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| Home & Garden: Settling In for a Long Winter's Read | | 11/12/2009 11:16:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
by Georgeanne Davis
Feature Writer/Calendar
With the long nights of winter closing in, it helps to have a few new gardening books to read. The ground is still workable, so bulb and garlic planting are possible, and there are always leaves to rake and perennials to cut back, but for the cold rainy days and snowy days to come, it's good to have books on hand. They also make good gifts for the holidays.
Mainers have a special connection with Beatrix Farrand, the country's first female landscape architect and a founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. The Beatrix Farrand Society is located at Garland Farm on Mount Desert Island, and many of Farrand's private gardens were located in Maine. Garland Farm was Farrand's last home and garden, where she lived until her death in 1959. Prior to moving to Garland Farm, she lived at Reef Point, her family's summer estate in Bar Harbor. As this year marks the 50th anniversary of Farrand's death, the release of Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens, Public Landscapes, by landscape historian Judith B. Tankard, is a timely one.
There's not a lot of new material to cover, as there have been two books written previously, in 1985 and 1995, but after taking the readers through Farrand's early years, Tankard concentrates on Farrand's gardens that are still intact throughout the country, which include private estates, college campuses, including Vassar, Princeton, Oberlin and Yale, the Huntington (where Farrand's husband, Max, served as the director of the library), in San Marino, California, and Farrand's own garden on Mount Desert Island, as well as the famed garden at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.
If, like Virginia Woolf, you long for "a room of one's own," you'll love Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways: Big Ideas for Small Backyard Destinations by Debra Prinzig, with award-winning photography by William Wright. Detailed are 28 wonderful spaces from New York City to San Diego, Austin to Santa Cruz, built in urban gardens, suburban backyards and on rural properties. Styles range from rustic cabin in the woods to an asymmetrical, steel-framed structure over a pool, to a grass-roofed, Norwegian stabbur. These are not cobweb-filled homes for tools and clay pots, for the most part; some have elegant chandeliers and dining tables for entertaining guests.
Many people, I suspect, harbor the fantasy of a return to a childhood playhouse, treehouse or hideaway. This book fuels that fantasy with sample plans for building a shed and advice on the practicalities of designing and decorating it, as well as information about the owners and the process they went through to create their spaces. It's certain to get you sketching and looking around the yard for the perfect location. Don't be afraid to drop major hints; Christmas is right around the corner.
While it might not seem to be for general audiences, Rockland mycologist Greg Marley's new book Mushrooms for Health: Medicinal Secrets of Northeastern Fungi is a good addition to the library of anyone interested in alternative medicine and healing as well as foraging. While there are some sections, such as those that explain the workings of the immune system and on the medicinal components of mushrooms, that are fairly technical, Marley, who has a BS in botany with a minor in chemistry, has a way of making the information accessible to the layperson. Most of the material, which focuses on 10 medicinal mushrooms found in the Northeast, is lively and readable, a good informal guide for anyone who presently forages or may want to in the future and an introduction to the health benefits of mushrooms.
The U.S. lags behind other countries in recognizing and testing the antimicrobial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of mushrooms as well as the compounds found in them that support immune system function - particularly relevant during flu season. For each of the mushrooms under consideration in the book Marley discusses not only the habitat and edibility of each, but folk or traditional medicinal uses, current medical uses, and areas of research. Many show great promise as cancer remedies, while others are helpful in treating high cholesterol and Alzheimer's. Consider this book both a tool and an enjoyable guide to medicinal fungi.
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