Four timely reads to inspire gardeners of all ages

The Aromatherapy Garden

Growing Fragrant Plants for happiness and Well-being Reviewed by Lorraine Hunter

“A garden filled with fragrant plants creates a complex aromatic blend that becomes the garden’s own signature perfume.” What gardener could resist such a promise?

The Aromatherapy Garden – Growing Fragrant Plants for Happiness and Well-Being tells you just about everything you ever wanted to know about fragrance in the garden. Author Kathi Keville, an aromatherapist and herbalist, grows nearly 500 species of medicinal herbs and fragrant plants at her Green Medicine Herb School in Nevada City, California.

Keville goes into detail about which plant fragrances evoke specific feelings and emotions. Peonies and roses, for example, are mood boosters and can even increase innovative thinking and productivity in the workplace. Herb-like scents help protect the body from the negative impact of stress. The ‘green’ scents of fennel, oregano and marjoram improve feelings of general well-being. German chamomile, gardenia and lemon grass are calming and encourage relaxation and sleep. The fragrance of lilac makes one happy and reminiscent but can also be associated with melancholy memories and loss.

The author touches on fragrant aphrodisiacs noting that men and women are often attracted to different scents— women to cucumber and chocolate (think chocolatescented clematis, geranium and peppermint) and men to anise, hyssop, fennel and pumpkin pie spice! We all, it seems, like the scents of licorice and lavender. Keville suggests planting several of these in the same area to create an aphrodisiac-themed garden.

She describes a number of plant combinations. For example, you can create a succession of blooms that drench the shade garden with scent for months – wintersweet, daphne and violets in early spring followed by primrose, lily-of-the-valley, sweet woodruff, wintergreen and finally gardenia in early summer.

The Aromatherapy Garden touches on design and cultivation ideas and includes some of the author’s favourite scented plants. It tells you how to make your own aromatherapy body oils, sachets, dream pillows, potpourri, herbal vinegar, herbal teas and even how to capture the garden’s fragrance in a bottle. The Aromatherapy Garden – Growing Fragrant Plants for Happiness and Well-Being, Timber Press.

Lorraine Hunter is a freelance writer, editor of Trellis, the magazine of Toronto Botanical Garden and a Toronto Master Gardener.

Minding The Garden, Lilactree Farm

Encourages a critical glance at one’s own garden Reviewed by helen skinner

This is an intriguing story about a garden created over many years by Brian and Maureen Bixley at their Lilactree Farm in the township of Mulmur Ontario. The farm is 120 km north of Toronto, in the somewhat challenging Hardiness Zone 4b. Brian Bixley was President of the Civic Garden Centre, now the Toronto Botanical Gardens (where he is a patron), in the late 1980s and the moving force in the Centre’s three Great Gardening Conferences (1985, 1987, 1989), that gave the Centre an international profile.

In the garden’s early years, the Bixleys’ professional lives in Toronto meant that gardening was confined to weekends and summer holidays but retirement brought endless weeks to plan, plant and broaden the outlines of their garden. But this is not just a story of lawns, paths, flower beds and rockeries although they are part of it. Nor is it just a story of flowers, shrubs and trees, many of which, including trees, were grown from seed, although they are a major part of it. It is more, much more. It is stories of some of the plants themselves, their shapes, colours, fragrances, their success or not, and their fascinating, sometimes legendary histories. It is stories of other gardens and their interesting, and occasionally, eccentric gardeners. It is garden books and their authors, stories of events and travel that brought new dimensions to the garden, comments and discussion. And all the time, the garden’s story moves through the seasons and the years.

Gardeners have time to think while performing the somewhat mundane but necessary tasks of digging, weeding, pruning and mowing; to let their minds wander over a multitude of subjects. Minding The Garden challenges the reader to think too, about various types of garden design, native plants, the environment, landscapes, gardens and the arts (What can a gardener learn from Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony?) and about motives behind garden creation. It evokes smiles, further thinking, questions, argument, research and frequently complete agreement. It also encourages a critical glance at one’s own garden.

The book is not divided into confining chapters but in numbered sections, some quite short, others longer. Although the sections are untitled each has an obvious motif and the story moves seamlessly through early spring to summer and late fall. The photography by Des Townshend adds beauty to the words. The pictures are appropriately framed and many add a third dimension to the graphic black and white maps that record additions and changes over the years.

I have one caveat. There is no index. Sometimes I want to refer back to a certain plant or personage and I cannot look up the page number so I have to look back to where I think it is and re-read until I find the reference. This, I discovered, is not such a bad thing. Minding The Garden is eminently rereadable. Minding the Garden, Lilactree Farm by Brian Bixley, with photography by Des Townshend, FriesenPress, 2020. Available at Friesen Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble.

