by Christie Purifoy | Jun 26, 2020
I often read two or more books at once, but it is rare for me to read two books at the same time that are also in the same genre.
But I found myself reading both of these books together, and I think they make an illuminating pair.
They aren’t exactly memoirs but rather deeply personal essays and stories and investigations–all set in or around the garden. One has a very English perspective. The other is entirely American.
I recommend them both.
It is well titled, as Osler relates her own mistakes and happy accidents. She lives in the country, and the neat, well-maintained suburban garden is not for her.
Osler’s book is more literary. The Latin plant names come fast, and there are interesting historical and botanical rabbit trails. I wouldn’t recommend this one if you aren’t already a fan of personal garden writing as it might seem a little dense.
However, read Anne Raver’s book, and you will fall in love with this genre.
- Deep in the Green by Anne Raver makes for lighter, easier reading, but it is also thoughtful and intelligent.
The essays aren’t chronological or strongly linked, but over the course of the book a portrait of this east coast gardener emerges: she is no expert dispensing advice, rather she is someone who delights in the green world, and she is gifted at sharing her delight.
Despite their superficial differences, Osler and Raver set an encouraging example for beginners and experts alike. Both acknowledge that gardening is hard work, that we don’t always feel like pulling weeds or harvesting the green beans we planted with such enthusiasm. They are easily distracted by other things, but both feel a strong, magnetic pull toward gardening.
These books inspired me to keep on gardening, but they also reminded me that I don’t need to be so hard on myself.
Both gardens and garden books are for delight.
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by Christie Purifoy | Jun 18, 2020
A post for a garden library on chairs?
Yes, chairs!
If you had asked me when I first began to garden what the most important tools for a gardener were, I’m sure chairs would not have been on that list. A hand trowel, yes. A watering can, of course. Those would still make my list today, but every other item would probably be unrecognizable to my previous self.
Bulb planter? Really? Soil block maker: what is that? And Adirondack chairs? Surely not!
But I have learned a few things over these gardening years, and I am convinced of this: without a comfortable chair in our gardens we will miss out on one of the most important aspects of our job as caretakers.
We will neglect the simple act of sitting still and observing.
I have many different chairs in my own garden. Most of them are fine for a moment or two but only my Adirondack chairs make me want to sit in them every time I look at them. There’s just something about the slant of the back that is incredibly comfortable. I can sit with a book in a chair like this for ages without ever wishing I had a cushion. And the wide expanse of the arm rest? It’s the perfect spot for a cup of coffee in the morning or a cold drink in the afternoon.
A chair and table in one.
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by Christie Purifoy | Jun 16, 2020
How do we celebrate the herbs that are growing in our gardens?
By using them, of course!
You would think we wouldn’t have to remind ourselves of this, but how often do I wait until a recipe asks for a particular herb before I think to harvest and use it? Too often, I’m afraid.
Here are some ideas and inspiration for new ways to use favorite herbs:
Iced tea: Here are some recipes for fun fruit + herbal iced teas
Make Your Own Herbal Vinegar
Flavored Salt: Like this Fragrant Tuscan Herb Salt
Herb Sugar is lovely sprinkled on fruit or used to edge the glass rim of a special drink
Sugar scrub: I found many recipes online but this Calendula version looks especially beneficial for skin
Make Your Own Herbal Sachet
Compound Butter: make your own herbal butter with these recipes
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by Christie Purifoy | Jun 15, 2020
For the past few days, my youngest child has been repeatedly asking me the same question:
Mom, when can we plant our topiary garden?
I can’t quite remember how the idea originated. Was it because her older brother discovered a love for trimming boxwood, and I set him loose with my best pair of hedge clippers? Was the idea planted in her through repeated visits to the old topiary garden at Longwood? Or maybe it was a book we read?
Wherever the idea came from, I am now–apparently–committed. I can tell by the rising pitch of her voice each time she asks this question that I cannot turn this ship around. We will be cultivating a topiary garden. My only question now is whether tall green creatures will soon be seen all over our yard, or can I get away with one small boxwood ball in a pot?
Time will tell. Meanwhile, I am grateful for these inspiring sources:
Potted herb topiaries are surprisingly easy to make. Here’s a video tutorial. Here’s a written tutorial. Geraniums (properly called pelargoniums) and herbs like lavender and rosemary are good candidates for a topiary standard.
And here’s another general tutorial for making your own topiary.
The Night Gardener by brothers Terry and Eric Fan is a beautiful, whimsical picture book. All of my kids appreciate this one. It might even convince you that topiary can change the world.
I loved British gardening television show Great British Garden Revival. Episode 2 of Season 2 featured topiary and includes an inspiring tutorial.
My favorite high quality tree seller, Bower&Branch, also sells topiary.
Some of the topiary in The Topiary Garden at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania were planted in 1936. This special garden is well worth a visit. My own kids love to play hide and seek here.
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by Christie Purifoy | Jun 12, 2020
Ugly is a strong word, isn’t it? Perhaps I could say garish or not to my taste.
But the funny thing about taste is just how much it changes. Even up into my twenties, I hated the flavor of blue cheese. Now I love it. I’ve always said I disliked the color orange, now I can’t imagine my garden without the deep, vivid orange of tithonia or Mexican sunflower. Put it up against a black-painted fence or a deep purple flower and it positively vibrates.
Who can dislike a color with so much living energy?
*
The summer solstice is just around the corner, and it is beginning to feel like summer here at Maplehurst. It isn’t only the warmer temperatures and the more humid air. It’s also the particular plants growing alongside the country roads, in municipal flower beds, and around the homes of my neighbors.
Many of these plants have never been “to my taste.” However, I went for a drive for the first time in a long while and was shocked by how happy I was to see things I have always, vaguely disliked.
The golden mustard color of ‘Stella d’Oro’ daylilies.
The bright pinky-red of the Knockout roses.
The so-red-they’re-almost-orange of pelargonium in clay pots.
I saw these familiar colors, and my heart was filled with … joy. That’s the only word for it: joy.
*
The daylilies in my own garden are apricot and pink. The Knockout roses I prefer are yellow or white. I love to keep pelargonium in clay pots, but I love variegated leaves and flowers in salmon or coral.
But as my husband drove our car, I kept my eyes glued to every passing yard. The ‘Stella d’Oro’ daylilies seemed to shout summer is here! The knockout roses really did knock me out. My own roses wouldn’t look like much seen from a distance from a moving car, but those knockouts make a statement even at thirty-five miles an hour. And the pelargonium? The flowers most of us still call geraniums? The red was so red it made me think of summer berry picking and grandmother’s porch and childhood.
*
I believe there is a language of flowers. It isn’t a secret code. It isn’t, perhaps, as strictly controlled as the language Victorians used when they gave violets rather than roses.
This language is more personal. More powerful. And matters of taste and style and preference don’t have all that much to do with it.
Perhaps all these years I’ve spent gardening, I have really been learning to listen.
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