Garden book review: Yard Art and Handmade Places

Today I am joining a garden book review meme hosted by Holly at Roses and Other Gardening Joys. I wrote a review for the first month of the meme, and have not participated since. There's really no excuse for this, as I love books, all sorts. This meme is made for me!

Several years ago, I received a gift book entitled Yard Art and Handmade Places, Extraordinary Expressions of Home, by Jill Nokes with Pat Jasper. Nokes is a family friend. Well, I don't actually know her, but other family members do. She is a landscape designer in Austin, and my brother-in-law, who is a landscape architect, worked with her for a while.

Each chapter features a different yard and gardener, from all over the great state of Texas. These gardeners use a wide variety of materials to make a personal statement in their yards. 

According to the book jacket:

"Yard Art and Handmade Places celebrates the fact that, despite the proliferation of look-alike suburbs, places still exist where people with ordinary means and skills are shaping space with their own hands to create a personal expression that can be enjoyed by all."

The gardeners use materials ranging from rocks to collections, statuary to junk. Some of the gardeners used plant choices to create an oasis. Other gardens celebrate a gardener's Mexican heritage or reflect the owner's religious beliefs. It's no slip of the pen when Nokes calls these gardeners "artists.'

One of my favorite chapters is about a gardener in San Antonio (pictured on the book's cover), Jesus Zertuche, who built a waterfall in his front yard from white limestone with black mortar, and decorated it with rocks collected over a lifetime working on a ranch in south Texas. He posed the animal-shaped rocks around the pond and waterfall. He also populated the urban property with trees and plants, to soften the hard edges of the limestone and provide shade on hot south Texas days.

Another chapter features Cleveland Turner's yard in the Third Ward of Houston. He has filled his yard to the brim with brightly colored found treasures and colorful flowers. From the book:  "Like many folk artists, Cleveland receives a lot of attention simply because his home and garden seem so wonderfully outrageous and free from convention."

I loved exploring these creative gardens; I often wish my garden was more whimsical, but it just may not be in my nature. 

The stories Nokes tells about the gardeners are fascinating, but I did wish for larger pictures, since I will most likely never see these gardens in person.

This book is pure fun. If you enjoy quirky yard art interwoven with beautiful and interesting plants, you might want to track down this book. To see more garden book reviews, click on this link.

Favorite spot in the garden:

Spring seems to be peeking out in my garden. I’m ready, how about you? The snowdrops (Leucojum aestivum) or snowflakes have begun blooming. I'd never noticed the tiny green spots at the base of each petal - very cool! Some of my snowdrops came from around an old house on property where my sister lived for awhile. My mother-in-law recently gave me more, from her grandmother's garden. Both of these were in southeast Texas, but they seem to be doing alright here in central Texas, too!

Garden Book Review: Perennial Garden Color

Roses and Other Gardening Joys is sponsoring a Garden Book Reviews meme every month on the 20th. This month is the first. I had planned to read a book I received as a birthday present (four months ago!), but that didn’t happen. Instead, children, today we’ll talk about a go-to book on my shelf:  Perennial Garden Color: Perennials, Cottage Gardens, Old Roses, and Companion Plants by William C. Welch.

Dr. Welch is a garden guru from Texas A&M University. My parents-in-law are friends of his, so I regularly receive autographed copies at gift-giving occasions.  This one’s autograph is dated 1997, and I have been referring to it ever since.

Though I cannot grow one, I have a great fondness for cottage gardens. The book begins with a brief overview of the history of cottage gardens, followed by a section outlining the different types of gardens that utilize old and new perennials in a cottage garden style. Next is a section devoted to garden design principals, utilizing – yes, perennials. The fourth chapter offers advice on buying or propagating, planting and growing perennials.

These sections are packed with great garden photos (my favorite part of any garden book). Dr. Welch’s narrative is interesting; he doesn’t get bogged down in plant jargon.

Most of my time with this book is spent in the dictionary portion:  nearly 200 pages listing perennials appropriate for the Texas and gulf South garden. Each entry includes a photo, basic growth information, and a narrative with helpful hints on obtaining and growing each.

So let’s see, I’m planning to add a firebush (Hamelia patens) to my garden this spring. In perusing its entry, I learn that it is drought tolerant, blooms all summer, and is hardy to Zone 9. Its tubular red flowers attract hummingbirds, and it thrives in most any well-drained soil. Its leaves turn bright red in the fall. It freezes to the ground, and returns each year as a 4- to 5-foot mound. In Mexico, where it is native, people make a fermented drink from its berries. It can be propagated by seed or cuttings.  And I’m summarizing – there’s more!

In short, this is a very useful book for those of us gardening in Texas and gulf South. 

Favorite spot in the garden:

My favorite spot is actually in pots on the porch. In fact, these two pots (on either side of the front door) account for 90 percent of my blooms right now. So cheerful!