Book Review: Ken Thompson, Darwin's Most Wonderful Plants

 

This a delightful short book, describing Charles Darwin's fascination with plants and the many plant experiments he carried out at Down House...and some of these experiments were quite extensive!  The book starts with his experiments on twining, vining, and climbing plants and the way plants accomplish these behaviors (yes, behaviors! There is more to plants than meets the eye!). I sort of knew the difference, but still learned so much, about the strategies of honeysuckles, legumes, and Virginia creeper.  But the book also addresses pollination strategies, orchids, and the relationship between plants, nectar, and flowers.  The author fills us in with more recent research that often validates Darwin's explanations. I think this book will make me a more keen observer of what goes on in my garden!

PS If you are interested in repeating some of these experiments, esp. with kids, try this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Backyard-Small-Experiments-Theory-ebook/dp/B01M4JOSRX

The Flora of Virginia

OK, I know this is late (for Valentine's Day and my Wednesday Lagniappe series), but if you have a Virginia Lover who loves the garden and the great outdoors, skip the environmentally unsound, chemically sprayed, hothouse roses with no scent and calorie filled treats and get him or her this book.  Decades in the making, the Flora of Virginia documents every plant in Virginia (excluding some exotic annuals and perennials) that have a recorded presence in the state.  Not "light reading," this book is helpful for identifying plants in Virgina (and nearby states) and is useful for naturalists, gardeners, educators and botanical art enthusiasts!  It also will help you learn your botanical Latin and other terms, ecological regions of the state, and much more!  One of my favorite features is 50 great places to find Virginia plants.  I previously disliked the idea of "bucket lists," but now I have one!

To read more about it:  RTF Flora article

To order: http://brit.org/brit-press/books/virginia

Happy Gardening!

Book Review (and the essay it inspired): Mabey, R. (2010). "Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants"

"Weeds" among my weeds!

Book Review (and the essay it inspired): Mabey, R. (2010). "Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants" NY: ECCO Paperback (Harper-Collins)

     I think about weeds altogether too much, and I have nightmares about them too.  As an avid gardener, whose desires are greater than the time and energy I have to give to them (like everyone else), I feel that a weedy bed is an eyesore, a slur and a commentary on my lazy immorality.  But Richard Mabey, author of the book that is the object of this review and essay, just might have me thinking differently about weeds...at least a little.

    Reading this book, and countless other garden books, I have settled on a central thesis:  that weeds share many of the qualities that we judge admirable in our fellow human beings.  And a few that we find....shall we say, less than desirable?

     Weeds are consummate survivors and we all love a survival story, right?  They arise from the school of hard knocks, often developing their toughness in difficult and demanding environments:  rocky, acid, alkaline, poor soil or scree; overly cold or hot temperatures; climate extremes; overly wet or arid conditions; and subject to repeated grazing, predation, fires or trampling. These conditions make for a strong species.

     Weed are vigorous.  They are strong, vibrant, and can grow with abandon.  They out-compete other plants.  Turn your back and, boom, the hill is covered in kudzu, your fence with bindweed. They win.  Everyone loves a winner?

     Weeds are survivors in other ways.  Some have seeds with incredibly long viability (the current record is about 2,000 years).  They can often still sprout after long decades of dormancy.  Others germinate incredibly fast: the record is the tumbleweed, which can germinate in 36 minutes.  Weed seeds outrace and outlast the competition.

     Weed seeds are inventive: they have many strategies for dispersal.  They can be sticky or gummy, thus adhering to you, me and other creatures, only to fall off later in a new spot.  They may have burrs or spikes to do the same trick (Velcro was inspired by a cockle burr).  Some actually shoot their seeds a distance, or have fluffy seed that floats far away.  Some seeds, encased in a tempting morsel, like a poison ivy berry, are impervious to digestive juices, and are pooped out, unharmed, with a little packet of...er...fertilizer.

    Weed roots are similarly inventive.  Some are incredibly vigorous, running under- or above-ground to greener pastures.  Others have deep tap roots, anchored roots, or stolons, that snap off when pulled, only to form a hydra-headed plant when it re-sprouts: think poke weed or the common dandelion.

    Some weeds are just plumb attractive.  We like them, we ignore them... the they rub their fornds together and take over.  Think of violets and purple loosestrife.

