Aspirational Gardening

There are two types of gardening books out there. First, there are the ones which dispense useful and helpful advice and knowledge for plants and conditions in your area. Then there are the ones with beautiful glossy photographs of gardens you can never achieve living in your half-frozen climate and without the services of a small army of gardeners. Be warned: the books in this post definitely fall into the latter category.

That said, it is fun to read such fantasy gardening fare from time to time. But until I win the $50 million and can buy my castle in England, I am stuck gardening here on Mother Nature's terms, and such pretty gardens remain fiction - the stuff of shiny photographs in big coffee table books. My most recent trips to the library have resulted in an armful of gardening books on various topics. I give you the results below.

I love flowers and no garden is complete without at least a few flowering plants. From the plethora of books showcasing individual flowers, I selected two: The English Roses: Classic Favourites & New Selections by David Austin, and Gardening With Tulips by Michael King.

Of the two, Gardening With Tulips was by far the more useful. After reading this book, you will want to turn your backyard into a field of blossoming tulips, a la the tulip fields of Holland. King discusses all the different varieties of tulips in detail, and discusses the origins and development of the tulip as we know it today. He also gives a lesson on how to plan gardens with tulips. This section is less helpful, as he doesn't always include photos of what he's talking about, and references numerous other plant species by Latin name, which does help to clarify which plant he's talking about, but is of no help to the beginning gardener who doesn't know what plant he means! Gardening is an inherently visual exercise, so more photos of the plants he wants to mix with tulips and the design combinations would have improved this book. One helpful resource, however, is a helpful section at the end which lists tulips by colour. You can look through the entire red section and pick out all of the red tulips you want, and so on by colour. This book has inspired me to scatter some tulip bulbs throughout my garden plans.

English Roses is significantly less useful. Apparently English roses are a specific kind of rose grown in England, developed by the author, David Austin. I would highly doubt that these roses would grow well in Canada without serious care and maintenance. Even the author discusses the wholesale use of spraying and pesticides on the roses. Some of the roses are quite pretty, but most of them are too fluffy and showy for my taste. With their multitude of petals, they look like overgrown peonies. If you want peonies, plant peonies. I want roses that look like roses - not fat pillows of curly petals. English roses, apparently, are not to my taste. Austin discusses the development of the English rose in quite exhaustive detail, and then discusses each new variety specifically, with a photo illustrating the rose. He does acknowledge that some of the roses look like peonies, but apparently these roses bloom all year, whereas peonies only bloom once a spring - which is fine with me! Further, any problem in your garden can be solved by these roses, apparently. They are perfect shrubs, perfect for climbing, perfect as a cut flower, etc.. This book is for English rose enthusiasts only.

Next, I turned to books to help me plan my garden: Trees for the Small Garden by Simon Toomer and Woodland Gardens: Shade Gets Chic ed. by C. Colston Burrell.

I had high hopes for Trees for the Small Garden to help me find some pretty trees that won't overwhelm my landscaping and dwarf my house. I was sadly disappointed. The book does have some useful general information at the beginning on selecting, planting, and caring for a tree, but it really lets you down in the tree index. Of all the 80 individual tree species listed as suitable for small gardens, there were exactly 15 that could be grown in Zone 3 (my climatic zone). Really? Now how helpful is that? According to the climate maps at the back of the book, the majority of Canada is in Zone 2 - which would render this book useless for the majority of Canadians, there being only 4 trees which are hearty to Zone 2 described in the book. Plus, there were a few trees that I have seen grown here rated as a Zone 4. And most of the trees which were rated a Zone 3 I already knew about and didn't want (such as many evergreens). I was looking for variety. I do have a tree section in my terrifically useful Best Garden Plants for Alberta (which I have talked about before), but I was looking for a book specifically on smaller trees for smaller lots, and not the giant oak and elm behemoths that would shade my entire lawn and tower over my house. I suppose I should take my own advice to stick to books from your own region when looking for specific plants.

Fortunately, I had more luck with Woodland Gardens. This sweet little book dispenses general advice on how to create a woodland garden in whichever region of woods you live in. It has some excellent basic tips on how to kill grass, for example, and how to pick plants. It has different pieces by gardeners who live in different areas on how they created a woodland garden that fits in with the climate and woodlands of their region. Finally, it has a list of plants specific to each region useful for creating a woodland garden. Anyone who has shade and is interested in gardening in the shade should check out this useful book.

