BOOKreviews

The Heirloom Gardener: Traditional Plants and Skills for the Modern World Author: John Forti Publisher: Timber Press List Price: $27.50 Order Link: https://amzn.to/35sqpi3 Reviewer: Andrea F. Siegel John Forti has pulled together a romance of gardens, communities, and their connections with time, season, earth, pace, and place in history. There is plenty of nostalgia in the book, but this is less a dreamy look back to earlier times than it is advocacy for change, and it’s clear that Forti favors artisanal and local goods. The chapters are essays about the value of traditional plants and practices, artisanal crafts and skills, slow food, and the like. Forti, an ethnobotanist, horticulturalist, and heirloom specialist, advises us to look at modern lifestyles, our Earth, our values, our food, and the families and communities we are part of. The chapters, through their information about plants, holidays, crafts, experiences, etc., are about the kind of practices that connect us to our environment and older generations we knew, as well as ancestors we never met; keeping their skills, wisdom, history, foodways, and folklore alive; reaching for heirloom plants and seeds, and living our lives in more-sustainable ways. The book advocates, essentially, for the heirloom gardening lifestyle and the experiences gained and lessons learned from it, and the communities we form and support. There is interesting information here about horticultural practices, skills, and crafts that shouldn’t be lost over time—but that can happen when the knowledge is no longer passed from generation to generation. Forti spews harsh words for the agri-chem industry, promoting growing heirloom plants in an earth-friendly way to enrich the soil and our lives as we learn and appreciate the pace and planning of this lifestyle. Chapters, illustrated by block prints that hearken back to the past, feature selected plants, such as sage, and include information like uses and value through the years. They also share stories about the old ways, the language of flowers, seasonality, and the like. Gardeners, especially those who use heirloom seeds and plants, may find little new here. This is not a how-to book that, step-by-step, teaches skills, although there are instructions for making herbaria, and tips and advice about varied subjects and plants. Perhaps readers who are inspired by Forti will not turn to their screens for a how-to video, but instead to someone who will pass down their knowledge by sharing their experience. Still, many people are already involved in aspects of what Forti advocates. Whether it was the pandemic or food/health scares, climate change or GMO opposition, the decades of the environmental movement, a desire to have a pretty butterfly garden, or the fear that youngsters will think that eggs grow in cartons, many people have joined the movements to grow-your-own organically, raise backyard chickens, buy local, shop at farmer’s markets, make their own compost, etc. They are returning to “three sisters” planting and sharing the best of their heirloom seeds. The book may appeal to like-minded readers, but people who pick it up expecting to learn about growing specific heirloom plant varieties may be disappointed. Whether you care for Forti’s views or not, his essays may lead you to consider what you want in post-pandemic life. o

Andrea Siegel is a Master Gardener in Maryland.

Grow Bag Gardening Author: Kevin Espiritu Publisher: Cool Springs Press List Price: $26.99 Order Link: https://amzn.to/35HzDr7 Reviewer: Erica H. Smith If you’re a container gardener, you have likely accumulated your share of large pots made of everything from terracotta to expensive ceramic to various types of plastic; you’ve lugged them around your deck or patio; you’ve used up space storing them over the winter. Maybe you’ve also noticed that as plants grow inside the pots, their roots tend to circle around the interior, especially if the pot isn’t quite large enough for the root system. This can lead to root rot and plant death. “Grow bags” made from fabric, mostoften spunbound polypropylene, solve several of these problems: They are relatively lightweight (although the planting mix inside can still be heavy), they fold up to store flat (away from mice!), and roots of plants grown in this porous material “air prune” or die off before starting to circle, thus keeping the plant healthier. Grow bags come in lots of sizes and colors, and can support many different kinds of plants. Kevin Espiritu (of Epic Gardening, an online gardening education company) is enthusiastic about grow bags. This is an enthusiastic book overall, which is great; I can’t imagine anyone reading it and not wanting to run out to get a whole bunch of fabric pots, or (if you’re good at sewing) some material to make your own, which he provides directions to do, along with many other DIY projects. There is plenty of information in here to start your grow bag garden and keep it productive, including choosing bags; choosing plants from a wide selection of possibilities; creating the perfect soil mix and fertilizers; making trellises, cold frames, and drip irrigation systems and… I did have to stop and take a breath after the deluge of “another cool thing!” but anything that encourages people to get out there and get gardening is wonderful. And this book is packed with encouragement. I would suggest reading the introductory chapters and the essential information about maintenance, and skipping over most of the specific project details until you’re ready. Do not buy 50 grow bags and fill them all up in the first season, no matter how enthused you feel. But three or four are a great idea, and you will definitely have some

