The Book of Gardening Projects for Kids

"Think back.  Can you remember a natural, outdoor space that held some magic for you?"

Thus starts the book I recently read, instantly taking me back to that hidden, magic hollow in the forest behind our house where we played so often as kids.

The Book of Gardening Projects for Kids: 101 Ways to Get Kids Outside, Dirty, and Having Fun by Whitney Cohen and John Fisher not only takes you back to your childhood, but it is an absolute treasure trove of inspiration for things to do in the garden with your children or grandchildren.  It give a lot of recommendations for how to involve kids in gardening in ways that are both educational and just plain fun! 

Oftentimes, all kids need to have fun in the garden is a pile of dirt and some water!

The book covers everything from planning different themed gardens to interacting with animals in the garden to even cooking with one's harvest.

My kids are much more likely to eat the produce that they picked from the garden!
(Well, except for that jalapeño...)

The authors give a lot of advice about making gardens child-friendly and about how to give your child positive experiences with gardening and nature, planting seeds that may mature into a long-lasting relationship.  Peppered throughout the book are many projects for kids in the garden, some of which I can't wait to do with my kids!

my daughter's wildflower garden

The only criticism I have of the book is that it could possibly have been organized a little better - I am not a very organized thinker, so I like my books to be very organized for me :)  There are points where the insertion of projects seems to interrupt the flow of narration.  However, aside from that, I really enjoyed this book and learned a few things as well!  

releasing a Black Swallowtail after it has emerged from its chrysalis

It is important to me to plant seeds of positive experiences with nature in my kids, and this book gives so many great ways to do just that.  I think my love of the outdoors and my love of gardening stem from so many great memories I have as a kid being outside.  

Growing up in Alaska, you might think that I would remember the snow and ice the most.  On the contrary, what I remember most vividly are the buttercups, bluebells, fireweed and roses that grew wild among the forest, the irises and the profusion of wildflowers that my mother grew, the little garden that my father made me out of a old tire - 

and, of course, that magic hollow in the forest that was always adorned with reindeer moss and imagination.

Black Swallowtail on zinnia

What about you?  If you love gardening, do you think it stems from your memories of the outdoors as a kid?

For more reviews of gardening books, check out the site Roses and Other Gardening Joys.

Gardening with Native Plants of the South

Gardening with Native Plants of the South by Sally Wasowski has just become my new go-to gardening book.

Live in the South?  Getting frustrated with all those fussy non-native plants that need so much babying in our hot, humid weather?  This is the book for you.

Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus) is a beautiful native tree that flowers in late Spring.   It is said to be resistant to urban air pollution.

Tailored for gardeners that live in the Southeastern U.S., this book first talks about the importance of native plants for habitats for our native animals.  There have been staggering declines in many songbird populations, and other wildlife such as butterflies are in trouble.  Planting non-native plants may help some, but native plants are more tailored to suit the needs of native animals.

Our native Dogwood Tree, Cornus florida, supports 117 species of moths and butterflies, according to entomologist Doug Tallamy.   The Asian Kousa Dogwood, on the other hand, does not support any.

Wasowski talks about several different habitats that are found in the South and what types of plants naturally grow there.  According to the author, a native garden is much less work, especially if you want a more natural landscape.  In fact, if you want to convert to a native landscape, she recommends that one stop watering and taking care of the garden and see what plants survive as a first step!

WARNING:  Wasowski might possibly be anarchist here - she seems awfully okay with getting rid of the sacred Lawn.  I'm not sure if she's aware of how taboo that is here!  (For further information regarding the author's radical views, I refer you to another book by her and her husband entitled The Landscape Revolution.)

Eastern red columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) is depended on by hummingbirds as a source of early-season nectar.

The author then gives several garden landscaping plans, using all native plants.  I love this, since all the plants in the various plans work together, according to light conditions or blooming time.  She also gives you alternative plants that might work better for different soil or light conditions.

 

Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) is a more commonly used native vine, beloved for its fragrant early spring blooms and its ability to cover up chain-link fence.  It is always a thrill to see some flowering in the very tops of high trees.

The last part of this book is comprised of plant profiles for the best Southern natives, divided up by type of plant.

Cinnamon fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum) is a native fern that a lot of people really like.  I honestly think it looks a little strange.

I love this book because it gives me so many more suggestions for plants that can be planted in the more difficult areas of my garden.  Given that one puts the plant in the appropriate site (this won't work if you put a shade plant in the sun or a bog plant in a rock garden), these native plants should be able to tolerate our weather and soil and even thrive!

Hearts-a-burstin' / American Strawberry Bush (Euonymus americanus) was blooming wild in the wooded lot next to us.

The one improvement I did think this book needed was some more inspirational photos.  Next edition, I would love to see more examples of native gardens professionally photographed.  Either way, this book is still a great tool to find suitable plants for the Southern garden.

p.s. For those of you in the Southwest, Sally Wasowski also authors several books on native Southwestern plants!

Um, so I read the book - where do we find these native plants for our garden?  
Thankfully native plants are becoming more popular and easier to find.  Not too long ago, I was having a lot of trouble finding Mountain laurel shrubs.  Last week I just purchased some from the clearance section of a local home and garden store!  You just need to know what you are looking for.

There are also mail-order nurseries that specialize in native plants if you can't find what you want in local nurseries.  Niche Gardens is a fabulous nursery not too far away here in North Carolina.  I have also been very pleased with Nearly Native Nursery in Georgia.  If you have any questions or need to find a plant for a particular site, just call them up!

For some other great gardening books, check out this month's garden book reviews over at the site Roses and Other Gardening Joys!

