The Gardener’s Bedside Reader

“What is gardening, after all, but stories?” asks Mike McGrath, former editor-in-chief of Organic Gardening Magazine and host of radio show “You Bet Your Garden.”

 

In the writings collected in this book, the stories of gardening unfold in the full palette of color and character, of wild imagination and bone-wearying hard work, of fabulous growth and humbling failure. Filled with wit and warmth and a companionable engagement with the land in all its moods and seasons, this wonderful book will see any start-up gardener or seasoned veteran through the most riotous summer of growth or the coldest winter months of waiting and dreaming about what to plant next. Contributors include contemporary essayists Michael Pollan, author of Second Nature and Botany of Desire, Anna Pavord, author of The Tulip, Jamaica Kincaid, author of My Garden (Book), and Diane Ackerman, author of Cultivating Delight. In addition, renowned gardeners and designers—from Vita Sackville-West and Beverley Nichols to Ann Lovejoy and Tovah Martin—eloquently share their experiences “in the dirt” with humor and passion.

 

Botanical drawings, beautifully illustrated vintage seed catalogs, postcards, and photography by world-renowned gardening photographers Jerry Harpur, Jane Booth, and Richard Brown accompany the text.


The Gardener’s Bedside Reader

Thoughts on Landscape: Collected Writings and Interviews

A lifetime’s meditation on photography and the landscape.

Frank Gohlke has been a leading figure in American landscape photography for over thirty years. He has photographed grain silos in Minnesota, the aftermath of a tornado in Texas, the destruction and rebirth of the land after the Mount St. Helens eruption in Washington, and a river’s quiet course in Massachusetts. His is a career of deep, unbroken contemplation of the enduring landscape and of our place within it. And for nearly as long as Gohlke has been photographing the landscape, he has been writing about it.

In the spirit of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s seminal book, The Mind’s Eye, and Robert Adams’s Beauty in Photography, Gohlke’™s writings on photography span from the philosophical to the personal. In interviews, essays, artist statements, and lectures, Gohlke focuses both on his own work and life, and on the works and lives of the photographers around him. Woven throughout is his affection for and loyalty to the landscape around him, and his uncanny ability to convey the richness of his experience to readers–in words just as in images.


Thoughts on Landscape: Collected Writings and Interviews

Landscaping Ideas for your Bungalow

In keeping with small yards, the first bungalow landscaping often included plants that were useful as well as attractive such as dwarf fruit trees. They used currants and blueberries as hedges or border plants and arbors and trellises to support grapes and scarlet runner beans as well as roses. You might try ornamental vegetables like ‘Rainbow’ chard or a handsome herb like curled parsley. If you are the kind of person that likes things to be kept simple, you will enjoy bungalow landscaping. Bungalow landscaping can be kept as simple as you would like. After all, what you want is for your bungalow to look tidy!

You just purchased a bungalow, and as such you would like to have it landscaped. You have decided that you would like to landscape it yourself. However, your yard is small, so you are not sure how to go about doing bungalow landscaping. Thus, what you need is bungalow landscaping ideas.

About Bungalow Landscaping

The first thing you need to consider is the dimension of your yard. Wherever you have the most room is where you should start with your bungalow landscaping. If you have more room at the front of your house, consider using flowers.

You might prefer flowery bushes to actual flowers, but the reality is that since your bungalow is small you do not want the bushes to get too big, and thus become a problem to maintain. Thus, it is best to keep it simple with flowers.

You can either use potted plants in your bungalow landscaping, or you can plant the flowers in the ground. Whichever you choose, be sure that you do not overdo it. For example, if you have a front walkway, plant flowers on either side of the walkway as borders. If you choose to have flowers in pots, place a pot on either side of your front doorway.

When it comes to backyard bungalow landscaping, consider having a small garden. The garden could be any kind of garden that you would like. If you have a particularly small backyard, do not be dismayed, because a garden can be any size!

Use annuals: alyssum, browalia, calendulas, cornflower (Centaurea), larkspur, nasturtiums, nicotiana, petunias, sweet peas. For containers and hanging baskets: miniature morning glory, nasturtiums, Petunia integrifolia.

Other perennials: asters, balloon flower (Platycodon), bellflowers (Campanula), bleeding heart, bee balm, chrysanthemums, coreopsis, daffodils, daylilies, delphiniums, iris, lady’s mantle, lamb’s ears, lavender, lupine, phlox, primroses, salvia.

When the time comes to mow the grass, be sure that you use a small lawnmower. This is because larger lawnmowers are harder to maneuver around smaller yards. If you have an especially small yard, consider getting a hand mower, which is a lawnmower that does not require gas, and instead requires you to push it along to cut the grass. They are not expensive and provide good exercise.

For more information on bungalow landscaping, go to your local garden center and ask for advice. Or, you can search the internet, since there are a variety of websites that have to do with that topic. With the proper research, you re sure to find the right bungalow landscaping ideas!

In all, remember that the house and garden should be “of a piece,” with colors and construction materials a harmonious whole.