The Story of “Poetry in the Garden” in Schrom Hills Park

By Effie Levner

This past July, we celebrated the twoyear anniversary since we started “Poetry in the Garden” at the CHEARS Three Sisters Garden in Schrom Hills Park in Greenbelt, MD.

During the pandemic, we met monthly while following the CDC safety guidelines. With social distancing, poetry reading in the garden was a safe activity that facilitated, for many, social interaction and mental stimulation, Our monthly meetings continue to this day and take place by the garden, if the weather permits. Otherwise, we meet in the clubhouse of the park. We continuously see new participants joining us. The group is diverse in age and background. We encourage cultural diversity and welcome new guests to introduce their own writings and favorite poems.

Reading poetry in the garden is very special for all who work to keep the garden artistic and beautiful. The garden became an inspiring place for creativity such as writing poems, painting, and music. We believe that creativity makes us happy. When touring the garden, you will find poems by poets such as Robert Frost (American), Tagore (Indian), William Shakespeare (English), and Rumi (Persian). That’s why we call our poetry group “Poetry in the Garden”—because of the direct connection between nature and poetry.

Madeleine Jepsen, who joined the group this spring, said, “I have enjoyed hearing poetry from a variety of poets and discussing their work. Since I joined, the group has recited and reflected on the poetry of international poets such as Hafiz, a Persian poet who lived during the 14th century; a poetry anthology written by people affected by incarceration called ‘When You Hear Me (You Hear Us)’; and several local poets who recite their own poems.”

She added, “I’ve always enjoyed poetry, but joining this group has brought my appreciation of poetry to a new height. Sharing poems, and hearing the perspectives of each group member, has been a really special experience.”

Louis Levner is a city-born person who felt that there was no need for gardens or poetry, but when I needed help doing small projects in the garden, he was quick to help. He was also reluctant to join in the poetry sessions. One day, he decided to keep me company during the poetry by attending and reading the poem “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. Since then, he has been consistently attending. He said, “I have never been involved in gardening or poetry, but I find both of these activities here in the garden to be enjoyable and a place where I can take my mind away from the everyday stress of my job and just relax, recharge my batteries, and enjoy myself.”

We have observed that poetry has the power to touch people’s hearts and mind. While initially some enjoy just listening, at some point, they often return with their own writing or enjoy verbally expressing and sharing their feelings with the group. The benefits of poetry are therapeutic and essential to our mental wellbeing. Poetry has the ability to slow us down and allow us the “luxury” of focusing on our inner world, taking us away from focusing on everyday practical and stressful concerns. One initially might not see these benefits to understand and appreciate poetry. It is a process and if you are open to trying something new, like poetry, you will find the experience healing and mentally rewarding. The direct connection between the garden and poetry is undeniable.

We constantly invite visitors to the garden and to experience it on their own. Some come back as volunteers to help in the garden and some return with their own written poems. o

Effie Levner is one of the coordinators of the Three Sisters Gardens. The gardens were profiled in the DayTrip column of the June 2023 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine. She is an occupational therapist and a strong mental wellness advocate. Levner can be contacted at effielevner@aol.com.

By Kathy Jentz

Revolution is must-have book for anyone who is interested in having less lawn, fewer weeds, and reduced mulching. The properties charts will save the reader time and money, the pictures provide inspiration, while the detailed plant portraits give the focused information needed for creating beautiful, functional landscapes.”

―C.L. Fornari, GardenLady.com

Gardening Can Be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim Gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers

Author: Marta McDowell

Publisher: Timber Press

List Price: $29.00

Order Links: https://amzn.to/3QoAN2U and https://bookshop.org/ a/79479/9781643261126

Reviewer: Beth Py-Lieberman

The renowned author and New York Times bestseller Marta McDowell, whose books have explored the gardens of such literary giants as Emily Dickinson and Beatrix Potter, has now turned a poison pen to crime fiction. With murderous precision and the exhaustive art of a detective’s pursuit, McDowell is on the trail in her new book, Gardening Can Be Murder

But don’t mistake this tiny tome with its sinister black cover—the backdrop for a gorgeous rendering of deadly nightshade—as a playful light read. McDowell’s packed pages are a spellbinding timeline detailing how the garden provides key clues across a landscape of classic to contemporary mystery novels.

