READ ‘EM@TheArboretum became a regular thing for me just last summer. I was working with a large group of community volunteers, including many of my fellow Cullman County Master Gardeners, to revitalize the lovely Wildflower Garden at Sportsman Lake Park.
This heavily wooded area is perfect for cooling off with a good read in hot-as-the-hinges-of-Hell Alabama summertime. There are places to sit and enjoy reading sprinkled throughout the area. As we transition the forested surroundings to become an accredited arboretum, or “living tree museum,” we plan to add more benches and tree-canopied reading nooks.
READ ‘EM@TheArboretum encourages you to head to a library, bookstore or Kindle and find something that is fun or particularly interesting for you, and then head out to the great Alabama outdoors. Over many years, I’ve found Sportsman Lake to be a huge and welcoming reading room. And, for a cooler spot where sun is not glaring on the page, get thee to the arboretum. (Look for the bright red “Welcome Arbor” leading to the Wildflower Garden.)
Some days each season, I sit blissfully at Sportsman Lake and read. And some days there, I just sit blissfully and smile.
THE LIBRARY AT THE GARDENS, Alabama’s finest public library for plant-lovers, is only an hour away from Cullman County at the 67-acre Birmingham Botanical Gardens. I drive there at least once a month and can attest this readers’ haven superbly promotes a passion for plants, gardens and the natural world. The gardens are FREE and open to all, from dawn ‘til dusk, 365 days a year. The Library at the Gardens is FREE to enjoy at your leisure and open 9-4 p.m., Monday-Friday.
Hope Long, the dedicated and delightful director of library services at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and I schmoozed when I popped in this week. She asked me to encourage Cullman County folks to come enjoy The Library at the Gardens this summer.
I asked Hope for her suggestions of two or three new-ish books on trees and gardening that people of varying reading levels would enjoy. A day later, the an enthusiastic “ambassador of Alabama arboreta” sent me an email suggesting these 32 titles for your summer reading pleasure in 2023:
- THE HEARTBEAT OF TREES by Peter Wohlleben
- TO SPEAK FOR THE TREES by Diana Beresford-Kroeger
- HERB GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS by Marc Thomas
- ATTRACTING GARDEN POLLINATORS b Jean Vernon
- NATIVE PLANT GARDENING FOR BIRDS, BEES & BUTTERFLIES by Jaret C. Daniels
- CAMP COCKTAILS by Emily Vikre
- THE ELEGANT & EDIBLE GARDEN by Linda Vater
- TEA GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS by Julia Dimakos
- CONTAINER FOOD GARDENING: All the Know-How You Need by Pam Farley
- SOUTHERN GARDENING ALL YEAR LONG by Gary R. Bachman
- THE VERTICAL VEG GUIDE by Mark Ridsdill Smith
- SECRETS OF MOUND GARDENING by Darryl Whitham
- CLAY SUCCULENT GARDEN by Kitanoko
- CREATING A GARDEN RETREAT by Virginia Johnson
- THE GARDEN APOTHECARY by Becky Cole
- NOW IS THE TIME FOR TREES by Dan Lambe
- BRINGING NATURE HOME by Douglas W. Tallamy
- NATURE’S BEST HOPE by Douglas W. Tallamy
- (For Kids) A WHIFF OF PINE, A HINT OF SKUNK: A Forest of Poems by Deborah Ruddell
- (For Kids) THE BEST EVER STEP-BY-STEP KID’S FIRST GARDENING by Jenny Hendy
- (For Kids) DIG IN! 12 Easy Gardening Projects Using Kitchen Scraps by Kari Cornel
- (For Kids) GROW YOUR OWN PIZZA! by Constance Hardesty
- (For Kids) LET’S GO TO THE GARDEN: with Dr. Seuss’s Lorax by Todd Tarpley
- (For Kids) CAN YOU HEAR THE TREES TALKING? By Peter Wohlleben
- (For Kids) TREES: KINGS OF THE FOREST by Andy Hirsch
- (For Kids) I CAN NAME 50 TREES, TODAY by Bonnie Worth
- OH, SAY CAN YOU SEED? by Bonnie Worth
- THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Hodgson Burnett—the children’s classic with 20 hands-on projects
- THE SECRET GARRDEN, A Modern Re-Telling by Ivy Noelle Wei
- THE SECRET GARDEN of GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER by Gene Barretta
- MICHELLE’S GARDEN by Sharee Miller
READ ‘EM@TheArboretum will thrive as the Cullman County Public Libraries add more tree and garden-centric materials to their circulating collections. Our public libraries support the cooperative work of Cullman County Parks and Recreation and the Cullman County Master Gardeners in establishing the pine-studded accredited arboretum at Sportsman Lake Park. This will mean more gardening books for adults and children, more horticulture-themed DVDs and related teacher resources.
