Cold Climate Gardening

Ever since the Bookish Gardener posted this meme on her blog, I’ve wanted to try it, but with the additional twist of limiting it to gardening books. Then Judith of knitagarden tagged me, and I figured if I’m ever going to get around to it, winter is the time. It seems there are two versions of the same meme, so I’m going to combine them.

1. Total Number of Gardening Books I Own: If I didn’t miss any books when cataloging them on Library Thing, I own 111 gardening books. You can view my gardening library here.
2. Name five of your favorite gardening books:
   • A Year at North Hill: Four Seasons in a Vermont Garden by Wayne Winterrowd and Joe Eck. I read the essay that became the first chapter of this book when it was originally published in Horticulture, and I’ve been a fan of these two authors ever since.
   • A Way to Garden : A Hands-On Primer for Every Season by Margaret Roach. Gorgeous photographs and lessons learned from hands-on experience.
   • Three by Henry Mitchell: The Essential Earthman: Henry Mitchell on Gardening, One Man’s Garden, and Henry Mitchell on Gardening
   • Three by Elisabeth Sheldon: A Proper Garden: On Perennials in the Border, The Flamboyant Garden, and Time and the Gardener : Writings on a Lifelong Passion
   • Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education by Michael Pollan
   • It’s a tie: Creating a Garden by Mary Keen or Notes from Madoo: Making a Garden in the Hamptons by Robert Dash

   My tummy does a little flip of excitement whenever I take one of these books in my hand, because I know before I open the book that I’m going to enjoy it again.

3. What was the last gardening book you bought (or brought home from the library)?
   • Last one I bought: Wildflowers of New York in Color
   • Last one I brought home from the library: The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual : Essential Gardening Know-How for Keeping (Not Killing) More Than 160 Indoor Plants by Barbara Pleasant
4. What was the last gardening book you read? Gardening in Eden: The Joys of Planning and Tending a Garden by Arthur T. Vanderbilt II
5. List five books that have been particularly meaningful to you: These were all “light bulb” books for me. I read them and thought, “Oh, I get it now!”
   • I am a klutz and a slowpoke. Caring for Perennials : What to Do and When to Do it by Janet Macunovich and Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting & Pruning Techniques by Tracy DiSabato-Aust taught me how to use my time more efficiently.
   • The New American Landscape Gardener: A Guide to Beautiful Backyards & Sensational Surroundings by Phebe Leighton and Calvin Simonds has been the greatest influence on my garden’s design.
   • Color Echoes: Harmonizing Color in the Garden by Pamela Harper has been the greatest influence on my use of color in the garden.
   • Uh, this isn’t even a book, but reading the article “Perennial Border Design with Foliage” by Darrel Apps (Fine Gardening #35, January/February 1994, pp. 30-35) was when I finally understood the function of foliage in the design of a bed, especially the photo on p. 32.
6. Name three gardening books you’ve been dying to read but just haven’t gotten around to it:
   • Design in the Plant Collector’s Garden : From Chaos to Beauty by Roger Turner
   • A Garden Gallery : The Plants, Art, and Hardscape of Little and Lewis by George Little
   • The Intimate Garden: Twenty Years and Four Seasons in Our Garden by Gordon Hayward

   Actually, I couldn’t think of any books off the top of my head that I’m dying to read. I always have a long list of books I’m interested in reading, and I use my Amazon wish list to keep track of them. I generally won’t buy a book unless I’ve read it first (thank God for the Moore Memorial Libary in Greene, NY) or unless I know I love the author. I usually find out about new gardening books through magazine reviews or those links in Amazon that say “people who bought this book also bought . . . “

7. What gardening books would you most want to have on hand when shut up in the house by a blizzard? (This wasn’t in the meme; I’m adding it.)
   • The Exuberant Garden and the Controlling Hand: Plant Combinations for North American Gardens by William H. Frederick
   • The Greater Perfection: The Story of the Gardens at Les Quatre Vents by Frances H. Cabot
   • Tasha Tudor’s Garden by Tovah Martin
   • Garden Artistry: Secrets of Designing and Planting a Small Garden by Helen Dillon
   • The Garden Design Book by Cheryl Merser
   • The Collector’s Garden by Ken Druse
   • A Way to Garden : A Hands-On Primer for Every Season by Margaret Roach
   • Creating a Garden by Mary Keen

   I think something about the temperature dropping rapidly, the wind blowing hard, and snow swirling around the house made me think up that last question.

8. Tag five people and have them do this on their blog. I’m not going to tag anybody. Some people really hate memes; some people will volunteer. But if this makes anyone think about their own favorite garden books, I hope they will blog about it, even if they don’t do it in meme form.

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