Creating Beds and Borders - Book Review

When you keep checking a book out from the library, you know you like it!  And that is the case that I find with the garden book Creating Beds and Borders.    

Creating Beds and Borders is actually a great collection of articles written by several different contributing authors for Fine Gardening magazine.  The authors talk about a wide variety of topics related to creating garden beds and borders, from how they design garden beds to what plants are good for difficult sites.

Six of the 16 different authors of this book

I love this book because I can reread it many times and keep learning new things.  It is a wealth of information!  This book was where I first read about no dig gardening methods ('Build a Bed without Breaking your Back' by Barbara Blossom Ashmun), which is a technique I much appreciate after all the pick-axing I have to do in my clay.

I also especially appreciated the article on how to create a long season of garden color here in the hot climate of the Southeast ('Designing a Warm-Climate Border' by Jimmy & Becky Stewart).

With the heat, perennials often have shorter bloom times here, even though we have a longer gardening season.  The authors supplement with many annuals, which they change out twice a year (warm-season and cool-season).  I don't think I could do that for much of my garden now, due to time/cost factors, but I do have a small area in the front garden where I do this.  The authors also give a great list of tried-and-true perennials that bloom for a long time in the South, as well as suggestions for some plants that are similar to Northern favorites but will take the heat better.

There are articles on shrubs, good edging plants, seed-starting techniques, garden design, and much more!  I will probably have to recheck this book out of the library several more times to absorb it all!

I do have to let you in on a secret, though.  One of my reasons I love this book has nothing to do with the articles, but with the fact that the pictures are beautifully realistic.  Several of the gardeners have gorgeous garden beds and borders that will hold your attention - but if you look closer, you will see that next to those beautiful flowers is a weedy lawn.   Just like mine!  Okay, maybe still better than mine, but still..  It makes these beautiful gardens seem attainable.  And that is truly inspiring for me.

To find more great gardening books, check out this month's book review over at Holley's site Roses and Other Gardening Joys.  Happy Gardening!

A Garden Book Review - Hunger Games and Weeds

I have to admit, it was Hunger Games that did it.  

I've always looked at weeds as my enemy, useful only for bugs and rabbits to eat.  A constant source of frustration for a gardener, I am forever pulling them out of my lawn and garden.  Why do there have to be so many of them?  And why do they have to grow so quickly?!  What use are they?

Then I read Hunger Games.  The post-apocalyptic Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins is about children from very poor areas who are forced to fight each other in a gruesome reality television show, the winner receiving food for them and their family for life.  In one part, the main character can't find any food and believes that she and her family are going to starve to death - and then she sees the first dandelion greens of spring and realizes that they can live off the land. 

No, this garden book review is not actually on Hunger Games (the gardening related part being a very small jot in this book)!  It was just the impetus that made me realize how useful certain weeds are and how advantageous it must have been in days past to have an abundance of these quick growing plants.  

Thus along the same lines, I decided to read and review the book Weeds: Friend or Foe? by Sally Roth. 

Roth begins by discussing what a weed is and where they come from.  It's pretty evident that one person's weed might be another person's flower, and vice versa.   Gardeners may love poppies and cornflowers, but wheat farmers do not.   I always thought that Virginia creeper was a weed in my garden, but then I found gallon containers of it being sold at a local nursery for $25 apiece!  

So are particular weeds friends or foes?  Roth discusses the pros and cons of different plants that are considered weeds in the middle section of the book.  If one still considers the weed to be an enemy, she also tells you the best ways to get rid of it!

Some might consider these pretty forget-me-nots to be a weed

Several well-known, rampant weeds are not only edible, but extremely nutritious.  These include pigweed, chickweed, white clover, and, of course, dandelion greens.

Dandelion greens

Many weeds also have medicinal properties, such as yarrow, comfrey, burdock, and cinquefoil, and were used in times past as remedies for various ailments.

Cinquefoil can be used to sooth toothaches and mouth sores.

Of course, many plants considered weeds such as crabgrass, ragweed, and poison ivy also have great benefits for wildlife, offering them food or shelter.

Bluebirds, Tanagers, and Grosbeaks are among the many birds that love the berries of poison ivy plants.

Some other benefits of weeds include adding nitrogen to the soil, reducing soil compaction, possible lawn alternatives, and, if attractive looking enough, a possible addition to one's garden.  I really enjoyed reading all the trivia about some of the different plants.  The author even gives recipes for home remedies and explains how some of these plants can be prepared medicinally!

An infusion of Chickweed leaves can be used to 'sooth the stomach and bowels'.

So were any of the weeds in this book considered foes and not friends?  There were several plants with which the author did not find much to appreciate, especially when it came to some of the invasive non-natives.  The last part of the book delves into weed prevention and methods of elimination, physical, organic, and chemical.  My favorite chart in the book lists different types of weed problems and gives the best herbicide for that particular job, noting if there are any possible health or environmental hazards for that particular herbicide.

Is there anything that can save me from the infestation of yellow wood sorrel??!!

The only fault that I can find with this book is that some of the profiled plants looked too friendly and had only pictures of their flowers shown - not so helpful when I am trying to identify weed sprouts in my lawn.  I was, however, able to identify several weeds that I had been wondering about.

I had been wondering what this shrub with brilliant red stems that I had seen in the woods was.  Apparently it's actually a large weed called pokeweed.

I found this book to be interesting and extremely informative.  Now it is not just dandelion weeds that I see in a new light - though that doesn't necessarily mean that I want them in my lawn.

Still not sure if you're a friend or a foe...

To find some other great gardening books out there, check out the monthly Garden Book Reviews over at the site Roses and Other Joys.