The Book That Started It All!

(By Judy Hudgins)

In the November 2023 meeting, I bought a stack of books and asked if the group wanted to consider having a 'virtual' book club. Books would be about gardening and plants in some form or another. It would be a mixture of both fiction and nonfiction books. 

Some of the books would come from my personal library. Some will come from the library. If they are available at the Gaston County Library, I will note it in the review. 

Several people asked me to advise them of the books I had with me and an author I mentioned at the meeting. So the following will be a quick look at the stack of books I had with me during the day. 

I forget where I saw this book mentioned, but I knew I had to get ahold of a copy when I saw it. As an avid reader of murder mysteries, as well as a gardener, I knew I had to read this book.

Gardening Can Be Murder by Marta McDowell is an overview of the murder mystery genre with a focus on gardening. It's a quick read and a fun one for anyone who also likes the history of 'garden-themed' mysteries and learning about new-to-them authors. 

My copy is filled with page flags for authors I have read and authors I need to read which are mentioned in the book. 

Right now the Gaston County Public Library doesn't have a copy. However, it does look like they will have an e-book copy in January, 2024 on their Libby App. 

Since Charlotte is home to Elizabeth Lawrence and her garden, any of her books are a must read. They are very readable and are great pick-up-and-put-down books. It also makes me want to have a gardening penpal. Plus, I need to add a trip to Wing Haven this coming year. 

There are some Elizabeth Lawrence books at the library, but not these two. If someone is interested in reading them, let me know and I'll 'check them out to you' at the next meeting. 

The following book is available at the Gaston County Library.

Another book about gardening and exchanging letters about gardening is A Year in Our Gardens by Goodwin and Lacy. Lacy gardens in New Jersey and Goodwin in North Carolina and the book is an exchange of letters between the two about their gardens. 

If you come across a copy or find where the PBS show is streaming (they are both from the 1990's, The 3000 Mile Garden is another fun book on this theme. Except it is based on an exchange of letters between someone in Maine and another in England. 

It also is part of the inspiration for me to chronicle a year in my own garden. But no letters will be exchanged, but I will be writing about it on my website. 

If you are interested in the history of gardening, here are a few books.

Available in all formats at the library, this book by Andrea Wulf is the first of her two books on gardeners in my own library. Fun fact, there is a town or city named after Humboldt in every state and at one point in time he was considered the most famous person in the world, just behind Napoleon. But have you ever heard of him? 

A second book by Wulf in my library is The Founding Gardeners, available at the library also. While it is currently on my to-be-read shelf, this book will hopefully be read in 2024. All about how our founding fathers influenced gardening. Another book, which I consider to be a companion book, The Brother Gardeners, also at the library, is on my TBR list. 

A synopsis of The Brother Gardeners follows:

'Bringing to life the science and adventure of eighteenth-century plant collecting, The Brother Gardeners is the story of how six men created the modern garden and changed the horticultural world in the process. It is a story of a garden revolution that began in America.'

For a bit of fun reading, try The Heirloom Gardener by John Forti. 

Covering topics from Angelica to Zucchini, this is another book which I call a pick-up-and-put-down read. With great woodcut style illustrations, each entry talks about the history and uses of the planter subject. Best of all, the Gaston Public Library has this available as an e-book. 

I'm going to end the book reviews here for now. The remainder of the books which were at the meeting are actually by YouTubers. I'll cover those in another post.