Gardener's Group discussion

Any suggestions? Post yours and we'll vote on it!

I am new to your group, so I don't know what type of book you normally read. Based on the current selection, you may like The Forgotten Garden. The garden doesn't play as much in the story as fairy tales do, but the garden is important to the conclusion.

I'm looking forward to being part of this group.

Welcome! Is this set in the Fall? I'm not on a regular pc & right now can't look the book up.

No. Sorry I overlooked that. I'll keep my eyes open for a Fall setting.

No worries! Thanks!

I'm trying to get a seasonal themed garden read going for each season, fiction or non. Tried with "Orange Mint and Honey" by Carleen Brice for Summer, but Summer time is busy so we didn't end up w/much participation.

I've got a couple of reads in mind though they're fairly short though and of the mystery genre which I'm not particularly fond of but I can't add links from my cell so I'll post them this week.

I hope you're able to participate!

Again, I'm not on my pc (Hubby's been hogging since he was laid off) so I can't look it up, but is Green Thoughts an Autumn themed garden read Kelly Jo?

Lol! Sure it is!

I'm having a hard time finding any autumn themed garden reads which aren't a 'how to' book. Hhhmmm... Maybe a non fiction memoir/journal type book on gardening is the way to go- those usually go thru ea. season...

I recently read The Photograph by Penelope Lively and one of the main characters is a landscape designer. I don't remember exactly what season it took place, though.

Argh! GoodReads isn't loading and I'm back on my cell. Kelly Jo, does this book have anything about what they did to grow their crops & what not? I can click on the link but it just shows me a pic of the book.

I hope this works! Going with the non fiction genre, how about this for a nomination? There Is A Season A Memoir. Not really fall themed, but that is proving to be way more difficult than I had anticipated!

Haven't gotten very far into it yet, but how about Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle? Its the story of a year where the family tried to feed themselves completely off what they could grow or purchase that was grown in their local area only.

Annie, that's a great one and I have it on my shelf! I'll post a poll later today w/all of the books liated and we'll vote!

I've created a poll with the following non fiction titles:

Green Thoughts A Writer in the Garden

There Is A Season A Memoir

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle A Year of Food Life

Please vote for only 1 book. Poll closes Tues 9/22. Descriptions in next post.

A classic in the literature of the garden, Green Thoughts is a beautifully written and highly original collection of seventy-two essays, alphabetically arranged, on topics ranging from “Annuals” and “Artichokes” to “Weeds” and “Wildflowers.” An amateur gardener for over thirty years, Eleanor Perényi draws upon her wide-ranging knowledge of gardening lore to create a delightful, witty blend of how-to advice, informed opinion, historical insight, and philosophical musing. There are entries in praise of earthworms and in protest of rock gardens, a treatise on the sexual politics of tending plants, and a paean to the salubrious effect of gardening (see “Longevity”). Twenty years after its initial publication, Green Thoughts remains as much a joy to read as ever.

This Modern Library edition is published with a new Introduction by Allen Lacy, former gardening columnist for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times and the author of numerous gardening books.


Believed by many to be one of the finest poets of his generation, Patrick Lane is also a passionate gardener. He lives on Vancouver Island, a place of uncommon beauty, where the climate is mild, the air is soft, and the growing season lasts nearly all year long.

Lane has gardened for as long as he can remember, and sees his garden’s life as intertwined with his own. And when he gave up drinking, after years of addiction, he found solace and healing in tending to his yard. In this exquisitely written memoir, he relates stories of his hard early life in the context of the landscape he’s created. As he observes the seasonal changes, a plant or a bird or the way a tree bends in the wind brings to mind an episode from his storied past.

Lane writes evocative descriptions of the animals, birds, insects, and plants that are his garden, and of the relationship he has to them all. Accompany Lane as he wanders his garden, where botanical “madeleines” release in him a flood of memory.


Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver returns with her first nonfiction narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.

"As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives with our food chain.

"Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel. . . ."

Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.

"This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air."

And the winner is: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle A Year of Food Life!

Annie, since you nominated the book, would you like to lead the read or would you like me to? (I don't mind!)

I'm going to start posting some things about this book starting next week.

Who's ready to start discussing Animal Vegetable Miracle?! Reading schedule and discussion schedule will be posting in the following thread by some time tomorrow:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

Reading schedule has been posted, follow link in my previous comment to the thread.

Jo, thanks for the reading schedule. I have a copy of the book coming. I am looking forward to reading it with you.

Fabulous Iris! Glad you're joining in! I'm really looking forward to reading this book.