Looking for book suggestions about gardeners

[Pendrench]

Hello -

I was wondering if anyone here would be able to suggest a few good books about gardeners and their gardens.

I'm not really looking for "how to" books....more along the lines of gardeners telling their stories about their gardens (how they got started, successes and set-backs, etc.)

I guess you could say that I'm looking for inspiration...I'm hoping to start a flower garden next year, and I would love to read about other gardeners and their gardens.

Thank you very much.

Tim

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Dunno from books, but...

over on Daily Kos, one of the flower gardeners there has been posting weekly diaries about her trials and tribulations in gardening for the last decade or so, and they're all archived. Look for user 'Frankenoid', or the 'Saturday Morning Gardening Blog'.

[Pendrench]

5. Hi Erich -

Thank you for responding to my post...I'll be sure to check these out!

Tim

[femmocrat]

2. Our very own NRaleighLiberal could probably help you.

He is a published author.

[Pendrench]

6. Hi femmocrat -

Thank you for your suggestion - I'll be sure to contact NRaleighLiberal

Tim

[TygrBright]

3. Lots of good ones...

"Elizabeth and Her German Garden"
"Green Thoughts"
"Onward and Upward in the Garden"
Anything by Allen Lacy
"The 10,000 Mile Garden"

There's an awful lot of them out there, the trick is paring down the list!

helpfully,
Bright

[Pendrench]

7. Hi Bright -

Thank you very much for the list! I'll be sure to check out these titles

Tim

[blackcrowflies]

11. I used to enjoy Allen Lacy's columns a lot, so

here's another vote for anything he wrote.

[PADemD]

4. Louise Riotte

"Beloved Story author and life-long gardener Louise Riotte passed away in 1998 at the age of 89. She wrote 12 books on gardening, companion planting, and garden lore, among them the ever-popular Carrots Love Tomatoes, which has sold approximately 515,000 copies."

http://www.amazon.com/Louise-Riotte/e/B001H6IT68

Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening
http://www.amazon.com/Carrots-Love-Tomatoes-Companion-Successful/dp/1580170277/ref=la_B001H6IT68_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415627396&sr=1-1

Roses Love Garlic: Companion Planting and Other Secrets of Flowers
http://www.amazon.com/Roses-Love-Garlic-Companion-Planting/dp/1580170285/ref=la_B001H6IT68_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415627154&sr=1-2

[Pendrench]

8. Hi PADemD -

Thank you for the links...Ms. Riotte sounds very interesting - I'll be sure to check out her books

Tim

[Spaldeen]

9. How old?

The best "garden story" book I read was Success With Small Fruits, E.P. Roe (1881).

It was written by THE E.P. Roe, the 19th century novelist.

I would also recommend The Home Acre, also by Roe, published in 1887.

You won't realize you're reading a book on gardening until it is too late!

[intheflow]

10. My favorite memoir-y story of urban gardening is

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Gardener, by Novella Carpenter. A close second would be Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver. Both are non-fiction, written by real people doing real gardening. They are both far more ambitious that you sound, but the Kingsolver book might prove especially inspirational to you as part of the reason she writes it is to inspire people t garden. However, these memoirs are really about vegetable gardens. I'm a librarian who loves to garden both flowers and veggies, but I can't think of a single memoir about flower gardening.

On edit: you got me thinking about flower gardening memoirs. Found one I'm going to read now, maybe it will interest you, too. It is:
Slug tossing and other adventures of a reluctant gardener, by Meg DesCamp. Sounds really funny and maybe even inspirational.