My favorite gardening books

After a hot morning in the garden, I spent some time with my favorite gardening books—Mrs. Greenthumbs and Mrs. Greenthumbs Plows Ahead, both written by Cassandra Danz, who sadly died before she could write more. Both are out of print and not apparently available as ebooks, but if you spot either of these titles, grab it.

Mrs. Greenthumbs’ books are engaging fun reads and full of good advice. It was she who inspired me to enclose my front yard in a picket fence and grow a cottage garden, which is one of the best garden decisions I’ve made. Anyway, I thought I’d share her five rules of gardening:

1. Create the garden as a separate place away from the world.
2. Plant perennials and plant them abundantly.
3. Use plants that grow easily in your climate and location.
4. Have something in bloom throughout the gardening season.
5. Don’t plant magenta next to taxicab yellow!

I found myself with magenta next to taxicab yellow last summer, so I took another bit of her advice and cut the taxicab yellow zinnias and plunked them in a vase in the kitchen.