Helen Skinner is a keen city gardener (once featured on a Civic Garden Centre Garden tour) and a past President of the Garden Club of Toronto. She was the Garden Editor for Century Home Magazine for its 22-year history.

Escape to Reality

How the World is Changing Gardening and Gardening is Changing the World Reviewed by Veronica Sliva

Though Canadian Gardening icon Mark Cullen’s Escape to Reality was published in 2018 before the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything, much of the content is perhaps more relevant today in these difficult times as we all try to navigate challenging restrictions.

The focus of the book, written with Mark’s son Ben Cullen, as described by the author is “How the World is Changing Gardening, and Gardening is Changing the World”. Gardening on every possible level has become a ‘thing’ during this pandemic. Whether you have a windowsill, a balcony, an urban backyard or an acreage, it seems we are all seeking refuge from stress near things that grow.

Escape to Reality is not a ‘how-to’ gardening book, though there are ideas within its pages that inspire us

to observe nature in our outdoor spaces. For example, Cullen tells us how to build an insect hotel and how to attract hummingbirds.

The book confirms that Cullen is a steward of the environment. He tells us about his many initiatives including the Highway of Heroes Tree Campaign (see https:// www.hohtribute.ca/), Foodshare, Bees for Life, and others.

This book is very personal, as Cullen reflects on his experience with cancer and the journey involved in his treatment and recovery, and how his garden helped with that.

The Chapter names in the book reveal what matters to Mark Cullen…Embracing Nature, Food Prosperity and Building Community, The Value of the Gardening Experience and Sowing a Vision.

I read this book when it was first published in 2018 and again more recently for this review. I found it more meaningful this time around. In my favourite section, Lessons My Garden has Taught Me, Cullen provides a list with anecdotes of what his garden has taught him. His words caused me to reflect on my own experiences and I found myself nodding knowingly.

This is a book that inspires. It encourages us to slow down and reflect in nature, and perhaps reconsider what is important in life. As for learning about the technical aspects of gardening, well, Cullen has other books for that. Escape to Reality is decidedly philosophical. Escape to Reality: How the World is Changing Gardening and Gardening is Changing the World by Mark and Ben Cullen, Timber Press, 2018.

Veronica Sliva is a Toronto Master Gardener and garden writer with many years of experience writing for magazines, newspapers and online gardening resources.

The Lifelong Gardener

Garden with Ease & Joy at Any Age Reviewed by Georgie Kennedy

During WW2, my father served in the Canadian Army and my mother in the US Navy, making me a classic, trendy North American Baby Boomer. Suddenly, all my friends and I are being targeted for condos and retirement homes. To passionate gardeners, this can come as a disheartening shock. Toni Gattone’s The Lifelong Gardener made me realize that growing older does not necessarily mean relinquishing the pleasures of tending and growing plants.

This beautifully laid-out book provides practical ways to foster mental and physical resilience while adapting to a changing body:

• Stretching exercises for flexibility

• Specific tools to prevent pains associated with repetitive tasks

• Techniques to deal with neck, back, hand, skin, balance and heat sensitivity problems

• Workarounds for memory and vision loss.

Proper outfitting can prevent bruises, scrapes, falls and sunburns. I discovered garden gloves that allow scrolling a device’s screen and why I should not wear open-toe Crocs. I learned about radius grip tools, cushioned handles, step ladders, proper seating and how to choose containers. The author, an experienced Master Gardener, is familiar with the ergonomics of every garden task, so I appreciate her brand endorsement as well as the convenient note pages for jotting down sensible ideas and items for my birthday wish list.

Gattone helps re-envision a “Garden of Ease” that may include raised beds, dwarf trees, visible hardscape transition points and drip irrigation. She encourages the exploration of simpler organic methods and native plants that harbour wildlife, and she reminds us that an essential aspect of wellbeing is social connection with other enthusiasts, whether online, through formal groups, or in community gardens.

You’ll make lots of plans after reading this book. By understanding the body’s physical constraints, you’ll know when to hire an expert or organize an old-fashioned work party of friends. Every step will be worthy of celebration. Just remember her expression: “Done is better than perfect.” For anyone with dreams of long years of joy with plants, The Lifelong Gardener is the perfect guide, not just for seniors! The Lifelong Gardener – Garden with Ease & Joy at Any Age (Timber Press, 2019)

Georgie Kennedy is a Toronto Master Gardener, a garden writer amd an avid caretaker of her gardens in Toronto and Jamaica.