    And then there are the traits that would not do well in humans.  Some weeds (and other, more culturally valued plants) are allelopathic, that is, they are the poisoners of the plant world, pumping chemicals into the soil, subsances that kill or stunt other plants, but to which the host plant is immune.  Some smother other plants and kill by blocking light and water.  To the vigorous victor go the spoils.
Next time?  What is a weed anyway?  More than just "the wrong plant in the wrong place?"  We'll see!
Happy gardening! Happy New Year!

Book Review: The Roots of My Obsession

                                                           [Photo from Amazon.com]

Cooper, Thomas C. The Roots of My Obsession: Thirty Great Gardeners Reveal Why They Garden.  Timber Press

(I was given a tablet computer and it is changing the way I read books.  I got this book as an e-book and, though I am not completely satisfied with the process (and miss holding a real book in my hands) it has been overall an acceptable media.) 

I tend to dislike collections of essays, feeling they were not written spontaneously, but contracted out and assembled for a purpose: to sell a book. Other times, I feel like I am reading something out of context, taken from another, longer essay, and it feels disconnected as I go from essay to essay. I know this criticism is probably unfair, but that is how I feel.  Anyway, I am enjoying some of the essays in this book, especially those of gardeners with whom I am familiar.  I wanted to share with you a few quotes that I liked, found amusing or provocative:

Cooper, p. 9 (e-version) "I was raised on a strain of gardening that combined the minor virtues of engineering, math, Cold War chemistry and internal combustion.  My parents were a part of the victory garden generation....those who had some land (and) naturally grew food and flowers as part of their genetic makeup, not as an exercise in outdoor decorating."

Tony Avent (p. 21, e-version) "I wasn't very popular in high school., where an interest in plants was not something for a guy to admit in public..."

Rosalind Creasy (p. 40 e) "I've also learned that a two-year-old can single out the the ripe cherry tomatoes even though her mother is stymied."

William Cullina (p. 50 e) "Fall is a blend of melancholy, quiet celebration, and anticipation, mixed with a slight, fluttering anxiety.  I am sad to see the chlorophyll drain from the garden...I can also feel already feel the excitement building for next spring."

and one more, just because I share this weirdness:

Page Dickey (p. 62e) "I love to weed.  I realize this is not a universal sentiment, even among gardeners.  But every spring I am reminded how utterly happy I am on all fours, inching along the garden beds, pulling out the culprits, scratching the earth with my three-pronged weeder, enjoying the results as I look behind at my progress."

Happy gardening!

Book Review: Continuous Container Gardens

I recently read Continuous Container Gardens (Townsend, S.B. & Robbins, R., 2010. Storey Publishing, North Adams, MA). The authors of this book take the approach that container gardens or plantings should be continually changed throughout the season to promote interest year round and keep them looking fresh. They discuss suitable containers, and how the container should complement the plants (no tall, skinny plants in tall, skinny containers) and how the container can set the mood for the planting (rustic, historic, elegant, humorous)(me, I go for humorous, hands down). The authors usually have planting schemes that involve what they call a "backbone" plant, that is, generally a perennial that will be a permanent resident of the pot, except for occasional re-potting, such as an evergreen, columnar shrub, Japanese maple or corkscrew willow. The pot is then planted with companion plants that may cover he surface of the soil, trail out of the pot or add a vertical accent. Consideration is given to color, leaf size/shape/texture, hardiness, seasonality, bark color and texture, suitability for pot culture, etc. They add other elements as well- ornaments for holidays, evergreen branches for seasonal displays, small statuary, etc.

One interesting list from is must have plants for container growing: sedums, mosses, golden creeping Jenny, sweet woodruff, false nettle, oxalis, bugleweed, heathers and heaths, heuchera and herbs, especially thyme and sage. I think this is a pretty good list of accent plants, to which I might add rosemary and ornamental peppers. They have some recommendation for pretty edible plants that include kale and Swiss chard along with small flowers and ornamental cabbage.

This is a nice book, with nice photos and nice ideas, but it does seem like a lot of work to re-plant, modify or decorate your outdoor posts several times a year. But if you only do this for a few, strategically placed pots, I think it is a lovely idea (specially when the containers are potted up with edibles!)
Happy gardening!

Books Reviews:Yes, BookS

Three Quirky Books:
Del Tredici, P. (2010). Wild urban plants of the northeast: A field guide. Ithaca NY: Comtock Publishing.
Alcorn, J (2006). An enthusiasm for orchids: Sex and deception in plant evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Smith, A.F. (1994) The tomato in America: Early history, culture and cookery. Columbia SC: University of South Carolina Press.

