Garden Detective

Sometimes, I get frustrated waiting for my plants to reach full size. Maturity takes time and requires patience. I recently encountered someone who has a completely different problem -- her plants grow too fast!

Aside from my mint and my weeds, nothing seems to grow fast enough for me. Visit La Gringa, an American transplant in Honduras and find out how the other half lives.

TITLE: "The Glory of Gardens: 2,000 Years of Writings on Garden Design"
EDITOR: Scott J. Tilden
PUBLISHER/PRICE: Abrams, $50

Featuring original writings by more than 100 prominent gardening enthusiasts - spanning 2,000 years and myriad cultures - so that readers may literally "learn from the masters," this is one great coffee table book. It would make for a nice holiday gift, too.

Author's credentials: Tilden is the editor of several books on architecture, including "American Synagogues" and "Architecture for Art." For four years, he visited libraries at Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Yale and the New York Botanical Garden to research and compile the historic entries in this compendium.

Excerpt: "Advice to those about to build a water garden - DON'T. Not that the water garden is not a joy and a glory; but that it is cruelly hard to keep in order and control unless you are a master of millions and broad ample acres of pool and pond. Water, like fire, is a good servant, perhaps, but is painfully liable to develop into a master." - Reginald J. Farrar, "Don't Build a Water Garden" (1908)

If you're weary from the sight of rows of arborvitae, and bored from the mundane garden designs suggested by "experts" at garden superstores, why not heed the eloquent wisdom of garden ghosts gone by? Ancient designers, philosophers, scientists and poets coach you from the past with their musings - many translated from their native tongues - on their Western, Islamic, Japanese and Chinese gardens. Many of the writings have an intimate feel, as they were journal entries or letters to loved ones; others, written in essay form, are more formal, but nonetheless fascinating as cultural attitudes are evident throughout.

Brilliantly laced with color photographs, the personal accounts are categorized into chapters on principles, plan, structure, unity and variety, color, plant selection, hard surfaces and water. The reader will be drawn into the elegant style of the writers and the practical advice they offer. Applying the knowledge gleaned from these pages is sure to make one's home stand out.

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts parsley still thriving in the backyard. Ordinarily, I would treat it the same way I do all my herbs: Snip, rinse and air dry overnight in a single layer on a paper towel, then store it in a plastic bag in the freezer.

The single-layer drying method is crucial because it allows each leaf to freeze independently so that when I need to use it, I simply pull out as many individual leaves as I need. If I were to rinse it and place it directly in the freezer, a big green ice cube would result. Trust me, I've done it. It isn't pretty.

When I was turning over my vegetable and herb border last week, I left the parsley and mint behind because they were still doing well. Now I'm thinking about drying some of them, crushing the leaves and storing them in jars for a different, stronger accent. Here are some pointers in case you want to give it a whirl as well.

I'm compiling ideas for a column on holiday gifts for gardeners. What's on your wish list? Let me know as soon as possible, and you might get a mention in print or online.

Tell me about your favorite gardening tool, gadget, plant or accessory by sending an email to jessica.damiano@newsday.com. BE SURE TO INCLUDE your first and last name, hometown and email address.

Happy shopping!

Andee in Chacala, Mexico, has some beautiful photos for us to enjoy while the winds whip outside our windows.

Check out the blog at Gardener in Chacala Mexico and enjoy!

Here's a book that makes me totally envious. That is, I wish I'd written it. It's so clever and amusing.

Keep warm, enjoy and have a blessed Thanksgiving.

TITLE: "Radical Prunings: A Novel of Officious Advice From the Contessa of Compost"
BY: Bonnie Thomas Abbott
PUBLISHER / PRICE: Emmis Books / $14.95

Purpose: Disguised as installments of a published column, the entries in "Radical Prunings" bring readers on a journey that is at once erudite, comical and poignant. In addition to valuable tidbits of gardening advice, we're also treated to juicy gossip about the columnist's family and staff, and somewhere along the way forget we're reading fiction.

Author's credentials: Bonnie Thomas Abbott was reared on an organic hobby farm in a family that valued all things literate. Her work has appeared in "Mirth of a Nation," "101 Damnations," and "Seattle Weekly."

Excerpt: "Readers, I'm having Miss Vong separate your letters into two piles: one for real gardening questions and one for lawn-care questions. I shall read your lawn-care letters after I retire from my career as an astronaut."

Effectiveness: Make no mistake -- "Radical Prunings" is not a garden resource book. It's a unique novel, told in the voice of fictional gardening expert Mertensia Corydalis in a question-and-answer format. But pearls of horticultural wisdom do surface -- if accidentally -- as the fictitious columnist answers readers' questions in her pretentious Miss Manners-esque style. Her Q&A newsletter often reveals more thorns about her personal life than about the roses on which she is queried, resulting in a humorous -- and often touching -- insight into the columnist's inner sanctum.

