Garden reading

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I have a great weakness for garden books. I sometimes find myself reading through works largely intended for reference. One of my favourite reference works is Adrian Bloom’s Bloom’s Best: Perennials and Grasses, (2010), another splendid book from Timber Press. For practical uses and quick reference I like the Taylor’s Guide series, with culture advice and clear photographs, sometimes of various seasonal features. A truly inspirational reference that changed how I garden is Adrian Bloom’s Gardening with Conifers, (2002). If you are skeptical about the sheer variety and multi-seasonal interest in conifers, I highly recommend it.  Apart from many reference works I also enjoy garden memoirs. Currently on my bedside table: Penelope Lively’s Life in the Garden, (2017). Also books more widely about our relationships with plants: Charlotte Gill’s Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe, (2011). A wonderful book that deserves to be more widely known is Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, (2013). Read it and embrace abundance.

 

 

 

 

Pointing the way through multiple ways of knowing to celebration