Part IV - Charlotte Germane Shares Great Garden Books

Books in the garden. Photo by spakattacks on Flickr

After visiting Seattle, Toronto, Philadelphia and Nova Scotia, this multi-part series has landed in Nevada City, California to hear more about how great garden books inspire writers.

Charlotte Germane gardens in California, but it's not all tender succulents for her. In fact, her garden in Nevada City has four seasons and snow in Zone 7b. In this scenic area, Charlotte says her plant choices are limited by two requirements: "deer-resistance and drought-tolerance."

When she's not gardening, she's blogging for Dirt du jour: Northern California and Daffodil Planter. Or tweeting as @DaffodilPlanter.

One of Charlotte's favorite garden books is based on a love that started when she was a 22-year-old transplant to Washington, D.C.

The Essential Earthman by Henry Mitchell

Charlotte first became a fan of Henry Mitchell's writing after reading his Earthman garden columns in The Washington Post religiously each Sunday. "After a few readings he convinced me I would never find happiness in life unless I had a water lily pool, some climbing roses, and a grapevine."

Charlotte admits, "I have none of those things today (they'd be favorites of my neighbors, the mule deer), but I re-read his collected columns every winter."



Courtesy of David Neumeyer



In his writing, the author called tall bearded irises, "princes of the vegetable kingdom," explains Charlotte. "Well, he's my king."

You can learn more about the late Henry Mitchell, the distinguished garden columist for The Washington Post, here.   

Another one of Charlotte's favorite books comes from another gardening role model ... this time from the world of fashion.

Dirt: The Lowdown on Growing a Garden With Style by Dianne Benson



Courtesy of Dianne B.

"Dianne B writes with brio about tackling a garden and making it your own," says Charlotte. "Re-reading Dirt each winter always makes me feel like I can do just about anything come spring. After all, in just a few years Dianne took her Hamptons garden from a wilderness to a stop on the same garden tour with Martha Stewart."

Dianne B. was "a big name in fashion and her well-developed taste shines through," she says. "Of course, a fashion maven had to include a chapter on what to wear while gardening."

According to Charlotte, this book is "worth the price just for the detailed plant lists."

See Dianne B's garden.

Now that spring is approaching, it's time to get outside and get planting. Look for more gardening-related tips soon.



Part II - Helen Battersby Shares Great Garden Books

With so many good gardening books, it's hard to pick just one.
Photo by ulle.b on Flickr

Spring is right around the corner, so it's the perfect time to reach for a garden book. In Part I of this series, I traveled from the remote shores of Nova Scotia to a hundred-year-old Philadelphia neighborhood to learn about great garden books. This time, I turn to the cosmopolitan city of Toronto to get more tips.

Helen Battersby is one-half of the popular Toronto Gardens blog, which she created with her sister Sarah. An avid reader, this blogger says her bookshelves rival the size of her small city garden in Toronto's east end. 

Also known as the "microgarden," Helen's city plot is USDA Zone 5 or Canadian Zone 6. Garden books keep her inspired, as she waits for a long, cold winter to turn into spring.

A self-proclaimed "treehugger," Helen says one of her all-time favorite resources is Michael A. Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants.

"This book has comprehensive descriptions of just about every tree, shrub or vine in cultivation," says Helen. "That includes the relative merits of different cultivars. Dirr's writing is both authoritative and refreshingly opinionated."

Helen's dog-eared 1990 software copy lacks the color photos of more recent editions. But she finds the detailed line drawings handy for plant identification.

"Imagine my pleasure when I discovered Dirr's book is now an iPhone app from Timber Press," she explains. "At $12.99, it's my priciest app to date. But it's worth every cent, because it contains the entire book contents, plus color photos as well as handy search, favoriting and emailing capabilities."

The iPhone app is more portable than her phone book-sized print copy. But the print version still retains "a place of honor" on Helen's bookshelf.

Another favorite is Lee Schneller's The Ever-Blooming Flower Garden: A Blueprint for Continuous Color.  According to Helen, "Whether you're starting from scratch or filling gaps in an existing garden, the author's five-step system for planning continuous garden interest is simple and do-able."

The author also includes information on 200 easy-care plants. But with cultivars multiplying rapidly, as well as zone challenges in different regions, Helen says it is "the planning techniques that are of greatest value in this book. I expect to use them frequently."

Find Helen:

www.twitter.com/gardenfix

http://www.torontogardens.com/

What's Next? Tune in next time for great garden book tips from an award-winning landscape designer in Seattle.