By Cheryl Dorschner
| Book Reviews |
Gardening Book Recommendations
from the Washington and Orange County Chapter of Vermont Master Gardener
(L) indicates books available through Kellogg Hubbard Library in Montpelier
click here for a pdf version to print out
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Senior Thesis Sprouts Gardening Book (the View from University of Vermont July 26, 2005) By Cheryl Dorschner |
Beret Halverson’s interest in plants took root early, when she began helping out in her grandmother’s Montana garden during childhood summer vacations. So when it came time for the 2002 environmental studies graduate and ethnobotany specialist to find a thesis topic, it was natural to mesh her interests in culture and horticulture for an ambitious look at community gardeners.
The student surveyed 100 Burlington-area gardeners in 2001 about their methods, preferences and the relationship between their cultural backgrounds and horticultural practices. After the survey, she interviewed 20 of her subjects face-to-face, tape-recording their stories. Those stories caught the ear of Jim Flint G'84, executive director of the nonprofit group Friends of Burlington Gardens.
“Even in their raw state, the tapes and transcripts revealed some very interesting dialogue,” observes Flint. “Since the interviews were done in the winter and early spring, it was a bit like peeling an onion for Beret to work through the layers of the interviewees' experiences and draw out the fine details of their gardening and cultural history.”
Impressed with the thesis — and Halverson — Flint began collaborating with her to create Patchwork: Stories of Gardens and Community, a book with vignettes of 10 Burlington gardeners published earlier this year. Halverson provided the research and interviews, Flint did the photography, editing and design. The book was released this spring, and its photography is on exhibit at the Fletcher Free Library through July 31. The show will move to Barnes & Noble in South Burlington for the month of August.
Cultivating culture
Halverson’s project might have been grounded in journalism, but its meaning extends into scholarship.
“Beret's research on community gardeners in Burlington is an important contribution toward understanding the wealth of cultural knowledge, social values and horticultural customs that bring together Burlington's diverse community of gardeners,” says Jeanne Shea, an associate professor of anthropology who, along with Katherine Anderson, lecturer of environmental studies, advised Halverson on the project.
Halverson met Flint in 2001 just as he launched the nonprofit community gardens group and she had returned from taking courses at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. As part of an assignment, she had interviewed several community gardeners in Hawaii.
“I was amazed at the diverse stories that were shared. This got me interested in the oral histories of gardeners. It also got me thinking about how culture is transmitted in gardening practices. Eventually it led to the development of this project in Burlington,” she recalls.
Halverson drew on Flint’s community connection as she pursued the survey and interview phases of her thesis research. Inspired by Newbery-award-winning author Paul Fleischman’s book Seedfolks, a short novel about an urban neighborhood’s transformation through gardening, Flint wanted a local portrait of gardening’s diversity and reach. So he culled Halverson’s interviewees to represent a mix of Burlington area gardens, gardeners and motivations.
Among histories included in the book are three gardeners with ties to UVM. Clem Holden ’45, who gardens with his wife, Sylvia ’51, is profiled — the book explains how the couple often puts up more than 200 jars and freezer bags of garden vegetables each year. English Professor Huck Gutman’s tomatoes have been winning blue ribbons at the local fair since 1973 when he rented a plot behind the admissions building.
Since her graduation three years ago, Halverson has traveled extensively, spending time in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Bali, New Zealand and South India, but her interest in local gardening has only deepened with all that travel. “Community gardens are part of people's lives,” she says. “If they didn't exist an important part of our connection to the land, our food and each other would be lost.”
See also http://www.burlingtongardens.org/Patchwork.htm
| Grasses: Versatile Partners for Uncommon Garden Design by Nancy J. Ondra, photography by Saxon Holt Storey Books 2002 review by Sarah Kingsley-Richards |
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Ooh, pretty book! The style and layout of "Grasses" is very refined. Photographs are rich, colorful, and plentiful. Just flipping through the pages makes a good argument for replacing almost every flower in the garden with frothy mounds of grasses.
What is a grass? Illustrations are used to help define the plant varieties that fall under the ornamental "grass" umbrella. The aesthetic interplay of grasses and light plus texture variations are discussed prior to sections on choosing and maintaining grasses. Sketches are used to demonstrate growth patterns, planting, and dividing techniques. An inset briefly mentions problem invasive grasses, urging to seek nursery or Cooperative Extension agents with local information.