Readers get more information about Mertensia's failed marriage, ex-husband, daughter and employees than about their floricultural concerns, as details of her life slowly unravel over the course of two years' worth of columns. And early on, they're warned not to bother her with loathsome questions about topics that are beneath her, especially those regarding lawn care.

Gardening enthusiasts will nod their heads in solidarity as they read Mertensia's witty takes on everything from invasive zebra grass ("if you are not careful… it soon will be thumbing its nose at you from your neighbor's yard") to growing redwood trees ("Plant it and jump back. In four or five hundred years, you will really have something there.")

I remember sitting in the back of my dad’s car, circa 1971, singing Lynn Anderson’s “I never promised you a rose garden” out the window. Good times. Press play and sing along!

Snow in July? That's what Anne Brygger from Barrow, Alaska, has to contend with.

I can barely put up with the (relatively) shortish winters on Long Island, and I can be heard complaining bitterly when the temperatures dip below 50 degrees.

Anne's blog, TundraGarden certainly helps me appreciate today's uber windy, 40-degree weather.

The photo above is a shot of what Anne sees from her window today.

Of all the gardening books I've read and reviewed, there's one that stands out whenever I'm asked for a recommendation. I've consulted with it many times myself, and always keep it handy. You should, too.

Here's a review I wrote for Newsday exactly one year ago.

"The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques" (Timber Press, $34.95)

This newly published, updated and expanded edition of the popular 1998 guide details essential practices of perennial care, such as deadheading, pinching, cutting back, thinning, disbudding and deadleafing, all of which are explained and illustrated.

Author's credentials: DiSabato-Aust is a designer, professional speaker, landscape entrepreneur and horticultural author based in Columbus, Ohio.

Excerpt: "The amount of maintenance a garden requires depends precisely on how the garden was designed or planned. The chosen setting, style, size and shape of the garden as well as the plant selection, arrangement and spacing all intertwine to determine the type of care needed."

Effectiveness: This book is an excellent resource for planting and maintaining perennial gardens. With detailed instructions on design, bed preparation, planting and staggering bloom times, and in-depth tutorials on every type of pruning, "The Well-Tended Perennial Garden," will serve novice and experienced gardeners alike.
Readers can grab design ideas straight from the author's gardens, as more than 200 photos are included for inspiration. Also included is an appendix on ornamental grasses, a perennial garden planting and maintenance schedule (as well as a maintenance journal), and an index of plant names.
The pièce de résistance is an A-to-Z encyclopedia of perennial species, their bloom times and maintenance needs, which, alone, makes this the one book you should keep handy to consult throughout the year.

To keep you entertained, amused and maybe even informed during the dark, cold, fruitless days of winter, I'm scouring the 'net for garden-related videos I think you'll enjoy. I'm not above stretching the theme a bit from time to time, as I've spotted a few contenders that use the term 'garden' loosely.

If you stumble across anything appropriate for this space, please email me about it and I'll consider including it.

And now, without further ado, here's our first You Tube Tuesday video...

We’re in the garden, baby! James, Mike and Dave spend a Sunday in the garden trying to figure out what to do when their lawn mower breaks. With accompanying lyrics like, “First we had a broken lawnmower, now we have a deranged leaf blower," it's pretty clever.

This is the worst time of year for me. I absolutely hate the cold. I find I have less and less tolerance for it each year. I sleep with my socks on and try to stay indoors as much as possible. And I feel gloomy, too.

It's not only the bleak weather that makes me so miserable -- I also hate the gray skies, the dead lawns and the lack of bright sunlight. I'm like a plant that goes dormant in winter. Sure I perk up a bit around January, when the garden catalogs start arriving, living vicariously through the bright colored blooms on their pages, but this year I'm going to be proactive.

I'm hosting a garden party, and you're invited. You tell me what keeps you going through the winter (by posting comments here on the blog) and I'll post entertaining, amusing and informative entries.

Following the lead of my friends at the Pet Rock blog, we'll have You Tube Thursdays, with garden-related videos. Some will be informative, but most will be entertaining and amusing to brighten up those gloomy days.

Be sure to join us for Plant Profile Mondays, Recommended Book Wednesdays and Gardens Around the World Fridays, too.

I'm cold and depressed, so please stop by often to warm up, ask questions, share your musings and help Spring return as quickly as possible.

Here's a blast from the past to get us started. Let's consider it the appetizer course:

Of all the millions of garden blog posts lurking in cyberspace, quite a few are real gems. Some are new, while others are relics buried in archival piles in unfrequented directories that nobody remembers anymore.

Sue Swift, a virtual friend from The Balcony Garden in Milan, thought it would be a good idea to compile the best garden blog posts in history and have a party with them. She's calling it the Garden Bloggers' Retro Carnival, and the festivities began yesterday.

She's posting various blog posts from around the world in one place, arranged by topic. So far, it makes for some entertaining, informative and educational reading.

Check it out.