Off-Beat Gift Books for Gardeners
With the holidays approaching, I thought I would to a round-up of a few of the more interesting gardening-related books that have come out this year for anyone looking for gift ideas. It’s a short list and doesn’t contain any practical books on gardening – (there are plenty of other sources you can turn to for that) but these gardening gift books would definitely make for a unique present for the gardener on your list.
This is just a short list of some of the more interesting and fun plant and garden-related reads that came out in 2011:
Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation by Andrea Wulf (published March, 2011) is a fascinating look at the founding fathers (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison and Benjamin Franklin) from the unique and intimate perspective of their lives as gardeners, plantsmen, and farmers.
Fifty Plants that Changes the Course of History by Bill Laws (published September, 2011). This book details how plants have influenced human behavior and in turn affected the course of history. By chronicling the commercial activity surrounding the discovery and marketing of the foods and beverages we consume and the plants we transform, the author describes how those activities have impacted wars, politics, habits, social behavior and addictions.
Weeds: In Defense of Nature’s Most Unloved Plants by Richard Mabey (published June, 2011). “A profound and sympathetic meditation on weeds in relation to human beings” (Sunday Times), Weeds shows how useful these unloved plants can be, from serving as the first crops and medicines, to bur-dock inspiring the invention of Velcro, to cow parsley becoming the latest fashionable wedding adornment. Mabey argues that we have caused plants to become weeds through our reckless treatment of the earth, and he delivers a provocative defense of the plants we love to hate.”
Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon’s Army & Other Diabolical Insects by Amy Stewart (May, 2011). This is a sequel to Wicked Plants which came out in 2009. Although it may seem to be a bit of a stretch, since gardeners are always dealing with insects, this counts as “garden-related” in my book (no pun intended) and in fact, Stewart provides some tips for gardeners like putting out rolled up newspaper or cardboard tubes at night to trap earwigs and dumping them into soapy water in the morning – ugh. The book is as creepy and as interesting as it sounds.