I love odd little gems and over the past few years I have found these three books. The first is available at most major bookstores, but you will have to search to find the other two. When my son was younger, we used to go to DC often and would head right to his favorite place, the Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian. We LOVED that bookstore and over years I came away with odd and interesting books, including the latter two listed above.

I listed the urban plants books first, because it is the most useful for the gardener (the other two, while interesting to the amateur scientist/naturalist in me, most decidedly have little practical import tot the US gardener, except to interest and delight). Even though we are in the Mid-Atlantic region, with many rural areas, Del Tredici's book is useful and relevant to us- after all, urban plants of the urban northeast set seeds and show up in a wider geographic region. What I like most of this book relates to my sorry state of knowledge of names and type of "adventitious" plants (a.k.a. weeds). I know if a plant is a desirable one, or a weed and I know some of the common types- dandelion, wood sorrel, cinquefoil, pokeweed, nutsedge, and crabgrass among a few. But Del Tredicis book shows the many types of adventitious plants, along with photos (OK, my one gripe- not so great photos, but good enough to help you identify the plants). He tells you the common names, botanical name, how it grows, where it came from, characteristics, fruiting, etc, but, most interesting to me, the "ecological functions" and "cultural significance" of each plant. For example, the entry for Paulownia (a distinctive plant we have all seen countless times, and probably did not know what it was): "...Introduced into North America in 1844. Its spread through the East was supposedly facilitated when seeds used as packing material to protect imported Chinese porcelain were discarded. The species is hyped in Sunday newspaper supplements as a "wonder tree" that grows 6 feet...a year." Love it!

John Alcorn is a professor of life Sciences at Arizona State University. He is a entomologist, that is, he studies insects, but makes the point that you cannot fully understanding insects without understanding plants (part of the broader notion of inter-connection of living things). As an evolutionary biologist, he is able to tease apart the connections between plants and animals and show what has been variously described as a "dance" and "an escalating arms race" between living organisms, all with the goal of reproducing their own kind. Alcorn is apparently smitten with orchids, especially the odd and unusual ones that grow in parts of Australia. I love books in which the writer's passion shines through the words, and this book is one of them- plus it is full of great photos of some very strange plants, and stories of their strategies to get insects to assist in their (the orchids) reproduction (check out the photos of "the flying duck orchid" and "the hammer orchid" they are fascinating!) This book has helped me become a better observer of nature and in the garden, to see the unusual plant "behaviors" we have right under our noses.

The tomato is often polled as the favorite garden vegetable to grow. You cannot get a good tomato unless you grow it yourself or are very lucky (store bought tomatoes are picked green, chemically ripened and chilled, which ruins any flavor they might have acquired. Want a sure fire way to ruin the flavor of a garden tomato? Refrigerate it). Smith is a garden "hobbyist" turned historian of tomatoes and thus book is fun and interesting, tracking down the myth, lore and history of the introduction of the tomato to the US. Plus, he gives historical recipes (tomato wine and tomato marmalade are my favorites- I make and can a tomato jam, the forerunner to ketchup)! I have actually found myself citing parts of this book at social gathering (and no, people don't run away!) (my sure fire, non-controversial topics at faculty gatherings? Gardening, crafts and dog stories)(well, non-controversial unless I meet another passionate gardener with definite ideas-crafts and dogs seem a safe bet).

If you have any useful or quirky gardening, botanical or life science books to recommend, please do!
Happy gardening!

Book Review: Eddison, S. (2010). Gardening for a Lifetime: How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older. Portland: Timber Press

As I launch further into my 50's, I realize that I already have some functional limitations in regard to gardening. Bad back, arthritis...I cannot go into the garden in the morning and emerge 8 hours later, all perky, like I used to do in my 30's. But I still manage and now have several strategies to get most of the work done- work in small bursts, use a wheeled garden stool, prioritize. So I was curious when I found this book on the library shelves. Sydney Eddison is a long-time gardener and garden writer. Eddison is a good writer: clear, understandable and from the heart. She describes both loss and plunging ahead to continue to do what she loves for as long as she can, an admirable philosophy (I mean, you can either grump over what you cannot do or do what you can). Her book reflects the aging gardener and at the end of each chapter she gives pithy advice for all of us. I recommend this book- a quick read, great advice. Some of my favorite bits of advice? "Accept imperfections" "Pick your battles" "Make the hard choices" "Gardener, know thyself," and find possibilities in what you have. If only we could, in all areas of life, follow that last bit of advice.
Happy gardening!

