This Week, I'm Reading...

The Garden Primer, by Barbara Damrosch

As my thoughts turn toward my garden in the spring, so they turn to Barbara Damrosch. You would think from that statement I knew more about Damrosch than this book, but I only just discovered her website and the many resources she and her gardener husband, Eliot Coleman, have produced over the decades. Nope, for me, it’s just been The Garden Primer, subtitled The Completely Revised Gardener’s Bible—and then, still on the cover like a magazine previewing what’s inside: “The essentials of planning, planting, and upkeep/How to grow and tend over 370 plants and their many varieties/Advice, tips, and quirky wisdom/…and much more.” That about covers it—except for the reason I reread parts of this book every spring. I like Damrosch’s sensible, friendly tone. She’s never preachy. She allows for possibilities. And her book is completely readable. I’ve never read it cover-to-cover, but I do treat it more like “reading” than “looking up.” This week, I turned first to the chapter on Lawns because mine is a mess. I’m looking at you, creeping Jenny. Seriously, this invasive vine with pretty little yellow flowers has been banned in Massachusetts but, unfortunately, not in Connecticut. I don’t even remember anymore whether I’m the one who planted it. I’m going to blame the previous owner. Plastic tarps currently cover one-third of my small lawn in an effort to stop the invasion. I’m perfectly happy to have clover and random varieties of grass and even a few dandelions in my lawn. In the front, I’ve dug out all of the grass already. But the creeping Jenny has gone a monoculture too far. Picking up The Garden Primer was my cry for help. Then I started thinking about the spot out front where I have to pull out the invasive English ivy. (I admit, I planted that.) So, I read Damrosch’s chapter on Wildflowers, and I learned that I’ve already been wildflower gardening for years, albeit not always successfully. Now I have a few more ideas about how to tackle that project as well. The Garden Primer will, no doubt, come off the shelf again several times this season, and I’ll curl up with it in the corner of the sofa just like I do with a good novel.

What are you reading this week? Let us know in the comment section below!