Finally, I read an interesting book on restoring a garden (at an Edwardian English manor house, no less!) in Gertrude Jekyll's Lost Garden: The Restoration of an Edwardian Masterpiece, by Rosamund Wallinger.

I "discovered" Gertrude Jekyll when I was reading about roses in The Garden Primer. The author suggested I check out a book about roses by Gertrude Jekyll. I couldn't find that book, but found this one instead.

Gertrude Jekyll was a landscape designer and gardener. She designed several gardens and landscapes in England during a period of time that corresponded with the Arts and Craft movement. She was renowned for using plants in a way that suggested the plants were naturally growing, and for her broad strokes of colour. She is, I modestly suggest, the mother of modern gardening design.

The author purchased the Edwardian manor house with attached, overgrown Jekyll garden. On finding out that it was a Jekyll garden, and that, miraculously, the original plans for the garden had survived, the author and her husband decided to restore the gardens to their original condition - a back-breaking enterprise that would take years. Her story is recounted in this book.

The book inspires envy (jade-green lawns of grass in January!) and awe (patches of bluebells around a wood bench under new-leaved trees, a homemade wall with flowers growing out of the crevices, daffodils and other spring bulbs growing wild in the grass under a flowering apple tree...). It is interesting to read about the author's struggles and triumphs as she tries to restore the garden. It is hard to read Jekyll's writing on the plans, and many of the plant varieties she used are no longer available today. It certainly makes my attempts at landscaping seem simple! It was an enjoyable read about another gardener's struggle, and ultimate triumph.

So, until I get my English manor with its staff of gardeners, I will have to confine myself to reading about other's gardens while I work on my own little plot of earth.

Glossy Paper

I enjoy reading books, I really do. However, I don't always read as many books as I would like. (Yes, even me!) That's because, sometimes, I just want a quick read. I have a little bit of time to while away and I don't want to get sucked in to an excellent book with a thrilling plot and come to several hours later still in my PJs with the kitchen uncleaned! So, I turn to magazines.

I like magazines a lot. You get new ones monthly or weekly, and you can always find interesting ones at the supermarket checkout line to browse through. You don't have to devote a lot of attention to the magazine, and quite often they have nice pictures. Right now, I subscribe to 4 magazines: InStyle, Glamour, SELF, and Entertainment Weekly. (Although I am getting rid of my InStyle subscription.) That seems like a lot of magazines, but I come by it honestly - my parents subscribed to lots of magazines when I was growing up (and still do): Time, Macleans, National Geographic, Canadian Geographic, Nature, and various cooking, gardening, and weaving magazines. When I was little, I had subscriptions to Ranger Rick, Chickadee, OWL, and Cricket. As I got older I had a subscription to Seventeen, and bought a lot of other popular magazines, such as YM. Even now I pick up magazines such as The Hockey News, The Economist, People, and Papercrafts.

Of the magazines I currently receive, I think I enjoy Entertainment Weekly the most. It generally arrives once a week (although it doesn't seem to arrive on any set schedule - I often call it Entertainment Occasionally due to the vagaries of its arrival) and is an entertaining and informative read. After only a few hours of my time, I am up to date with all of the latest pop culture news and entertainment. I know what movies are playing, who's in them, and if they're any good. I know what albums are being released and what books are being sold. I know what's on TV (American TV, anyway). I'm in the loop without having to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get in the loop.

Further, the articles are entertaining! I enjoy reading about pop culture and the writers at Entertainment Weekly certainly are experts. Over the past few months, they've had articles on: Kelly Rowland's career after Destiny's Child; Bill Murray's varied career; the problems with the summer's movies; an exclusive book excerpt from a Star Wars making-of book; a list of the 100 greatest characters of all time; and a preview of all the movies coming out this summer. Plus, they have excellent columnists such as Mark Harris and Stephen King. (yes, that Stephen King. I won't read his horror novels but will read his column!).

