Reading in the Garden

Gardening with Gusto I'm continuing with repeats of book reviews this summer that involve gardening or traveling. If you missed the others so far, check out French Dirt by Richard Goodman or T he Plant Hunters: Two Hundred Years of Adventure and Discovery Around the World by Toby Musgrave, Chris Gardner, and Will Musgrave (which is way more exciting than it sounds). Along with the reviews, my guides, Jonathan and Drew Scott, will show you glimpses of my own garden flowers. But first, the book.... The $64 Tomato by William Alexander is a humorous account of a gardener battling to start and maintain a whopping, über-sized 2,000 square foot kitchen garden! For a professional man and his physician wife to even strive for such a large garden in their spare time is either insane or they have to have a good sense of humor. Well, he definitely had a good sense of humor—this book was funny. About being insane, I’m not qualified to comment. In this book William Alexand...

Extreme Gardening I'm continuing with repeats of book reviews this summer that involve gardening or traveling.  Check out French Dirt by Richard Goodman , if you missed it.   Along with the reviews, my guides, Jonathan and Drew Scott, will show you glimpses of my own garden.  Mommy, where do monkey puzzle trees come from? Or how about the Douglas fir or Clematis Montana var. rubens ?  Have you ever considered where all our plants came from (other than a catalog)?  The Plant Hunters: Two Hundred Years of Adventure and Discovery Around the World by Toby Musgrave, Chris Gardner, and Will Musgrave explores the lives of brave men who scoured the world over to bring back those lovely plants that thrive in your garden. Their quests to find plant specimens often put them in perilous situations.  In this fascinating book you’ll find out how Ernest “Chinese” Wilson, the prolific plant hunter, got his “lily limp.”  You’d never guess this m...