Happy Easter to those of you reading this blog. We have been blessed with lovely spring weather lately and all the plants and trees are surging back to life. It's that magical time at the end of winter and before the heat of summer, when a sweater is called for in the mornings and evenings, plants start erupting with colors and growth. Balm for the soul.
What does seem to go with the blooming and blossoming are allergies. Luckily enjoying birdsong and blossoms does not require me to breath out of both nostrils and hear out of two ears. It is hard to really complain about seasonal allergies when everything is coming alive with color and growth.
This last year we had a volunteer hibiscus that somehow managed to start in our awful hard pan soil. This spring, it is even larger and I am cheering its progress on and will make certain to add some soil around its base and fertilize so it can thrive. I have a very hard time taking a plant out that has landed and started with no help of mine and is growing. Nature has a way of creating a cottage garden without our intervention sometimes.
So the past several months, I had been on an amazing reading roll. It seemed that every book that I picked up, was enjoyable and I finished. Well the past week or so, I have picked up and started multiple books and quickly put them down. In all honesty, by the time I went to bed on a work night, I was lucky to read a page before falling into a deep slumber. I cannot complain about sleep, as it is often elusive to me.
Recently I picked up two gardening books, one of them being a gift for my mother and another just looked entertaining. Many of you have heard of Vita Sackville-West, who was an aristocrat, author and amazing gardener. She and her husband Harold Nicolson bought the decrepit Sissinghurst Castle and created one of the premier English gardens. I have watched multiple tours of the gardens and visiting Sissinghurst is on my UK bucket list. I won't go down the Vita Sackville-West rabbit hole, as she and her husband are interesting characters and much has been written about them (more about them in another post).
But Vita did write articles for The Observer on a weekly basis pertaining to gardening. Although her gardens were magnificent, she dispensed weekly advice to all gardeners through the weekly installments. I looked for a copy of the first book In Your Garden which is a compilation of her garden writings. What I surprise when I found copies selling for well over $100. Now, that does exceed my monthly book allowance. I did however get a used copy of In Your Garden Again (the second installment) which is a compilation of articles in The Observer from February 1951 through March 1953. What a joy to read I must say. These short snippets are enjoyable, entertaining and informative when you are looking at your own yard and coming up dreaming of ideas.
The other book on garden musings that I picked up is Green Thoughts- A Writer in the Garden by Eleanor Perenyi. This gem of a book breaks down gardening topics into shorter snippets with everything from artichokes, peonies and weeds and everything in between. These smaller writings make this a wonderful book to pop in and out of as your time and thoughts allow. Or when you want to think of anything else and want a short dive into horticulture. This book will have a perpetual bookmark and some of my sticky labels for marking pages as time goes on.
I have a multitude of gardening books and books on English gardens that I will share here and there. So, as you are pondering your gardens, be they a planter, a small bed or a large space, maybe pick up one of these or another gardening book and be entertained and learn from gardeners gone by.
Happy Spring!