Finally, I also like Entertainment Weekly's website. No, you don't have to subscribe to the magazine to surf their site, but it's kind of tied in to their magazine. I especially like the morning-after recaps. This is where a snide and snarky Entertainment Weekly writer will recap a show that happened the night before, with their own opinions and wit added in. Sometimes, I enjoy reading the recap as much as I enjoy watching the show! In fact, as I'm watching the show, I often wonder what the recapper will say. However, it's not just for shows you watch. I often read the recaps of shows I don't watch, like Grey's Anatomy. I am kind of interested in that show, but I don't want to take the time to watch it. Voila - the recap! I read the recap and then I'm up-to-date on what happened and can discuss plot points with all my friends that do watch the show. Really, it's a time saver. It takes me maybe a few minutes to read a recap as opposed to taking a good hour to watch the show. Time saved! Now more time to read those books....and magazines!

Lost Favourites

When I was little, my favourite thing was going to the library (okay, so not much has changed). We would go without fail every 3 weeks to take back the books we'd read and take out a whole pile of new ones. Sometimes, we'd even stop for a chocolate bar on the way home. Now that was an evening out!

I read all kinds of books as a kid. I liked classics by Lucy Maud Montgomery and Laura Ingalls Wilder, but I also read Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley Twins/Sweet Valley High (probably when I was a little older.). I also read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy - my tastes are still the same today. I was surprised when I was looking at my library's holdings for Monica Hughes (one of my favourite Canadian sci-fi authors) - they were missing a substantial part of her works. This made me sad. I have always counted on the public library to have copies of the books I don't own. If they're not going to maintain a collection of Hughes' works, I am going to have to find the copies I want to read. I suspect I will have to get out in the second hand bookstores to find some!

When I was working on the gardening post a few posts back, I was reminded of one of my favourite books as a child. The protagonist is a girl named Gertie. She finds a wishbone and makes a wish - that her house would turn into a garden. Little does she know that this is a magic wishbone and that her wish comes true! First, there is grass growing in the hallway. Then plants and flowers begin to sprout in other corners of the house. Finally, her house turns into a beautiful forest/jungle. I loved the book and wished that the same thing would happen to my house. Sadly, I had no magic wishbone.

Armed only with the knowledge that the protagonist's name was Gertie, I searched the internet for the book. Voila, I soon found it. It's called Gertie's Green Thumb and it's by Catherine Dexter, illustrations by Ellen Eagle. I quickly went to the electronic catalog of my local library. I was devastated to find that they didn't have it. I do realize the library can't have a copy of every book in the world in it, but this is an excellent book for kids. Well, not just for kids - I would like to read it again! I guess it means another trip to the used bookstore for me. Or maybe e-bay?

So, faithful readers, what books did you read as a child that you can no longer find? If you could read it again, would you? And do you think the book would be as good now as it was back then? I'm curious to find out your lost favourites so we can find them together.

[Postscript: According to all the publishing information I can find about the book it was published in 1996, which would make me definitely no longer a child when I read the book. However, some books are good for all ages! Also, it may be a second edition or republishing, because I'm pretty sure I remember reading this when a kid. Although I did read lots of kids books still when I got into my teens and beyond.]

Grown-up Fairy Tales

Much to my great surprise, the new Mercedes Lackey book in her 500 Kingdoms series came in to the library the other day. I had put it on hold in April and wasn't expecting it so soon. I love this series: it is light-hearted and full of romance and adventure, with a twist on the traditional fairy tales. I don't think you ever get too old for fairy tales and I love reading books that take the traditional tales we all grew up with and expand the stories to a full length novel; often with a few twists along the way.

Mercedes Lackey gives the traditional fairy tales her storyteller's polish in her 500 Kingdoms series. The premise for the series is this (and I'm not giving anything away, this basic introduction is woven into every book - although perhaps not right away in the first one): the 500 Kingdoms are various lands which are governed by the Tradition. Call it fate, call it predestination - this is an external force that governs the lives of the residents of the 500 Kingdoms. Basically, the Tradition follows traditional fairy tales and tries to force the lives of residents whose lives already match certain factors in the fairy tales down the path of the fairy tale. So, for example, if you are a young woman whose father has recently remarried to a lady with two daughters of her own, the Tradition is setting you up to follow the Cinderella path. Hopefully, you will find your Prince and live happily ever after. But what if your Prince is too young, too old, already married, or gay? The Tradition will still try and force the traditional path to happen, leading to misery for the unwilling participants. These participants with the Tradition hanging over them are also a focal point for magic. Dark magicians can drain the magic from the people, leading to more misery and unhappiness. Fortunately, the 500 Kingdoms have Godmothers, whose job it is to watch over the lands and help direct the Tradition when things are about to go awry.