The book then focuses on 21 themed gardens in selected color palettes, specific settings such as borders or small yards, and specialized conditions such as shade or slopes. Each themed garden includes a discussion of the theme and it's uses. Plenty of photos represent the theme including a demo garden photo with plant key. "Designer's choice" lists some popular grasses in the theme. There are tables at the back of the book summarizing the plants discussed for each theme.
The only real drawback of the book is that not every species or variety mentioned appears in a photograph. Although there are better refence books out there, this is a wonderful book for stimulating design ideas. Enjoy!
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The Woodchuck’s Guide to Gardening by Ron Krupp Reviewed by Marjorie Westphal, M. G. |
This is a manual that covers the basics of Northern gardening, and is well organized by Seasons, from seed planting to seed harvesting. Mixed in with up-to-date information on how to organically garden is homespun wisdom and humor garnered from a lifetime of gardening experience. Sketches by Jessica Martinek enhance and clarify the text, and photographs old and new connect the reader to the sense of universality and timelessness that working with the soil provides. Ron Krupp includes many woodchuck practices that ‘make do’ and make sense.
The off-the -beaten -path discussions of biodynamics and cosmic (his word) planting methods add to the charm of this labor of love. And there are lots of surprises, gems of information, such as the fact that the Russians made rubber from dandelions.
The Woodchuck’s Guide to Gardening would make a nice gift for yourself or anyone else interested in the natural world. There is a copy for examination and/or reference at the S.H.E.D.D. on Spear Street. To order copies, send a check for $15.95 U.S. plus $3.45 postage and handling each, to:
Ron Krupp
c/o The Woodchuck’s Guide to Gardening
8 Lyons Avenue
South Burlington, VT 05403
The website is: www.woodchuck37.com
e-mail is: woodchuck37@hotmail.com
| The Rose's Kiss (A Natural History of Flowers) by Peter Bernhardt Island Press 1999 Listed under 582.13Bern at your favorite library Reviewed by Marjorie Westphal, M. G. |
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This book is a must read for gardeners, nature lovers, and anyone else interested in learning more about the inner workings of their surrounding natural world. Peter Bernhardt, a Professor of Biology at St. Louis University, uses roses as a model to illustrate the life of a flower because "an open rose makes so many different things that part of the game of studying roses is finding out how such different structures and chemicals relate to one another and then telling the story in a comprehensible way".
To make it comprehensible, Professor Bernhardt has chosen to use familiar words that "compare activities in the flower to human versions of the same event".When botanical terms are used, they are explained as he goes along. For instance, names of parts of plants and their flowers are traced back to their Latin roots so as to make more sense. 'Pollen' shares the same linguistic root as 'pollo', the Spanish word for dust. Also, the term 'angiosperm' comes from the Greek words for seeds (sperma) inside a vessel (angeion), because what makes a flower a flower is a closed carpal, which is a special flat leaf that has folded over to enclose ovules.
He gives a great definition of why annuals are annuals, ("they convert all shoots on every stem into flowering branches...after reproducing are unable to make leaf stems, so die of old age."). Read for yourself why perennials are perennial.
The chapter titled "The Faithful and Unfaithful Bee" is a delightful discourse on the fact that "we live on a planet pollinated primarily by bees". We learn about the methods used by bees to collect nectar and pollen and what they do with their collections. We learn about the methods used by the bee-pollinated flowers to ensure their needs are met. Why would a bee visit a 'dry (no nectar) flower'? How does a flower provide a landing platform and a runway with nectar guides? What are the colors bees see? What pollen is too tough for bees to chew? Read this chapter for answers to these and lots more questions.
Other chapters discuss plants pollinated by insects other than bees, how they modify their blooms to accommodate various methods used by insects, how they time their blooms to prevent self-pollination by any method.
Early in the book, in the chapter titled 'Limits to Perfection', Professor Bernhardt details why so many of us in the Northeast had a lousy crop of cucurbits and why there was a pumpkin shortage last season.
I found this delightful and informative book at the South Burlington Public Library. It is also available from any bookstore. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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