Garden Frugality

The $64 Tomato (and $7 head of broccoli?)

You maybe have heard of the book by this same title (Alexander, W. (2007). “The $64 tomato: How one man nearly lost his sanity, spent a fortune and endured an existential crisis in the quest for a perfect garden” a good read, BTW). Whenever I look at some glossy catalog with some new system for growing, trellising or maintaining vegetable plants, I think of that title and the concept of garden frugality (oddly enough, not as much for flowers, as those are totally for pleasure maybe?). Probably because how I was brought up (that is, I was raised to calculate the cost of a restaurant meal to me versus to the restaurateur to pick the best value, I remember being carefully instructed by my father on wiping the peanut butter off the knife onto the opposing piece of bread so as not to waste it-it short, I was raised by someone who lived though the poverty of the great Depression). I look at each gadget with the following questions in mind:

1. What is the cost?
2. How likely is it to increase yields? Or is it a matter of convenience, fashion or appearance?
3. How long will it last?
4. What is, then, the per pound or per unit price of this gadget? High? Low?

If an item is largely for ornamental purposes or will not last long or does not greatly increase yields, it fails my test. I know that some of this is hard to do, for example, how was I to know that that “noodlehead sprinkler” ™, which guides water to parts of the garden that needed it, would break after a few months use? I did get a refund, but did not have a way to know in advance that it was fragile (except maybe wading through product reviews, which I would be happy to do for a larger purchase). Same with the “increase yields” question, it is hard to do, but these are just “thinking points” and do not require exact, numeric answers, just some general sense of the reason for the purchase and likely outcome. (On a related note, people have been gardening in dirt with seeds and water and digging sticks and doing just fine for a long time- I know there have been improvements, but that special hydroponic tomato growing system is not one, unless your goals are to garden in an unsuitable area, like on a high-rise terrace, and grow a few pricey tomatoes and herbs. This is fine as a pastime and conversation starter if you enjoy it, but is not frugal gardening).

I know there are other reasons to garden than to get inexpensive, tasty, organic food and pretty flowers. For example, I certainly am more willing to spend a little more money on ornamental features for my ornamental flower garden, because my goals there are different than for a veggie garden. And I guess one could feel the same about vegetable gardening, and I have seen some lovely ornamental features in them. All in all, this position may not be entirely consistent, but the goals I have for each type of gardening vary. So figure out your goals, what is it you want out of gardening…

Visit my garden pod cast, Virginia Organic Gardener, by clicking on the Pod Bean button on the left side of this page or itunes and….Happy Gardening!

Book Review: Food Not Lawns

Book Review: Flores, H.C. (2006) Food not lawns: How to turn your yard into a garden and your neighborhood into a community.VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Co.

I picked up this book because of the cover. Or rather, I picked up this book because of the title. I dislike lawns and am an great proponent of converting lawns into gardens for beauty, pleasure and food production. This is not just a how-to garden book, it is a book espousing a particular philosophy of gardening, one I agree with for the most part. I approve on the emphasis on local, organic food (and how much more local can you get than your own yard???), converting wasted lawn to growing space and the ideal of community life. I like the helpful tips on seed saving, building the soil, polycultures and improving the soil, among others.
What I don't like about this book are a few things: first, assertion that organic food can cure all sorts of ills, from depleted energy to bipolar disorder. If it only it were that easy! And if only there was more than anecdotal evidence of this. I do believe a lifetime of a healthy, organic, vegetable-dominant diet may be able to prevent some ills, but cure them? Second, I don't think this book will reach the main steam due to some of the author's stated beliefs about food and life, it might be too "radical" for some. But if you can get past this, it has some good idea and funny moments (the section on the pro's and con's of backyard fowl are funny "ducks are loud and quite stupid..." turkeys are "big, mean and ugly. They will chase children and demolish the garden....Guinea fowl make a hellish screeching sound similar to that of a busted fan belt on a car..."). Another concern I have is with the author's sourcing, which may not always be the most authoritative. My last concern is related to the index: I love a good index, one that makes it easy to find information, and I understand it can be hard to compile at times. I knew that there was a section comparing backyard birds, but could find no related entry in the index under poultry, chickens, backyard birds or fowl.
If you are interested in converting some or all of your lawn into garden, this book is a good reference, take from it what you can use.
Happy gardening!

