Keyword: Reviews

A few months ago, when I was considering potential books for the Miller Library, my first reaction to Snowdrop by Gail Harland was, “Oh no, we don’t need another book on snowdrops!”

I was wrong. This is an excellent addition to the library and is quite different from our several other titles on the genus Galanthus. It is part of the Reaktion Books Botanical series of books (we have many in the series) which are uniform in their ability to bring a fresh prospective to many garden subjects already well recounted by others.

These other authors provide extensive descriptions of the hundreds of snowdrop varieties that eager galanthophiles will snap up, while this book is more interested in the passion that drives such collectors. It is also a wonderful history of the role these early spring flowers have played in culture, including art, literature, and music.

For example, do you remember the white kitten in Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There? Yes, that was Snowdrop, who later became the White Queen. Did you know that earliest English translations of Schneewittchen by the Brothers Grimm was Snow-Drop? It was only after the Walt Disney animation of the same story that we came to know the heroine as Snow White.

For these stories and many others, this is a delightful book to read especially during these late, cold days of winter. Moreover, if you hurry, you can check out Snowdrop while its eponymous flower is still in bloom in your garden!

Published in the February 2017 Leaflet Volume 4, Issue 2.

In the spring of 2014, I visited the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill, NC. I was delighted by this extensive collection of herbaceous and woody plants mostly native to the southeastern United States. Many of these plants, or their close relatives, can thrive in our Pacific Northwest gardens.

These are featured in a book that was published later in 2014: Native Plants of the Southeast. Author Larry Mellichamp is the retired director of the botanical garden at the Charlotte campus of the University of North Carolina and has considerable experience with plants throughout the temperate southeast.

This book is much more than a field guide. Each plant is evaluated for garden cultivation. An extensive introduction discusses the merits and challenges of using native plants in a landscape, with principles that would be applicable in our region. The plant encyclopedia is interspersed with essays on broad groupings of plants with an emphasis on garden adaptability.

If this book sparks your interest in this region, consider visiting! The University of Washington Botanic Gardens is leading a trip to Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina this coming March. All the details are online, but hurry – reservations must be received by January 19.

Published in the January 2017 Leaflet Volume 4, Issue 1.

According to his website, Charles Goodrich supported his poetry and other writings with a 25-year career as a professional gardener in Corvallis, Oregon. “Going to Seed” is a fine example of his avocation. Reading through his selection of brief essays, organized by seasons, I’m keenly reminded of the many forms of life we can observe in our gardens. I was struck by this quotation from a selection by Goodrich titled “The Master.”

“It’s hard to take this bumblebee seriously, with his stubby wings, pudgy thorax, geodesic eyes. When he lifts his ponderous body in flight, he fudges several laws of aerodynamics. If this is how plants get pollinated, it’s a wonder the planet survives. Weird, how evolution flirts with absurdity.”

Excerpted from the Winter 2017 Arboretum Bulletin.

Kate Frey and Gretchen LeBuhn in “The Bee-Friendly Garden” consider all the various types of native bees found in northern California and how to create an inviting environment for them. There is a chapter on recommended bee-friendly plants, both woody and herbaceous, always with an emphasis on natives. There are lists of plants to avoid, including those with double flowers as single, pollen rich flowers have more to offer to pollinators. Thinking from the bee’s perspective, you are advised to plant more than single specimens, otherwise they “…may not have enough floral rewards to make it worthwhile.”

Providing sufficient nesting options is critical. While the authors briefly cover human-made nests and bee “hotels”, they encourage a more passive approach such as using plants that have naturally hollow stems and leaving a few logs around. They recommend leaving some bare patches of ground, free of layers of mulch that are troublesome for bees to dig through. Of course, like all wildlife, your bees need to have a pesticide-free environment.

Excerpted from the Winter 2017 Arboretum Bulletin.

Most of the bee books in the Miller Library collection are either guides to keeping honey bees, or field guides to native bees. A new book by Pacific Northwest authors has a different focus – living with bees as an active, vibrant part of your garden.

While this may include European honey bees, the focus is on less well-known native bees. Most of these are solitary bees that do not form hives or make honey, but they are outstanding pollinators. “Mason Bee Revolution” by Dave Hunter and Jill Lightner (both from the Seattle area) emphasizes the encouragement and care of Mason bees for spring pollination, followed by leafcutter bees for the summer.

To these authors, the bees are almost pets. While the care requirements are minimal compared to many other garden tasks, they still are important, and can be a fun and useful way to share bee knowledge with friends and neighbors.

You’ll learn that storing your Mason bee cocoons in the refrigerator is an ideal winter home, if you don’t mind them sharing the crisper with your salad greens. However, leafcutter bees are best a bit warmer, such as in an unheated garage. Why go to all this trouble? “Pest control is the primary reason for harvesting cocoons. We want our bees to thrive, not just survive, for next season’s pollination.”

