posted - Oct 29 2004 : 6:48:40 PM
Oh, You guys! I have so many, must I pick favorites? Sometimes I find myself sitting at the dining room table with 5 or 6 of them spread out in front of me drooling and dreaming about spring. A couple I love just for the reading pleasure are,
An Island Garden by Celia Thaxter first published in 1894 and re-published in 1988. It was a gift from my beloved for a birthday. It is beautifully written and as importantly illustrated. You will love curling up with it!
Another one I love is "Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady" by Edith Holden It was published in 1989 and is a reproduction of Ediths 1905 garden Diary. Complete with her sennsitive watercolor paintings of same. It was another gift from my beloved who knows my weaknesses better than me!.
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