The most recent book is The Sleeping Beauty, where Lackey ties together elements of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and the Rings of the Nibelungen. There is a princess, a prince, actually, several princes, some dwarves, and a fairy godmother to save the day. And yes, there is a romance, but you'll have to read it to find which prince wins the hand of the fair princess! Lackey's characters are not stereotypical fairy-tale characters - they are well-rounded and interesting. This was an enjoyable, quick read. Maybe not the best literature out there, but entertaining. I would recommend reading the other books in the series prior to this one, but that is not necessary as the books stand alone to a certain extent (although characters from other stories pop up from time to time). I appreciated how Lackey tied together three different fairy tales/myths that I'd never thought about together before. Both Snow White and Sleeping Beauty involve sleeping princesses, and it was interesting to see Lackey take those elements and twist them in her tale.

One interesting note: in her introduction to the novel, Lackey mentions the writer Terry Pratchett and seems to imply that she was going for Pratchett-type humour in her book. I must say I groaned at that mention. I am not a Terry Pratchett fan and really fail to find his books funny. I've even owned a few of his books and they were okay, but not laugh-out-loud funny. Fortunately for me (but perhaps not for Ms. Lackey) I failed to find the Pratchett-type humour in the novel at all. Maybe the lisping unicorn was supposed to be funny, but I didn't find it so. A little annoying to read, yes (fortunately the beast does not have that much dialogue) but funny, no. Further, these were originally meant to be a series of romance novels (which is clearly evident in the first novel, less so as the series goes on) and I would rather focus on the romance of the fairy tales and not the humour.

All in all, I would recommend Lackey's 500 Kingdoms series. You don't have to, but I do recommend reading them in order: The Fairy Godmother, One Good Knight, Fortune's Fool, and The Snow Queen. She is a very prolific writer, so there are already several books even though the first was only published in 2004. My only sad note involves the next in the series - it will be published in October 2010 (hurray) but it will only be a novella (boo!) and included in the Harvest Moon anthology. I wish it was a book as I'm not sure I will be bothered to hunt down an anthology in which I probably only read the one novella. I do like the series though, so maybe I'll console myself with getting all the novels in paperback (and then a new bookshelf!).

The Fantastic Mr. Fforde

My father had a face that could stop a clock. I don't mean that he was ugly or anything; it was a phrase the ChronoGuard used to describe someone who had the power to reduce time to an ultra-slow trickle. Dad had been a colonel in the ChronoGuard and kept his work very quiet. So quiet, in fact, that we didn't know he had gone rogue at all until his timekeeping buddies raided our house one morning clutching a Seize & Eradication order open-dated at both ends and demanding to know where and when he was.

[The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2001) Chapter 1, page 1]

And with these words, I was immediately swept up into Thursday Next's world - a world amazingly realized by Jasper Fforde. It's all there in the first chapter; literary detectives, time travelling, the Crimean War, the government taxes on cheese, Goliath, a dodo.... If you're in my bookclub and haven't read the first novel yet - stop now! In fact, stop now if you've only read the first novel - I intend to discuss all the books in the Thursday Next series with this post. July was my month to pick for bookclub and I wanted something entertaining yet still intellectual. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde (one of my favourite books of all time) was the result. I thought I might as well reread the entire series while I was at it, and did so in a matter of a few weeks.

I will limit myself here to discussing the Thursday Next series. I haven't really read the Nursery Crime series all that much, so will remedy that defect and post on it in the future. Fforde's latest book is Shades of Grey, which I read when it came out, and will have to read again before I think I can post on in adequately. I can't wait for the rest of that series.

