“Our gardens let us dream about the future…” Anna Pavord

©Deborah Carew

©Deborah Carew

By Jill Williams

I have a quotation from Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind on my bulletin board in the kitchen that I have been glancing at all winter “O wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?”. Well, spring is finally here and the best part of the gardening year is before us. Everything is new and fresh and the possibilities are endless.

By fall, of course, we will be taking stock of our failures and saying that next year will be better.

But let’s not think of that now.

In my last column, I talked about the various Harrowsmith gardening books. This time I’ll discuss a few more Canadian gardening books and a couple from further afield. Some of these are practical and some are more philosophical and humorous.

One of my favourite garden related books is Anna Pavord’s The Curious Gardener: A Year in the Garden. She is the gardening correspondent for the English paper The Independent. This is a book of personal essays illustrated by beautiful woodcuts. It’s divided into months and seasons with lists of practical tasks but I value it more for its humour and insight than for its how to.

Pavord starts January with a hilarious horoscope for gardeners. For my sign, it reads in part “Ariens are energetic and good at getting around obstacles…you like quick results which makes you an impatient gardener. Try this year to curb this trait… In the garden centre, avoid annuals which will die this year and go for perennials which will die next year instead”.

I love Anna Pavord for saying that a gardener should never have more than two or three hostas. I have never understood the preoccupation with a plant that looks like it’s made of plastic. Possibly I will go to Garden Purgatory or worse for admitting that particular dislike.

My copy of The Curious Gardener came with a bookmark from the storied Munro’s Books in Victoria. I like to think of it winging its way across Canada to the thrift store in Peterborough where I bought it.

An American favourite of mine is The New Victory Garden by Bob Thomson. This book talks about “tools, techniques and cultural practices….as well as all the timeless basic information you need to grow vegetables successfully”. It’s based on a garden in New England so climate wise it’s similar to our conditions. Aesthetically, the Victory Garden is beautiful to look at. It’s laid out in simple blocks and rectangles; a design which is both visually appealing and easy to care for. This New England minimalism is right in line with the current mania for decluttering.

Finally, a few Canadian selections to round out our discussion of gardening books. I would highly recommend Ed Lawrence’s book, Gardening Grief and Glory. It’s written in a question and answer format and covers a wide variety of garden related topics. Ed, of course, is the guy who answers gardening questions on CBC radio every Monday. In my next life, I’m going to be as smart as Ed Lawrence.

I would also recommend Canadian Gardening’s City Gardens. Not just about urban gardens, this book has lots of good information about design, plant and tree selection and ponds. I particularly like the practical and whimsical sun shade made out of a table cloth and some bamboo poles. This plan for a sun shelter puts the several hundred dollar Lee Valley version (in the Home and Garden 2016 catalogue) in the shade.

Next time: Favourite tools and more books.

Tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply