You Grow Girl™

Palm at Allan Gardens Greenhouse

Some new gardening books were purchased at the Giant Book Sale at the Dufferin Mall yesterday. Mind you none of these books were on my list of "Books to Get" but they were so cheap I couldn't resist. I picked up "Gardening with Gusto" for a mere $1.99CDN (ya I thought I was reading the price wrong too), "The Vegetable Gardener's Bible" (hardcover for $12.99 CDN), and "Maria Rodale's Organic Gardening Companion" (I have the actual book that goes with this).

They had what looked to be a really interesting book in the vein of "planted" and "urban Eden" but it was in an unidentifiable Scandinavian language. I almost got it for the great design alone but talked myself out of wasting my money on a book I can't even read.

Maria Rodale's Organic Gardening Companion" is a gardening journal of sorts but reminds me alot of the activity books they gave you in grade school that were meant to inspire you when writing a story. I loved those books so I'm not surprised I was even vaguely interested in this book. Plus I felt I had to get it because I felt uncomfortable having only the main book and not the complete set. I can't see myself taping photos into the book or writing lists because I do alot of that here in this journal. I predict the book will go mostly unused. We'll see.

"Gardening with Gusto" isn't the sort of book I would normally buy. It's all one colour printing with just a few illustrations (ya I need my full colour glossies with varnish and nice paper), but it was only 2 lousy dollars. I'm sure I can get at least two dollars worth of learning and entertainment from it right?

"The Vegetable Gardener's Bible" is an organic guide to veggie gardening and I like to read as many of these sorts of books as I can because some invaluable new grain of knowledge can always be acquired and put towards better tomatoes.

This year Davin wants cucumbers so I'm embarking on new territory and need all the help I can get. Not that I'm planning on doing much of anything. They're his cucumbers. I'm just "overseeing" the project. I'm allergic to plants with fuzzy leaves such as squash, cucumbers and some beans so I'm not planning on going anywhere near the plants. The other day we bought some seeds of a variety called 'Salad Bush' which is supposed to be a good compact, container variety.