Excerpted from the Winter 2017 Arboretum Bulletin.

I reviewed the first book by Colin McCrate and Brad Halm, “Food Grown Right, in Your Backyard,” in the Winter 2013 issue of the “Bulletin”. This reflected their efforts as the founders of The Seattle Urban Farm Company to encourage people to grow food, no matter what their limitations of space or experience.

Their second book, “High-Yield Vegetable Gardening,” addresses a more experienced audience – gardeners who want the maximum yield from their space, no matter how large or small. Their ideas would work throughout most of North America, although here and there it reminds you of its Seattle roots, to the benefit of local readers.

They have selected three real examples (with pseudonyms for the owners) of gardens of varying sizes, one each in an urban, a suburban, and a rural setting, and use these as examples throughout – an effective approach. You’ll want to keep this book handy and use it for notes; there are many spaces for you to fill in blanks for your specific climate and harvest needs.

Excerpted from the Winter 2017 Arboretum Bulletin.

Jeffrey Bale describes “The Gardens of Jeffrey Bale” as his first step in writing the book others have urged him to write. He started with the photographs, which seems appropriate for an artist who creates pathways, steps, walls, and other landscape features using stones and mosaic pebbles. Most images have captions, sometimes extended captions, but this is primarily a photo album of his numerous projects throughout the Pacific Northwest.

He begins with projects for his own house in Portland, where the garden hardscape is a shrine to many spiritual traditions. He describes how “lounging in the garden on dry days is a foretaste of heaven.”

While most of his work is in Oregon, visitors to Windcliff Garden of Dan Hinkley and Robert Jones near Indianola, Washington will see his fine work in a fire pit and surrounding terrace. He also built a mosaic over a cistern at Islandwood School on Bainbridge Island, with help from area school children.

Excerpted from the Winter 2017 Arboretum Bulletin.

A photograph of a frosty mug of golden ale, surrounded by hop vines and fruit, graces the cover of “Gardening for the Homebrewer.” I was immediately intrigued, especially when I learned that authors Wendy Tweten and Debbie Teashon live on the Kitsap Peninsula.

I expected this book to highlight garden-grown additives for your home brewed beer, but it does much more that, advocating growing your own hops, and even your own barley – all in western Washington! According to the enthusiastic authors, there’s also no reason not to grow your own pumpkins for Pumpkin Ale or experiment with varying mixtures of herbs, other grains, or perhaps hot peppers or spruce needles to make a brew that is distinctly your own.

Once you master these techniques, move on to making your own wine (using grapes or other fruit), cider, or perry (pear based cider). Each chapter helps with the plant culture, preferred varieties, terminology, the techniques of harvest, curing, and fermentation, and necessary or recommended additives and equipment. A final chapter explores liqueurs with the same enthusiasm found throughout the book: “…chances are if you can grow and eat it, you can turn it into a liqueur.” What are you waiting for?

Excerpted from the Winter 2017 Arboretum Bulletin.

Twice in the early aughts, I participated in garden tours to the greater San Francisco area, once in April and once in September. A highlight of both tours was the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, California. I was delighted to learn recently of a new book capturing and celebrating this garden, and to learn that Ms. Bancroft, whom our group met briefly at age 94, is still with us at 108!

This garden has two distinct personalities, reflecting different periods of its creator’s gardening interests. In her childhood she was introduced to bearded iris by neighbors who were experts on these plants. When she had her own house, she developed a huge selection of historical cultivars that were just finishing their bloom during my spring visit. These are carefully maintained on a schedule of digging up one-third of the collection every year to divide and replant. The health of the collection reflected this high level of care.

As an adult, Bancroft became fascinated with succulent plants. Initially this was a collection of small, potted plants maintained near her home. In the 1970s, her husband’s removal of a diseased walnut orchard provided three empty acres on their property. Despite losing much of her collection to a freak freeze shortly after planting the garden out, she never looked back.

The results are sublime and I would highly recommend a visit to this garden anytime you are in the area. However, if that’s not in the offing, or if you’re just back and want a keepsake, I also highly recommend “The Bold Dry Garden” written by Johanna Silver with photographs – many gorgeous photographs – by Marion Brenner.

This book would happily grace any coffee table, but ideally it will be read and cherished and studied – the “signature plants” chapter could be a stand-alone book on succulents. If these plants are not your interest, then read this book for the story of Ruth Bancroft.

At age 63 she started her succulent garden, an untested concept in her climate at the time. She began with plants in gallon-size pots or smaller. At 83 she opened the now-maturing succulent garden to the public, and she continued working in it daily well into her nineties. Hers is a story to keep all of us gardeners going when we’re bothered by a few aches and pains!

Excerpted from the Winter 2017 Arboretum Bulletin.