The first book in the series is The Eyre Affair. It was fun to re-read it for the bookclub - I approached it with fresh eyes and tried to read it as if it were the first time I had read it. It really does draw you in with the opening chapter. You really just have to go with it - to dive in completely to Fforde's world and be completely immersed in his reality. I found Thursday's world amazing and intriguing and was interested in her work with Special Operations as a Literary Detective. However, then she jumped into books and really blew my mind. I had never thought of books and characters like that - as being like actors in a play who act the scenes they're given, but then offstage/offpage have this whole rich and varied life needing to be policed by Jurisfiction! This notion has affected the way I read all fiction books now - I can't help wondering what the characters are doing offpage and what else is going on behind the story.

Basically, the premise for book-jumping is this. All characters in a book are technically "alive". They act out the story as they're being read, but if they are not being read, they are free to act however they wish. There is a whole world inside fiction - the Bookworld. It is policed by characters from books under the auspices of an agency called Jurisfiction. Has anyone ever read a book and then been disoriented and surprised to still be at home once they have finished the book? Well, book-jumping takes that to the next extreme and allows you to cross the barrier between reality and fiction.

The next two books, Lost in a Good Book and The Well of Lost Plots deal with Thursday's life inside books and her training as a Jurisfiction agent. Of the two, my favourite (and I think my favourite book of the whole series) is The Well of Lost Plots. I love seeing inside the world of fiction, and The Well of Lost Plots takes place almost entirely inside the Bookworld. For someone who is as big a reader as I am, the notion that you could travel inside books is immensely appealing. I also appreciate how Fforde pulls together the villain from Lost in a Good Book and continues that plot arc into a satisfying conclusion.

Something Rotten jumps forward a couple of years after The Well of Lost Plots, which is kind of too bad. I would have liked to have read about Thursday's adventures inside the Bookworld during that time. However, her return to real-life and the Literatecs is entertaining too. Fforde has really created two interesting worlds here - the Bookworld and Thursday's everyday world. Both are fascinating, and it would have been interesting to have explored more of Thursday's world before jumping into the Bookworld (which is slightly more fascinating to me). But it's good to be back out in the "real" world and have Thursday interact with all the characters we've been missing since the first two books.

The last book, First Among Sequels, takes place 14 years after Something Rotten, which is almost a mistake. 14 years brings about a lot of changes - especially after the final events in Something Rotten - and those changes almost aren't acknowledged in First Among Sequels. It's almost as if the author wanted to set the book further ahead in time to catch up on technological advances, but didn't necessarily advance the story 14 years on (other than making everyone 14 years older). Too much of the story seems like it would have taken place immediately after the events in Something Rotten, and not 14 years later. It is still better than most non-Fforde fiction, but is probably my least favourite of the series so far.

And, of course, just a quick note on the editions of the book. I love the paperback edition that I have in the first three books (I've lent The Eyre Affair to a friend, which is why it isn't in this photo):

These are the Hodder and Stoughton paperback editions. I like the colours and the nice clean lines of the font and illustration. They are eye-catching without being annoying. Plus, they are a nice smaller size of book.

Sadly, Something Rotten and First Among Sequels are completely different....

I bought Something Rotten as soon as it came out, so this is not the paperback Hodder and Stoughton edition; I believe it is the "hardcover" edition. (Although my copy is a soft cover) So I suppose that's my fault for jumping too early and not waiting for the paperback. However, I don't think I can get the nice paperbacks anymore as Hodder and Stoughton seems to be re-releasing the books with new covers similar to First Among Sequels, above. I don't like the art on the cover and the scuffed-up book look. I like the more abstract nature of the paperbacks. Plus, both Something Rotten and First Among Sequels are taller than my other 3 books, which makes them hard to keep all together on a shelf and look nice.

All griping about looks aside, the Thursday Next series is a great series for people who love books, reading, mysteries, time-travel, and dodos. I hope I've made you curious to go pick up the book and read it for yourself. Finally, if one day I quit posting, you'll know I've succeeded in my quest to bookjump. Keep an eye out for me in Austen!

A Visit to the Library

There's nothing like a visit to the library to cure any sort of bad day. Even just a few minutes of wandering dreamily through the stacks and I'm as happy as a clam.

