THE LATEST BOOK GIVEAWAY–which was a smashing success–ended at midnight Sunday, but there’s a “win” for everyone, it turns out. Collaborator and author Katrina Kenison and I asked commenters to tell us about books they’d relied on in times of transition…and wow, did they ever.
Did you ever. Here’s a pdf of the list of books for the journey–the list you made with your comments.
(I’ve also pasted it below, if the printable format doesn’t suit.) I was struck that Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s 1955 book “Gift From the Sea” was a runaway favorite (along with more expected ones like “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” from Barbara Kingsolver, Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love,” and Anne Lamott’s work in general). Books for the Journey (Author: Title)
Adams, Richard: Watership Down Albom, Mitch: Tuesdays with Morrie Ali, Ayaan Hirsi: Infidel Allen, James: As A Man Thinketh (essay) Atkinson, Patricia: The Ripening Sun Ban Breathnach, Sarah: Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy Bardsley, Barney: A Handful of Earth Bateson, Mary Catherine: Composing a Life & Peripheral Visions Beck, Martha: Expecting Adam Berry, Wendell: The Unsettling of America Berry, Wendell: The Three-Legged House Beston, Henry: The Outermost House Birks, Tony: biography of the potter Lucie Rie Bombeck, Erma: The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side Of The Fence Bourke, Dale Hanson: Embracing Your Second Calling Braestrup, Kate: Here If You Need Me Brett, Brian: Trauma Farm Bridges, William: Transitions Bronson, Po: What Should I Do With My Life? Browning, Dominique: Around the House and In the Garden Browning, Dominique: Slow Love Buscaglia, Leo: Personhood Byok, Ira: Dying Well Byrne, Rhonda: The Secret Caldwell, Gail: Let’s Take the Long Way Home
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Just because our attention is focused on keeping things steady (ahem, alive) in the garden this deep into the summer, it doesn’t mean we should neglect our leafy loved ones who live indoors—especially if you have travel plans! Houseplants have special needs every season, but summer heat and time away come with their own set of challenges.
Ah, garden dreams. We all have them. You drive by someone’s front yard and gasp at how original, yet welcoming it is. Or you go to a friend’s garden party and get positively green with envy over their, well, greenery and the overall flow of the space. To achieve such greatness, you decide you need to hire a landscape designer. And then you realize you have no idea what to do next.
The colour of this young Knapweed is dark almost purple. As it opens fully it will become blue and then fade as the flower ages. The colour helps Centaurea montana earn its nickname of Mountain Cornflower or perennial cornflower.
Sometimes as gardeners, we place all the emphasis on plants. However, a few well positioned ornaments and focal points can heighten the interest and drama within a garden.
China is one of the great destinations for visiting gardens. The influence over garden design and the vast array of plants and flowers is secondary to the investment in time and dedication demonstrated in so many great locations. This is just a selection of those you may consider visiting if you can make the journey..
Yes you can rest happily with this organic treatment for your Aphids. It is called ‘spiders’ and they can be found in every garden and often in your own home.
A common site in many town gardens are trees that have outgrown their space. Large native trees like Oaks, Copper Beach, Planes, Weeping Willow and horse chestnuts are wonderful, but to be really enjoyed they need suitable space, like in a park. If they are planted in the garden they will
‘Oh the old bamboo the old bamboo never-ever bother with the old bamboo’ That song reminds me to weed out the poor and damaged canes I have left over from previous seasons. Away with split canes that snag and frustrate and may carry disease.
Summer at the South Carolina Botanical Garden (SCBG) that is a fun time filled with summer camps and children laughing and learning. Below are some of the simple, low cost ideas we used in our Creativity Camp to get children outside, where they enjoyed nature, and tapped into their creativity.
Fall bird migration is in full swing in South Carolina. As our temperatures cool and the days get shorter, many birds start preparing to move south. Many warblers pass through the South Carolina Botanical Garden (SCBG) on their way to subtropical and tropical areas. If you visit the SCBG with your binoculars, you may see some warblers in the migratory flight path located below and behind the Bob Campbell Geology Museum.
THE PATH TO FULLTIME LIFE IN THE GARDEN–to a little more peace than my former city corporate life included–keeps offering up unexpected extras, especially in the form of new friends. This week’s book giveaway–the biggest yet, with chances to win four copies of my upcoming book and four of “The Gift of an Ordinary Day” author Katrina Kenison’s, too–is a collaborative cross-blog effort with a kindred spirit that you won’t want to miss.
We’d been to hear another old friend, Dan Hinkley, speak at nearby Berkshire Botanical Garden’s annual lecture with several hundred other winter-weary types, and afterward gone off with Dan and friends to eat.We didn’t really talk plants at the meal; nine crazy gardeners traded pet stories. I know—insane. Either we are getting old and soft, or have spent too much time on Cute Overload. But the next morning my breakfast guest and I shifted from zoology to botany, stirred up by a few of Dan’s slides, including one of Mukdenia rossii ‘Crimson Fans,’ a shade plant Dan’s helped bring to market as