ideas about what to grow after reading this book. I am not sure that asparagus would work in a grow bag in our climate. But now I kind of want to try. If you’re already a container gardener, or if you have a small urban space and have been interested in using it for growing anything from vegetables to perennial flowers to fruit trees, grow bags are a great way to go, and Grow Bag Gardening can show you how to make them work for you. o

Erica H. Smith is a Montgomery County Master Gardener whose volunteer activities include the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden in Derwood, MD; the Grow It Eat It program; and speaking engagements on food-growing topics. She is the author of several novels; visit her website at ericahsmith.wordpress.com.

Micro Food Gardening: Project Plans and Plants for Growing Fruits and Veggies in Tiny Spaces Author: Jennifer McGuinness Publisher: Cool Springs Press List Price: $26.99 Order Link: https://amzn.to/2UdfLJR Reviewer: Stacey Evers When schools and offices closed last spring, I spent a fair amount of time packing strawberry plants and tomato and herb seeds, then delivering them with pots and bags of soil to students who live in apartments. I felt bad that my offerings were so puny and that the resulting food would be scant (if it came into being at all). If only Jen McGuinness’ Micro Food Gardening: Project Plans and Plants for Growing Fruits and Veggies in Tiny Spaces had been around then. I could have maximized the food the students grew by making micro food fountains of nested terra cotta pots that host greens, bush beans, marigolds, and peppers in the ascending layers. Cucumber towers of pots and PVC would have fit beautifully into slender spaces. And for my student who couldn’t get enough of radishes, I would have created a basket root garden: a small, deep basket lined with coconut coir, filled with soil, and then planted with radishes (or carrots or beets). McGuinness, who started blogging as Frau Zinnie in 2011, is on to something. As she points out in her introduction, growing food in small spaces “is a trend that is not going away.” Space is increasingly at a premium and, by 2050, more than two-thirds of people in the world are expected to be living in cities. Micro food gardening isn’t the same as container gardening. It focuses on crops that don’t have grand ambitions, but that will remain compact. Each of the project instructions includes recommended plants that are well-suited to the design: bush beans for the rainwater collector with a living wreath, dwarf eggplant and mini-peppers for the “Taste of Italy” urn, a window box of fingerling potatoes. Some of the 30 projects are more whimsical, like the greens or chives grown in a decorative head planter, a thyme chessboard, and kale sprouting from a doll bed. Every plan is designated as an indoor or outdoor project, or both. Many of the indoor projects are for microgreens. McGuinness reveals that she started growing basil microgreens year-round in a muffin pan because she loves fresh herbs and wants easy access to them while cooking, but doesn’t have much counter space. Similarly, she keeps a caddy of six wide-mouth mason jars in the kitchen for growing herbs that can be snipped as needed. In-between the well-laid-out project instructions, each introduced with a highlighted materials list, McGuinness dispenses gardening advice about growing specific types of plants and about direct-seeding. She also provides plans for creating your own grow light (PVC again!) and an indoor worm bungalow from craft-store-style wooden crates. Throughout, McGuinness encourages readers to be adventurous and resourceful, calling on them to look around their homes and think about what could be reused as a container. How about that holiday cookie tin? Or the aquarium languishing in the basement? She wants readers to use this book as a starting point, not an end in itself, as they consider how to increase their access to fresh food in even the smallest of spaces. o

Stacey Evers is an environmental educator at Belvedere ES in Falls Church, VA, and the director of Grow a Row FC, a community initiative supporting gardeners who grow food for donation.

