From the category archives:

Book reviews

People with Dirty Hands: Garden bloggers’ book club

July 29, 2008

I have been re-reading People with Dirty Hands: The Passion for Gardening by Robin Chotzinoff for the Garden Bloggers Book Club. Just like last time, I am amazed by her ability to ferret these eccentric gardeners out, and in awe of her willingness to drive hundreds of miles to talk to total strangers, some of [...]

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Beautiful at All Seasons: Garden Bloggers Book Club

May 31, 2008

Have you ever been out with a friend, and another person joins you, who is a good friend of your friend, but you don’t know them? And the two of them start talking about people you don’t know, and even though the conversation is mildly interesting (this one had a baby, that one has a [...]

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A Way to Garden: The Book Becomes a Blog

April 20, 2008

I am sure I first read A Way to Garden: A Hands-On Primer for Every Season in 1998, the year it was published. I may have been the first person to pull it off the library book shelf and take it home. It had everything I ever want in a garden book: great photos that [...]

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Second Nature: Garden Bloggers’ Book Club

March 30, 2008

Just as we wonder guiltily whether the food we put in our mouth is good for us, so we now wonder just as guiltily whether what we do in the garden is good for the planet. It was not so much that way back in 1991, when this book was published. In fact, I am [...]

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Prime Thyme Mysteries 1

March 26, 2008

Many thanks to Kathy for hosting me today! I’m delighted to be a guest at Cold Climate Gardening, to celebrate the launch of Nightshade, the sixteenth China Bayles mystery. China (for those who haven’t yet met her) is a former criminal defense attorney who has opted for a quieter life as the owner of an [...]

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Nan Ondra wins AHS Book Award

March 19, 2008

Congratulations to garden blogger Nan Ondra, whose book Foliage was awarded a Garden Book Award from the American Horticultural Society. According to the press release, “books are judged by the AHS Book Award Committee on qualities such as writing style, authority, accuracy, and physical quality.” Go visit Hayefield and offer your congratulations.

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The Truth About Organic Gardening: Book Review

March 11, 2008

If you can have only one of Jeff Gillman’s books, The Truth About Organic Gardening: Benefits, Drawbacks, and the Bottom Line is the one to get. Don’t get me wrong, The Truth About Garden Remedies is an interesting and informative read, but it mostly tells you what doesn’t work, or what only “sorta” works. The [...]

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Susan Wittig Albert will be stopping by

March 6, 2008

Susan Wittig Albert, author of the China Bayles herbal mystery series, will be guest posting here on March 26th. She’ll be writing about the herbs in her first three books in the series, Thyme of Death, Witches’ Bane, and Hangman’s Root.
Her guest post here will be part of her blog tour promoting Nightshade, the latest [...]

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Native Plant Resources for Central and Upstate NY

March 4, 2008

In 1878, Sherman Stowell sold to Elizabeth Brockett 30 acres of land which he had earlier purchased from George Jennings. I now live and garden with my family on some of that land, which Jennings or Stowell, or perhaps Ms. Brockett, had cleared of trees to make pasture. The forest is growing back, but it’s [...]

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The Truth About Garden Remedies: Book Review

February 18, 2008

Timber Press invited me to be one of the stops on Jeff Gillman’s blog tour. Jeff is “traveling” around the country, promoting his two books, The Truth About Garden Remedies: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why and The Truth About Organic Gardening: Benefits, Drawbacks, and the Bottom Line, from the comfort of his office computer. [...]

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Fallscaping: Book Review

January 28, 2008

Inspiring Ideas and Photos Take the Autumn Garden to the Next Level
I’d read several books by Piet Oudolf and by Wolfgang Oehme, but I never really “got” the fall garden until I read Fallscaping, by Nancy Ondra and Stephanie Cohen. Somehow those two American women made gardening in the fall accessible to me in a [...]

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Grow Organic: Book Review

December 4, 2007

The subtitle of Grow Organic: Over 250 Tips and Ideas for Growing Flowers, Veggies, Lawns and More by Doug Oster and Jessica Walliser reads “for first-timers and old-timers alike,” but I think it excels at helping veteran gardeners who have been using chemical fertilizers and pesticides to make the transition to an organic approach.

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Green Thoughts: Garden Bloggers’ Book Club

November 28, 2007

I had read Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden a few years ago, and thought I might skip reading it for this book club, due to the press of other commitments. But I’m glad I didn’t.
No sooner did I crack the book open, than I came across this:
. . . a writer who gardens [...]

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