Wednesday, June 20, 2012

GARDEN BOOK REVIEW: AMERICA'S COTTAGE GARDENS

If you'd like a book to comfort you about your crazy, exotic choices for plants or your hodgepodge ideas about landscaping, this is YOUR BOOK!  American Cottage Garden's  takes you on a fascinating journey on how American's invent their own styles of gardening based on harsh climates and locales. Here in Texas, we can only drool over the lovely cottage gardens of England. But somehow, someway, all over America, gardeners have found a way to get something (anything) to grow. This book is a celebration of those very personal gardens and the gardeners that choose to follow a different drummer we call Cottage Gardens.
I love this book since one of my hobbies is to find and photograph interesting and beautiful Cottage Gardens  in my part of Houston and display them on my other garden blog. Here's a taste of how gardeners here have beaten the odds (climate wise) to create their own styles.
I love this part of Houston!
 Hurray for Gardeners!










At almost 25 years old, America's Cottage Gardens, is a great look back at the beginnings of the current wave of cottage gardens. While the photos are nice, the best part of the book are the many stories about why the author finds a particular garden interesting and unique. Their writing styles is warm and personal, and might I add, timeless.
***
That's it for this time. A tip of the trowel to our fine host, Holley, for having us over for another Book Review party.
You can click on her colorful button at the top of my blog and see the whole collection at her blog, Roses and Other Gardening Joys.
Thanks, Holley!
Oh, and today's kitten photos of our little family. They're playing around with my socks while I write this.


They were hiding in the linen closet while the vacuum was going.

Happy Gardening!
David/:0)
CHAPTER DETAILS:
What is an American Cottage Garden?
by Patricia Thorpe and Eve Sonneman
Published: 1990 by Random House
Readily available for a couple of dollars at Barnes & Noble or Amazon Books
The South: Plantation Style & the reign of the azalea
Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky: Southern hospitality and a luxurient landscape
The West Coast: California, Cottage Survival
The Pacific Northwest: A climate created for gardening; anything grows
The Midwest: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri: 'The best soil on earth' and survival in a drought year
Texas: Independence and exuberance; the return of the native; the local color is Latin
Utah, Montana, Wyoming; Petunias and salvation; log cabins, forest fires and frost in July


 











7 comments:

  1. Oh, I love the photos! Such creativity! I agree - hooray for gardeners! I think this book would be fascinating. Yes, Americans have had to adapt to their soil, their climate, and the plants that will live in each area. And that's one thing Americans are good at - adapting! I guess that's why cottage gardening is so popular, and will never go out of style. Thanks so much for joining in - and I loved seeing your sweet little kittens, too! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those are some impressive Texas gardens! I love cottage gardens - sounds like a wonderful book!

    Have fun playing with the kittens - too cute!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well I see we were both on the same book review page this month! I also posted about cottage gardens! And we here in California's dry central valley do indeed garden in the cottage survival tradition. Enjoyed your post and photos of the cute kitties.

    ReplyDelete
  4. As soon as I saw your topic on Holley's meme I was over to your site. I can't get enough when it comes to Cottage Gardens. Thanks for the quick taste with the photos. Also off to investigate your other site.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I do enjoy looking at the photos in the books you review. Thanks for sharing them. And, by the way, the kittens....soooo cute!

    ReplyDelete
  6. That's one of my favorite gardening books. It's so neat how they feature all kinds of real people across the country. How about that fellow who wrote the names of the flowers on his trailer! Real folks with real stories. Love it. I think Thorpe has another book but this is my fav of hers. Have you ever read Mrs. Greenthumbs', Cassandra Danz, books?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ooh, I've not seen this book but it looks very interesting. I love cottage gardens, and I've tried to achieve the look in one of my beds, but it is challenging in the midst of a drought!

    ReplyDelete

I always appreciate your comments & questions! Happy Gardening from David/ Tropical Texana