Lilies: Beautiful Varieties for Home and Garden Author: Naomi Slade Photos: Georgianna Lane Publisher: Gibbs Smith List Price: $21,99 Order Link: https://amzn.to/2THbqy3 Reviewer: Jim Dronenburg This is a coffee table book. It has a section about the history, structure of lilies, and how lilies are classified, and a little bit of information about how to read the listings; then 60 varieties/species of lily by my quick count. Then there is a glittering generality guide to buying, planting, and propagation, and a glossary of terms in the back. The book falls short on a list of items. The lilies mentioned are grouped by Elegant and Dainty; Wild and Wonderful; Fiery and Fabulous; an Majestic and Magnificent. Within the groupings, there is no sense of organi-

zation, whether by species, by cultivar, by color, whether things are species or hybrids. This does ensure that you read every page, but is highly irritating if you would ever want to look anything up. The book is chock-full of photographs. I have to admit the photos are stunning, but so many of the photos—for example, spotted in the text as “section breaks” and elsewere—are not captioned, not labeled. Lilies are shown that are not mentioned in the text. The varieties that are mentioned have anywhere from one to three full-page shots, and one suspects the varieties were chosen by the availability of photographs rather than anything else. There is far too little text for the space used. Information is… spotty…for the varieties. Not all are labeled as for sun/shade. I noticed no hardiness zones, even when in the case of Lilium candidum, the Madonna lily, the author mentions that this lily is “less hardy than some.” Height is given, but when each lily has not only an “in the garden” bullet point, but an “as a cut flower” point, you wonder if the emphasis is on growing the things or buying them at a florist’s to arrange. There are, however, some nice points. There are several lily species and—my personal favorites—L. martagon hybrids included. Height is always given, and usually, soil preferences, which is often critical when trying to grow species. (Hybrids are often more forgiving.) The author does make the very good point that cheap bulbs in the box stores aren’t worth it—they have been pawed over and probably damaged, and usually if they have sprouted, they aren’t worth your money. She recommends going to a reputable lily supplier. Buy the book for the pictures. They provide great eye candy. o

Jim Dronenburg is a retired accountant and now gardens full-time in Knoxville, MD.

Forage: Wild Plants to Gather, Cook, and Eat Author: Liz Knight Illustrator: Rachel Pedder-Smith Publisher: Laurence King Publishing List Price: $24.99 Order Link: https://amzn.to/3vBInJE Reviewer: Jackie DiBartolomeo Whether you are an expert forager or a total beginner, Forage by Liz Knight is a one-stop-shop into all of the different possibilities that can come out of stepping into the forest and searching for your next meal. The book details 50 different wild plants that can be foraged, from trees to weeds. Each section of this book details characteristics of each plant, such as its distribution, habitat, and gathering season. Knight uses a great deal of imagery to get the reader to picture themselves out there with the plant, foraging for it. Although I was familiar with many of the 50 plants in this book before I read it, there was a wealth of information about even the mostcommon of plants that I got to learn. (For instance, there are records of humans eating dandelions dating back thousands of years.) Perhaps more exciting than the plants themselves is what the book teaches you to do with them. Along with their descriptions, each plant section contains delicious recipes to recreate with what you’ve foraged—everything from chili jam to rice pudding to lemon linguine. With about 150 recipes to try out, the cooking possibilities are endless. Almost all of the recipes listed contain 10 ingredients or fewer, making them easy to make for even a novice cook, as well. However, the real highlight of the book is the beautiful illustrations by Rachel-Pedder Smith. Each plant section comes with an illustration more stunning than the last, both lifelike and yet with artistic liberty. Perhaps the most-important part of foraging is being able to identify your plants correctly, and Pedder-Smith’s illustrations make this a possibility. As I stared at her drawings, it was easy for me to picture each plant jumping right off the page and into the forest. Her illustrations are also labeled like a diagram by Knight, showing which parts of the plant to eat, and which to leave behind. As a beginner forager, I was nervous before opening this book that I was going to have nothing to say about its contents. However, as I continued to read, I realized that many plants within the pages that also existed right in my own backyard. Childhood favorites like Japanese honeysuckle and crab apple trees can be used to create some amazing recipes that I hadn’t previously considered making. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by Forage. I went into the book expecting to be entertained, but came out well enough informed to want to do some venturing of my own for my next meal. The illustrations by Pedder-Smith only added to the experience of learning more about the ingredients I can get without stepping foot in the grocery store. I would recommend this book to readers who want to learn not only a bit more about foraging, but a bit more about the natural world around them, too. o

Jackie DiBartolomeo is a journalism major at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an intern this summer with Washington Gardener. She is also a staff reporter with The Campus Trainer.

