Time is running out for holiday shopping. Here are some book ideas — plus a must-have calendar — for the garden lovers on your list:
The UMASS Garden Calendar is a perennial favorite, so to speak. The wall calendar is produced by the UMASS Extension Service, an organization that helps Massachusetts gardeners to make sound choices about growing, planting and maintaining plants in their landscapes, including vegetables, backyard fruits and ornamental plants.
The calendar has lovely photographs to inspire you throughout the year. It also provides daily tips on gardening, phases of the moon and daily sunrise and sunset times.
I love how the calendar keeps me tuned in to what’s happening not only in my garden but in the outdoor world that surrounds us.
This year’s calendar features the use of tomography to identify internal decay in mature trees that do not yet show any visible symptoms of damage. The calendar costs $14; proceeds from its sale benefit the Service’s Landscape, Nursery and Urban Forestry Programs. To order on line go to: ecommerce.umass.edu/extsales. The calendar is also available at Hadley Garden Center.
Every year the American Horticultural Society chooses several best books of the year. Especially timely now, when people are beginning to understand the importance of bees to the environment, is AHS award-winning Bees: An Identification and Native Plant Forage Guide by Heather Holm (Pollination Press LLC). The book provides practical and scientifically accurate information about North American native bee species and the plants that support them. AHS judges praised the book for emphasizing and explaining the importance of plant-pollinator relationships in an accessible, usable format. They appreciated the book’s beautiful photographs that serve as an excellent resource for identifying the different bees in your garden. The book also helps gardeners choose plants most likely to attract bees. The AHS concluded that it’s hard to imagine a more complete reference on this topic with such a clear and readable format.
Who doesn’t love having fresh cut flowers brightening up our homes? The AHS also chose Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden by Erin Benzakein with Julie Chai (Chronicle Books). A guide for home gardeners as well as small-scale commercial growers, this book provides detailed and practical information about producing gorgeous cut flowers throughout the year. AHS judges proclaimed it an exemplary addition to the literature on the burgeoning “field-to-vase” movement that focuses on promoting locally and sustainably grown cut flowers. The book was also noted for the author’s in-depth profiles of her favorite flowers that include her secrets for growing and harvesting them. For those of us who can’t get beyond stuffing flowers into vases, the book provides inspiration for using fresh flowers in innovative ways.
Perhaps there are people on your list who enjoy a cocktail after a hard day’s work in the garden. They will surely enjoy The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill), the New York Times best-selling guide to booze and botany. This is an amusing and informative book about the herbs, spices, flowers, trees, fruits and nuts that provide the distinctive flavors for the world’s most intriguing drinks. Full of interesting anecdotes and amazing minutiae, the book opens a new dimension in our appreciation of spirited beverages. A sloe-gin fizz will never taste quite the same!
If you’re looking for the perfect coffee-table book for a gardening friend, consider City Green:Public Gardens of New York by Jane Garmey, with photographs by Mick Hales (Monacelli). Without green spaces, cities can be stark, gray and downright depressing. This book is a celebration of 25 New York City gardens that have been created or revived over the past generation. The book includes well-known triumphs of urban gardening such as the west side’s High Line and the Conservatory Garden in Central Park. But it also guides us to hidden gems like the heather garden at Fort Tryon Park in upper Manhattan, a 67-acre wonder designed by the Frederick Law Olmsted firm. (The Park also houses the fabulous Cloisters, a collection of medieval art, including the Unicorn Tapestries, housed in a series of medieval buildings from Europe that were taken apart block by block and reassembled in the park.)
On a different note, the book features Brooklyn Grange, a collective of organic urbans farms on rooftops in Queens and Brooklyn. As Garmey writes: “The ever-growing appreciation of New York’s parks and gardens tells a story of how green has triumphed over tarmac and plants over weeds.”
Mickey Rathbun, an Amherst-based lawyer turned journalist, has written the Get Growing column since 2016.
One of Stockbridge’s loveliest historic sites is Chesterwood, the former summer home, studio and gardens of America’s foremost public sculptor Daniel Chester French, creator of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. This year marks Chesterwood’s 50th anniversary as an historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. There will be a kick-off holiday cocktail party in the residence on Saturday, Dec. 15 from 4 to 6 p.m.
The fundraising event will also celebrate the launch of the acclaimed new biography of Daniel Chester French by distinguished Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer. The author will give remarks at the event and sign advance copies of his book, Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French, which will be available for sale. In collaboration with volunteers from the Berkshire Botanical Garden, the residence will be decorated for the holidays. Tickets to the benefit are $125 ($100 for members of Chesterwood) and books are $38 each ($34 for members of Chesterwood). For tickets and book reservations, call 413-298-2034 or email chesterwood@savingplaces.org.