Book review: The Virginia Gardener's Companion

Book Review: Williamson, Donna (2008). The Virginia Gardener’s Companion: An Insider’s Guide to Low-Maintenance Gardening in Virginia. Guilford, Conn: Globe Pequot.

Winter is a great time to read garden books (I know, not a new observation). I have lots of good garden books and don’t often indulge myself with a new one (unless it is borrowed from the library). But, in the interest of single-handedly helping the economy through self gifting, I recently purchased this book. It is becoming rare for me to find a garden book in which I actually learn something, but I did with this book. Perhaps this is because of the specific advice Williamson gives to gardeners in Virginia.

I learned a lot about soils, planting, berms and no-till gardening in this book. Her advice on pruning was spot on (I now believe I should not paint the wounds on a tree after pruning), especially her plea to be kind to crape myrtles and NOT prune them extensively (see my entry on this topic). Her faith in low-maintenance gardening was enlightening and fits my beliefs for the most part. I would recommend you read and remember her advice! (and read her mulch myths, for example: mulch does not really keep the soil moist). The only part of the book I did not like were her lists of plants- others have done this more extensively (see entry on the Southern Gardener’s Book of Lists).

I like it when a book stimulates my interest and sends me down a path of research and exploration. One thing I read that interested me was that I might be in an area with “beautiful” Pamukey soils, alluvial deposits from river flooding. Next time, I will tell you about my soil research, the verdict on my soil type and how you can do such a search yourself!

Happy gardening!

Wicked Plants: Book Review

Book review: “Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities” by Amy Stewart, 2009, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (NC).

This is a cute book. It is a fun book. It was given to me by a lovely friend. It is not a book for the serious student of botany, but that is not its point: it is a good beach or by-the-fireside winter read for anyone, not just the botanically inclined. Amy Stewart has written on garden topics before and I enjoyed her book on the flower industry, “Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers,” as it was interesting and enlightening (I have not smelled a commercial, hothouse flower since I read it!) This wicked book is a breezy trip through some poisonous, intoxicating and downright irritating plants, from aconite (sometimes mistaken for horseradish root with deadly consequences) to yew (which can be deadly, or can be used as a chemotherapy drug, Taxol, reminding us that the difference between a medicine and poison is sometimes not the substance, but the dose). Stewart has entries on individual groups of plants, but also interesting entries on arrow poisons, deadly houseplants, fatal fungi and psychedelic plants. Her lists are neither detailed nor exhaustive- for example, she only lists a few noxious weeds in that entry. She wrote about the most interesting, or gruesome, plants to entertain and titillate, not to act as a reference point, and she achieves that goal well.

The etchings and pen and ink illustrations are lovely, though do not serve as field identification pictures. I enjoyed the illustrations, being a beginning pen-and-ink botanical illustrator (not for profit, just for fun!) Overall, a good book to get from your local library or bookstore for a few hours of reading pleasure.

Happy garden reading!

The Southern Gardener's Book of Lists: Book Review

The Southern Gardener’s Book of Lists: A Review of a Book by Lois Trigg Chaplin (1994, Taylor Publishing: Dallas)

This is a great book, though it is not a “great read.” It is not the type of garden book that you read page by page, learning new tips, salivating at great garden photos, finally understanding double digging. However, this book is incredibly useful for the southern gardener. This book is exactly what its title says it is: a book of list after list of all types of garden plants under all sorts of conditions (soil, sun, moisture) in three regions: upper, mid and deep south. Want to plant a tree in a wet site? There’s a list of suitable trees. Want to know the best perennials for heavy, clay soil? What trees produce leaves too big to easily rake? What are good evergreen vines or plants that do well under walnuts? How about shrubs that bloom in shade? It’s all in there.

The book is divided into chapters: trees, perennials, ferns, annuals, vines, shrubs, azaleas, roses and ground covers. Each section has multiple lists. I have found myself running to the book first, whenever I want to plant something new or need to pull out an under-performing plant and replace it with something that will work in a particular site. This book is a great gift for that southern gardener on your list.
Happy Gardening and Happy Holidays!