Herbal Houseplants Author: Susan Betz Publisher: The Quarto Group List Price: $24.95 Link: https://amzn.to/2SG8MbJ Reviewer: Amanda Cash You may think you need a yard or small outdoor garden to grow beautiful and delicious herbs, but author and master gardener Susan Betz proves that herbs can flourish inside. You no longer have to worry about tending to your herbs in the sweltering heat or rainy days, but instead can enjoy them in the comfort of your home. In her book Herbal Houseplants, Betz shares her tips and tricks for growing every herb you can think of, not only successfully, but also indoors. She breaks down each component necessary to grow and take care of the herbs, such as how much light is needed, their preferred moisture levels, and their soil plus fertilizer needs. The herb owner should be, as Betz puts it, “pruned” so they understand each component necessary in preparing their herbs to have a place in their home. Successfully growing the herbs is only one aspect of taking care of them. Betz also provides a section about how to prune and propagate your herbs. Don’t worry about pesky fungicide or bugs, because the book outlines how to take care of a plant that may have these problems. Drawings even show the reader how to detect whether these pests are attacking your plants. The bulk of the book is filled with beautiful photography and there is a listing of the different types of herbs, from chives to sage to cardamon to bloody dock. Each plant is explained in its entirety from its Latin name to the uses in your daily life, whether it be for fragrance, lotions, cooking, or adding a touch of color to your home. Some herbs, such as basil, have a plethora of varieties, and Betz includes each type of this popular herb. She even goes a step farther to share great recipes that can be created using these varieties. Growing herbs indoors can lead you to create a delicious rose geranium cake, a five-cheese herb spread, or even herb-infused vinegar. If you want to successfully grow beautiful herbs in your home or learn more about them in general, this book is a must-read. o

Amanda Cash is a journalism major at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an intern this summer with Washington Gardener. She is also interning at WBAL-TV11 in Baltimore, MD.

Tiny Plants: Discover the Joys of Growing and Collecting Itty-bitty Houseplants Author: Leslie F. Halleck Publisher: Cool Springs Press List Price: $24.99 Link: https://amzn.to/3guHdLO Reviewer: Molly Cuddy For those who want to care for plants but don’t have much room, or prefer a smaller houseplant, Leslie F. Halleck has all the tips and tricks in her book Tiny Plants. Her own fascination and love of miniscule plants inspired her to write this book for anyone who may share her obsession. Tiny plants have different needs from normal houseplants, and their care practices may be more tedious. Fear not, because Halleck gives all the knowledge you could possibly need for every small plant under the sun. Your tiny plants are sure to flourish with the detailed descriptions and pictures on every page. She includes plenty of information about what containers to store them in, how to water them, appropriate lighting for the plants, how to propagate them, and more. Halleck also gives examples of different types of tiny plants, with a size reference in every picture, so you can tell just how tiny some of them are. She covers foliage, flowering, succulents, cacti, carnivorous, and semi-aquatic plants. Some of them are extra-itty-bitty, like the living stone succulent, which is comparable to the size of a healing crystal (or a rock, considering its name) or a thimble—it only grows to about 4 centimeters. Others are a bit larger, like the Bull Eye’s begonia, which can have a height of up to 20 centimeters; however, it’s still tiny enough to earn a spot in this book. Each plant profile page includes a picture, as well as all the information about how to take care of that specific plant and the skill level needed to keep the plant thriving (an awesome addition for any amateur gardeners who don’t want a plant that is too difficult to keep alive). Of course, an important part of having plants is displaying them in the most aesthetically pleasing ways in your home for guests and yourself to enjoy. The good thing about tiny plants is that there are plenty of ways to display them, and Halleck gives many great recommendations for that. This book is perfect for anyone looking for a tiny plant as an adorable addition to their home. Although it’s filled with information and facts, the photos and casual tone make it a pleasant and interesting read. o

Molly Cuddy is a journalism major at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an intern this summer with Washington Gardener. She is also a campus tour guide and will be a teaching assistant for a professional writing class next semester.