How does your garden grow?

You know how there always seem to be far more seeds in a seed packet than you really need for your garden? Most seed producers and sellers will put more than the average gardener will use into an individual packet to account for inevitabilities like dud seeds or crop failures, but for most of us with a small plot of land or, like me, window boxes and a few large pots, these seeds will pass their expiration date long before they ever get the chance to thrive in the dirt. Or maybe the irises, hostas or other easily dividable plants have reproduced and started to make your backyard look more like the jungle in Tarzan and less like The Secret Garden? We at the South Branch are offering a solution!

On Thursday, June 4th from 6-8PM, come by the South Branch for a Seed Exchange!  This is a great opportunity to connect with other gardeners and not only exchange seeds, bulbs or cuttings that you have in excess, but to share gardening tips as well. It’s also a fantastic opportunity to try something new with very low risk. Not sure if you have enough shade for hostas? Curious to see if green beans will thrive in a box or pot? Stop by and see what other gardeners have to offer. You never know, what you bring might be just the varietal someone else was looking to try! (And if you end up with too much produce toward the end of the season we have a solution for that, too!)

As if that wasn’t inspiration enough, here are just a handful of the great gardening books we have on-hand at the South Branch to help you out!

Plantiful by Kristin Green

With a name like Green, this author might perhaps have been destined to write a garden book. If you’re looking for a more low-maintenance, perennial approach to gardening, this book is a terrific resource. The pictures are stunning and it offers an entire section on overwintering so that (barring another record-breaking New England winter) your plants will be waiting to burst forward come spring. A healthy references and resources section will tell you where to go next.

Small Space Vegetable Gardens by Andrea Bellamy

This book is filled with eye-catching graphics, detailed photos and great explanations that will take you from zero to veggies in no time (and, as advertised, practically no space, too!). Bellamy takes the novice through different types of spaces that can accommodate plants (complete with pros and cons for each), to constructing containers, to plant recommendations, to keeping plants healthy throughout the year. This book is full of great tips and tricks for creating green spaces that even experienced gardeners will appreciate. I can easily see this as a resource gardeners will come back to year after year.

Container Gardening for All Seasons by Barbara Wise

Small spaces are no problem with this primer on container gardening. Your porch, deck or even your house can look great all-year long with these seasonal suggestions.

The Kitchen Garden by Alan Buckingham

DK Publishing is known for great visuals and easy instructions and this book is no exception. This book is a great resource. Organized by crop and growing season, this book can get anyone started on the right foot to grow delicious food items that will end up in your kitchen.

Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch

This revised classic has a 100% organic philosophy that will allow gardeners to keep pesticides and chemicals out of their gardens (and, as a result, their food and flowers). This “Gardener’s Bible” will take you through nearly 400 plants with tips and suggestions on how to grow them. It will also offer the gardener essential knowledge on planning, planting and keeping the garden up as the season goes on. There’s a lot in here, but newcomers shouldn’t be intimidated as it’s easy to pick and choose what they’d like to learn.

Welcome to Saturdays @ the South! Every Saturday, we’ll be posting about books and programs that are popular at the Library’s South Branch (78 Lynn St.) and other literature, movie and library-related musings that strike our fancy. I hope you’ll join us each week and discover something new!

To start things off, I thought it would be appropriate to recognize Memorial Day. It’s a little early this year for those who use it as a benchmark for gardening, but regardless of the date it lands on, it never hurts to recognize those who have sacrificed a great deal to help defend others. There are some amazing new books out there that recognize war efforts and sacrifices, both traditional and unusual. Here are 5 nonfiction picks on the new shelf at the South Branch right now:
Roosevelt and Stalin  by Susan Butler: Butler takes a look at the unusual partnership and uneasy friendship that arose in WWII when these two leaders worked together against a common enemy and shaped their visions for a postwar future that were surprisingly similar.

Patton at the Battle of the Bulge: How the General’s Tanks Turned the Tide at Bastogne by Leo Barron: Barron engages readers retelling the crucial battle that could have just as easily turned the tide for the Nazis as it did for the US Army. Had Patton not reached Bastogne in time, the US 101st Airborne could have been defeated. This book details Patton’s charge into Belgium and the forces that worked together to make this battle a turning point for the Allies.

A Cool and Lonely Courage: The Untold Story of Sister Spies inOccupied France by Susan Ottaway: Originally published in Britain, this bok peels back the layers of how two sisters, Jackqueline and Eileen Nearne worked undercover as agents for the Special Operations Executive during WWII and sent crucial intelligence to the Allies during their time in Nazi-occupied France. While one escaped capture, the other was arrested, tortured and sent to a concentration camp. Ottaway tells the sisters’ long-overdue story of courage and patriotism during wartime.

Liar Temptress Soldier Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott: Few war stories are more engaging that those told about spies, but when the spies are women during a time when women were routinely underestimated, a story becomes that much more engaging. Abbott describes four women, each of whom has her own story of espionage from dressing as a man and fighting in battle to infiltrating the White House, their tales are bound to engage even those who aren’t Civil War buffs

Double Agent: The First Hero of World War II and how the FBI Outwitted and Destroyed a Nazi Spy Ring by Peter Duffy: Duffy tells, for the first time, the story of a German-American who infiltrated New York’s Nazi underground just before WWII began. Called “the most successful counterespionage operation in US history” this is the story of the man who spearheaded that mission and was the first double-agent in FBI history.

Bonus fiction pick!

Delicious by Ruth Reichl (printed book is available here and ebook here): On its surface, this book is about food. A young ingénue leaves college to join the crew of the renowned food magazine “Delicious!” She talks about how luck she feels to be in a place that takes food so seriously, only to find herself somewhat adrift when the magazine unexpectedly shutters. This is only the backdrop, however, and the story that unfolds has a great deal to do with WWII history and the sacrifices those on the home front made to support their troops overseas. Yes, the story has the expected dashes of romance, a tragic heroine back story and uses the ugly duckling trope a bit heavy-handedly, but the unexpected and delightful forays into the creative ways those who weren’t fighting adapted to their new lives and the touching notes about how they dealt with the inevitable loss that comes with war makes this a story well worth reading.