Here are my borrowings for the day:

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (only one is an economist, so title is still correct)

Gilded Youth: Three Lives in France's Bell Epoque, by Kate Cambor (again, I know there's an accent on the E, don't know how to put them on)

The Sleeping Beauty, by Mercedes Lackey

Woodland Gardens: Shade Gets Chic, ed. by C. Colston Burrell (Brooklyn Botanic Gardens series)

The English Roses: Classic Favorites & New Selections, by David Austin

Gardening With Tulips, by Michael King

Trees for the Small Garden, by Simon Toomer

Again, my usual random assortment gleaned from holds, books on display shelves, and attempting to take out the entirety of one section at a time.

As you can see, I've discovered the gardening section. My life will never be the same again. So many wonderful books with fabulous full-colour photos of entirely unobtainable gardens! I did say earlier I read to escape, right? So why not escape into some beautiful gardens?

I am very excited about the Mercedes Lackey book. It seems I put it on hold ages ago, but it was only April. I can't wait to read it and will probably tackle it first thing, even though I still have most of the behemoth (see photo in earlier post) waiting for me, plus 6 Georgette Heyers to read. Sadly, there's no new nosy bookworm post coming up with this hold - I couldn't get a good look at the other books to see the title. At least it was a book - the past several holds I've picked up have been sandwiched by dvds! This is the nosy bookworm, not the nosy dvd-watcher.

Finally, a word of caution. When carrying a bag of chips around in your library bag, just be careful about putting the books in your library bag, in case the chips get squished. I am happy to report that despite some squishage, the chips still taste great. (Old Dutch Cheddar & Sour Cream, if you must know.)

Happy Reading!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

One of my other favourite pastimes (besides reading) is gardening. Admittedly, this is of recent provenance - I now have some land to garden in! My garden may be small, but I have big ideas. Likewise my gardening library is small, but it is full of many ideas.

Every beginning gardener needs a guidebook. My guidebook is The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch. I received this book as a gift from my mother, and I can already say that it has been very useful. I foresee it becoming like my Joy of Cooking, an indispensable guide I turn to, a book that is dog-eared, pencil-marked, and muddy from constant use. So far, however, it's in pretty good condition:

This book has everything a gardener would need to know. It has chapters on Annuals, Perennials, Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, Bulbs, Roses, Lawns, Ground Covers, Vines, Shrubs, Trees, Wildflowers, and Houseplants. The beginning chapters contain wisdom on such matters as What Plants Need, Planning Your Landscape, Gardening Gear, and How to Buy Plants. It is an excellent resource. The author's voice comes across clearly throughout the text and it is not dry or scholarly. It is like talking to a friend; albeit one with an impressive knowledge of gardening lore! I love her stories about her personal experiences. So much of gardening is the stories one gardener shares with another.

My one minor quibble with it is that it is American. Our growing zones up here in Canada are much cooler than the States, so often I will get excited about a plant only to find it won't grow up here (or at least without lots of tender care). But that is a minor distraction. The book is packed with solid tips and advice and should be on every gardener's bookshelf.

Because temperatures vary so much across Canada, it is important to have a few good books which talk about the plants which do grow well in the climate you have. Such as the following:

Both books are published by Lone Pine Publishing; a publishing house based in Alberta. Often local publishers are the best source for books about issues specific to your area - I urge you to check out your local publishers for gardening books specific to your area.

Gardening Month by Month in Alberta by Alison Beck is a handy resource to assist the gardener in planning his or her year. It is especially helpful for the first time gardener! Of course, the recommendations must be taken with a grain of salt as so much of gardening is weather-dependant. However, it is a handy overall guide for the seasons. It also contains such useful information as a chart of Alberta Climate Normals for various locations around Alberta, as well as maps indicating the last spring and first fall frost dates. It is a useful book.

Best Garden Plants for Alberta by Donna Dawson and Laura Peters does not contain the range of plants in The Garden Primer, above, but with this book you know that the plants listed will grow in Alberta. The book is divided into sections (Annuals, Perennials, Trees & Shrubs, Roses, Vines, Bulbs, Herbs, and Grasses & Ferns) with a brief description of each plant and a lovely full-colour photo. I often find myself looking up plants in this book and then turning to The Garden Primer for more information before I plot out the plants on my garden plan. Both books are helpful for the beginner Alberta gardener.