Garden Bloggers Book Club

I am excited to participate in my first Garden Bloggers Bookclub. This month, one of my favorite gardeners is the focus of our reading. Elizabeth Lawrence was a wonderful gardener and writer. Well-known in the mid-twentieth century, she was an expert in her field. Most inspiring to me is the ability Elizabeth had to reach out to others. She is a symbol for the camaraderie gardeners achieve.

Lawrence corresponded with gardeners all over the country and encouraged others to send her information about what bloomed in her garden when. Her book The Little Bulbs focuses on one special relationship she had with a gardener who lived half a country away. In her preface, Lawrence state, "There are other gardens and gardeners that must enter into this tale. Some I have seen, and some I know only from letters or books, but all these gardens are as real to me as my own." She believed that, "Gardening, reading about gardening, and writing about gardening are all one; no one can garden alone."

My first exposure to Lawrence was through the recently published book Two Gardeners: A Friendship in Letters edited by Emily Herring Wilson. Through their personal correspondence, the book reveals the relationship of Lawrence and Katharine S. White who was the wife of famed Charlotte' Web author E.B White. (Mr. White is well-known to me and is a favorite of my daughter through this book, The Trumpet of the Swan and Stewart Little. All of his stories encourage children to respect nature, which is especially attractive to me.) As an archivist who has spent a good portion of her adult life handling original historical materials, I am especially excited by the format of Two Gardeners. Next to a diary, personal correspondence digs deepest into the psyche of the writer. It offers the reader an honest look at a person. through original documents we can form our own opinions about those we study, rather than relying on the observations of another writer.

Two Gardeners provides valuable information about the history of gardening, gardening methods, well-known gardeners from the mid twentieth century, and the book is a valuable resource for women's studies.

Here is one of my favorite excerpts. I love it for despite being acknowledged by others as an authority, Lawrence is humble. She encourages White's gardening efforts by playing down her own expertise. and states in a letter from 1959, "I can't answer your questions because I don't know the answers. Far from being an expert, I am the most causal gardener. I don't even own a spray. When things get sick I destroy them. I haven't divided daffodils for years. I just put out things and let htem take their chances. When I write about the way things should be done, I quote an expert. I am a writer. In my garden everything grows on top of everything else and I let them fight it out...I have never found any ground cover that is satisfactory for little bulbs." It gives me hope that I can be a "gardener" too. This statement encourages me to experiment and try my best. (I should also note that White too was an experienced gardener. She is best knownby gardners for her column in the New Yorker called "Onward and Upward.")

I must end this by explaining that Ms. White was a typical northern "Yankee," while Lawrence was a southerner. This divide made their relationship even more special. It shows how a garden camaraderie can bridge gaps, making geography and other incidentals irrelevant. Gardening makes our differences something to cherish and explore. I have learned this from the camaraderie I am developing with my own international garden friends on blotanical

Onward and Upward

I received my copy of Katharine S. White's Onward and Upward in the Garden yesterday. I am enjoying it immensely. As I simultaneously read Eleanor Perenyi's Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden, I am struck by the strong voices of these women. Gardening never struck me as an opinionated arena until now.

I have a strong opinion about organic gardening. I also have strong opinions about clearcutting and massive overly green lawns. I am particularly annoyed when my neighbors water the road in the middle of a drought, especially on the one day of the month when it is raining...perhaps I do have strong opinions. And maybe now I am just finding my voice to express them. (With my apologies for any comparison you are making of me to Hillary Clinton...perhaps finding one's voice is in vogue at the moment, but I didn't think about Mrs. Clinton until after I wrote that sentence!)

It would do me good to follow the examples of Perenyi and White. Perenyi's book contains short essays about everything garden related. She gives historical information about gardening, provides practical information about growing, and relates advice that has to do with her own personal gardening experiences. She is blunt, funny, and informative.

White's book reviews garden catalogs. As an editor for the New Yorker, she wrote her annual Onward and Upward column to impart information about the products available for the upcoming growing season. Evaluating catalogs, White also analyzed the writing within them and the service of each company. She relates her own gardening experiences and discusses her preferred plants and planting methods. (Her writing is so personal that I am drawn to her. I feel almost as if her garden is mine. It helps that she seems to favor the traditional plants that I too favor and we are both New Englanders and writers.) This book is a compilation of her columns and reflects a remarkable woman.

Once again I am thinking about the camaradarie among gardeners. If you are a lone gardener, make an effort to reach out to others who share your passion or read about others who throughout time have been drawn to this remarkable past time. Realizing that your passion is shared gives you the courage to express yourself in new and profound ways. What you have to say is important. Your little garden is important. Your gardening methods and creations are unique and worth sharing. Our opinions help others learn, as their opinions help us.

Garden Catalogues

They're here! They're here!

I went online a few weeks ago and ordered all of the free gardening catalogs that I could find. Many places charge for their catalogs, which is understandable considering the expense to them. The prices are reasonable at only a buck or two a piece, but I figure if I don't know the garden company I don't want to spend money on their catalog. The costs could add up fast. My mom says now that I will be on everyone's mailing list, getting junk mail from obscure places. But I don't care ...except for the twinge of guilt about the trees that are being killed by my living large, covered in catalogs. Hopefully it's at least recycled paper and I'm told that's mostly what they use these days anyway...I am dreaming of spring. I am moving my vegetable garden this year to a larger, flatter piece of my property. I also plan to go crazy with hydrangea and flowering perennials to fill in my garden spaces.

We moved to this property three years ago. There were many established and very large plants, but the landscaping was not cared for by a true gardener. I have slowly been moving and reshaping the backbone of my garden. I now know exactly what I want to do here. I have visions of great English Victorian-like spaces. There will be hidden hideaways where my daughter and her friends can play with large expanses of green between. (I'm trying to convince my husband that the green should be clover and not lawn.) There will be flowers blooming continually. There is shade and sun and will be wild mystical gardens with waist high wild flowers. There will also be a tame formal herb garden that even include boxwood. I am not a fussy gardener, so tame is relative...

In my old house I ordered three burning bushes (when they were still allowed in these parts) from catalogs and received sticks in the mail. By the time I left the property seven years later, the sticks each had about three branches and grew from a foot high to two feet high. So, this time, I'm taking my time making my choices. I've read that mail ordering perennials is not always a great idea, so I'm going to start with a few.

These are the catalog I have in hand. More I expect will be trickling in:
Park Seed Company
Thompson and Morgan
White Flower Farm
Bluestone Perennials
Dutch Gardens
and of course the obligatory Burpee. I've been on their mailing list for years.
I am so excited about Bluestone with its unusual flowers and awesome prices.

I have been a shameless garden store junkie in the past, wandering through the aisle and spending my self-given "allowance" every week on whatever catches my eye. As a floral photographer, I have visited garden centers almost every week during the growing season over the past couple of years just to take photos. I never walk away empty handed though. There is always something new, beautiful, bright and tempting. It seems like it will be easier to control myself while catalog shopping. HA HA!

My interest in catalogues was awakened by the book "Two Gardeners: A Friendship in Letters" about Katherine S. White and Elizabeth Lawrence. The book is an archivists dream. (In my other life I'm an archivist, managing historical records.) We get a peak into the personal lives of these personable women and the camaraderie they form through their shared gardening passion. Both women were famous garden writers. Katherine S. White was also the wife of famous novelist E.B. White. One of the things for which she was best known was her catalog reviews. She spoke about catalogs with passion. What a fascinating history these glossy colored booklets must have. I can't wait to learn more!

Any advice about mail ordering perennials will be appreciated.