READ ‘EM@TheArboretum selections for me in this summer include many from Hope’s suggestions above, and these for your consideration:
THIS IS YOUR MIND ON PLANTS by Michael Pollan has your brain leaping toward thoughts of marijuana and opium and then reminds us of our everyday mind-expanding plant jolts—”Some plants offer bees a shot of caffeine as they collect nectar, which makes them an even more efficient pollinator.”
THE HEIRLOOM GARDEN by Viola Shipman (cue the violins) explores an unlikely relationship of two women, very different from each other, who are gathered like a bouquet because of the shared pain of war, yet bound by positivity, a sense of purpose and by…daylilies and roses.
BEATRIX POTTER, A LIFE IN NATURE by Linda Lear shows us the beloved author and illustrator as a product of uptight, Victorian upbringing bursting free as a lifeforce once she moves closer to nature in the English countryside. Blogger, Knitgirl 111, calls this doorstop, “585 pages of bliss.”
THE GROWING SEASON: How I Built a New Life—and Saved an American Farm by Sarah Frey is perfect for Cullman County, Alabama readers who live in the #1 area for farming in a very agricultural state. At age 16, the author started a fresh produce delivery business out of the back of an old pickup truck. Now, that’s a good reason to consider buying your teen the vehicle they’ve been bugging you to purchase. “The New York Times Book Review” calls THE GROWING SEASON, “A gutsy success story.” When we READ ‘EM@TheArboretum, we call it thinking up like the trees giving us hope on the upslope.
THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN by Kate Morton is a sweeping, historical mystery which begins with a four-year old girl being abandoned on a shipping dock in Australia. The novel was inspired by the author’s own family history.
UNEARTHING THE SECRET GARDEN: The Plants and Places That Inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett by Martha McDowell is “not unlike a garden itself,” says “The Wall Street Journal” review, “with its smooth lawns of prose and striking shows of illustration and photography.”
LINNEA in MONET’S GARDEN by Christina Bjork & Lena Alexander is an innovative art book for children. The story is so engaging, it has been re-imagined as an animated movie and there are Linnea dolls.
This week, when Cullman gardener Becky Zeibel, gifted the arboretum with a charming waterlily for the little pond in “The Four Seasons Garden,” I thought how the Impressionist artist, Claude Monet, would love painting in the Sportsman Lake woodlands. One could imagine Monsieur Monet capturing the change of the light on the lake from daybreak to dusk while glorifying the marsh lilies swaying along the banks.
So, there for your reading pleasure is READ ‘EM@TheArboretum, and here’s more FEED ‘EM@TheArboretum.
CELEBRATING IN THE WUNDERGARTEN This culinary storytelling series imagines foods made by Frau Ruehl, gardener heroine of the folktale, “WUNDERGARTEN,” set in 1870s Cullman County, Alabama. Frau Ruehl would have been a contemporary of Monet. They both shared a passion for trees and gardening. Monet’s famous house in Giverny, France (about an hour out from Paris) was originally called “The Cider-Press House” because of the apple orchard. Monet also had several peach trees to paint and pluck. This summer salad salutes the delicious bounty from Monet’s plantings in the French countryside.
MONET’S FRESH PEACH SALAD in the GARDEN
(Source: foodnetwork.com)
INGREDIENTS
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp. honey
- 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1-2 large ripe peaches, pitted and sliced into thin wedges
- 1/2 cup candied pecans
- 4 oz. smoked Gouda, crumbled into small pieces
- 5 oz. baby arugula
DIRECTIONS
- Please, it’s a salad; even I could slice and dice and sprinkle this to summertime perfection.
HAPPY READ ‘EM@TheArboretum Summertime and AUF WIEDERSEHEN Y’ALL!
Find all columns in this series at www.cullmantribune.com/tag/celebrating-in-the-wundergarten.