A lifetime attraction to murder mysteries, beginning with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, along with her love of gardening, triggered McDowell’s recognition that horticulture splendor is well-suited for masking bloody murder. “Perhaps it is the mythic struggle between good and evil, first played out with Eden’s slithering snake against a garden backdrop,” she writes as a possible explanation for how plants enter the plot lines from the time of the early 19th-century Gothic novels and continuing up through today’s slasher films.

Gardening provides the setting, she notes: a place for unease and horror, where the bucolic shifts from the inviting to the ominous. The motives for murder are rife in the garden, providing the “horticultural means of homicide.” Here grows the opium poppy, put to sinister use in Charles Dicken’s 1870 The Master of Edwin Drood. From hemlock to yew to castor bean, the poisonous properties of plants can be weaponized.

Clues abound in the plant kingdom, McDowell points out, and extracting them from the subtle shades of green and brown requires the hard-nosed detective to decipher them smartly, for who would otherwise “notice a scratch from a rose?”

This is a book for all of us. What gardener doesn’t come in dirty and exhausted, ready for a warm bath and a cup of tea, looking to curl up with a good mystery novel? McDowell provides the must-reads to launch a formidable list for the coming new year, perhaps inviting readers to retrace the genre from the 19th century’s crime fighter Sergeant Cuff, or revisit Agatha Christie’s unassuming Miss Jane Marple, or dive into the contemporary world of Susan Witting Albert’s savvy protagonist China Bayles.

“In gardens, the struggle between life and death is laid bare,” writes McDowell. “Animals eat plants. Pests infest plants. As every experienced gardener knows, gardeners kill plants.” Whether accidental or with malicious intent, here lies all the makings for murder most foul. o

Beth Py-Lieberman is the author of a new book, The Object at Hand: Intriguing and Inspiring Stories from the Smithsonian Collections. She is senior museums editor at the award-winning Smithsonian magazine, where, as a 36-year veteran, she has frequented the halls and galleries of the Smithsonian museums, educating readers on its history, art and science collections, and exhibitions. Py-Lieberman is also the editor of the “At the Smithsonian” section of Smithsonian magazine.

The Good Garden: How to Nurture Pollinators, Soil, Native Wildlife, and Healthy Food―All in Your Own Backyard

Author: Chris McLaughlin

Publisher: Island Press

List Price: $35.00

Order Link: https://amzn.to/46SLxM7 and https://bookshop.org/ a/79479/9781642832150

Reviewer: Marsha Douma

Chris McLaughlin is a knowledgeable, exuberant, and enthusiastic advocate of the pleasures of gardening. Her previous books focused, among other topics, on composting and growing heirloom fruits and vegetables. In The Good Garden, with cheerful encouraging prose, she introduces her readers to the essential elements of sustainable gardening. She explains how “partnering with nature” is readily doable and enjoyable. At the end of the book, she hopes we have come to understand, that “…in a world in which gardeners can do anything,...[we should also] do good.” She hopes she has convinced her readers that by “…adjusting our definition of a beautiful and successful garden…[we will] not only help heal the planet, but our own minds, bodies and communities.”

The book begins with a general explanation of the three main “schools” of sustainable gardening. Organic gardening, the most commonly practiced, is focused on not using chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Permaculture is a more encompassing philosophy, seeking to align the entirety of people’s lives with the rhythms and seasons of nature. The last system she introduces is biodynamic gardening, which is the most holistic, including planting based on lunar cycles.

After giving these broader frameworks, McLaughlin proceeds to the details. In the pollinator and wildlife appreciation chapter, she enumerates the benefits we as gardeners will reap from healthier and easier to care for gardens if we choose plants not only for their beauty, but for the shelter and food they will provide for a wide variety of insects, birds, small mammals, and reptiles.

At the start of the weeds chapter, since weeds are, after all, just plants, that might in their own right be food or shelter for some creature, she suggests that as gardeners, we relax a bit in how we think about this problem. She reminds us: “The queen is not coming…the general is not inspecting.” But since weeds are a real issue in all gardens, she suggests multiple strategies, ranging from how to avoid and minimize the problem with cover crops to how to remove what needs to be removed with minimal soil disturbance.

Just as gardeners need to address bad plants, also known as weeds, we also need to address bad bugs. Here also, she makes a strong case full of specifics with easy-to-read charts organized to readily identify the best plants to attract the enemies of our enemies, and do most of the work for us. She also stresses that natural processes takes time, and to summon the patience for this.

Perhaps the most basic tenet of sustainable gardening is the importance of soil. The author begins this chapter with the reasons to prioritize healthy soil. Simply stated, healthy soil makes for healthier plants. They will naturally repel diseases, resist insect damage, and generally be more robust. Once she has established the why, she gives the how, with advice even experienced gardeners will find useful.

If new gardeners are starting to feel at this point, that this might be too much work, the snacks are coming. After all those why and how-to chapters, the author describes in detail the glorious bounty that awaits the garden- er when all these sustainable practices are followed. She gives multiple ways that gardeners can avail themselves of all the beautiful and healthy vegetables, fruits, and herbs they have grown.

The book concludes with how to raise chickens, rabbits and bees for those who think that might be interesting and fun.

In conclusion, The Good Garden, is another strong voice in trying to educate the public about the immense problem that loss of natural habitat poses for insects, pollinators, and various wildlife and therefore, ourselves, since our lives as we know it, are completely dependent on these creatures for our food. In every chapter, the author has made a thoughtful argument about why gardeners can and need to join the fight to reverse this dangerous trajectory. She also continually stresses throughout the book, how we will benefit with healthier gardens.

The Good Garden is a well-written, engaging garden book. Any gardener will benefit from its contents. It would also be a good gift to a gardening beginner, or someone whom you would like to encourage to become a sustainable gardener, because of the friendly and encouraging tone and feel of the book. o

Marsha Douma is a retired dentist and lifelong gardener who also enjoys swimming, tennis, and playing the piano. She lives in Rockville, MD.

Private Gardens of the Potomac and Chesapeake: Washington, DC, Maryland, Northern Virginia

Author: Claudia Kousoulas

Publisher: Schiffer Publishing

List Price: $34.99

Order Links: https://amzn.to/46VH3nU and https://bookshop.org/ a/79479/9780764366017

Reviewer: Christine Folivi

This book captures the personalities and uniqueness of gardens all around the Potomac and Chesapeake areas. There are many graphics that go into depth about what the gardeners and owners had in mind when constructing their gardens.

At first, I thought this level of gardening takes hundreds of thousands of dollars, because not only is the book about exploring the gardens, it also includes the architectural ideas of the owners. Despite that, there are still humble approaches to gardening that the book provides. Gardening on all levels is included.

In the city, life can be noisy and cluttered, but this book takes you beyond that and provides some serenity here in the DMV. I particularly liked how the author also provides a list of all plants in the private gardens, which gives me, as a reader who might like to replicate some of these gardens, a guide and step-by-step to what I need. Some of these plants I hadn’t heard of before, so this was a great learning experience. The book has a very peaceful vibe while you read, which highlights the mindset of the gardeners when they decided to create these gardens. o

Christine Folivi is a senior at the University of Maryland College Park. This fall, she is an intern at Washington Gardener Magazine

Love Reading?

The book reviews in this issue are by volunteer members of the Washington Gardener Reader Panel. To join the Washington Gardener Volunteer Reader Panel, send an email with your name and address to: KathyJentz@gmail.com. o

Note: These book reviews include links to Amazon.com and BookShop. org for ordering them. Washington Gardener Magazine may receive a few cents from each order placed after you click on these links.