Reading vs gardening

**L* M* <l*@gmail.com>**

Elizabeth Licata's post really resonated with me.

Despite being a member of this list, having written for garden magazines,
and having piles of gardening magazines and books lying around my house, I
don't really read the vast majority of them either at this point.  I'll skim
them when they arrive and set them aside to read later, but I often never
get to them.  I just decided, with some regret, not to renew a subscription
to one garden magazine because I can't remember the last time I actually
read an issue.

Part of this is because I've been reading these kinds of books and mags for
a long time, and there's a lot of repetition.  And so much garden writing is
exclusively celebratory, often lacking an analytical component. I prefer a
more critical approach.  In addition, time is so constrained, and problems
and successes (so few of the latter, it seems) in my garden seem to defy
logic and literature.  Any given day is a zero-sum game, and if I want to
think about gardening, more and more I find that I just want to do it in the
garden, move things around, experiment, etc.

The exceptions, for me, are books/articles on technical issues (I do love,
for example, Garden Insects of North America by Whitney Cranshaw) and topics
that go beyond "hot new plants" or "combinations for containers" type
subjects, (for example, Amy Stewart's book on the cut flower industry).  Not
that there's anything wrong with those subjects; I just would rather
experiment myself than read about someone else doing it.  I do like leaves
so books on planting design occasionally catch my eye (I just read Plant
Driven Design, which I thought was excellent).

I scan some blogs for fodder for a column I edit, but with some exceptions
most of the ones I check out most frequently are more generally oriented
toward environmental issues or design as opposed to gardening per se (I do
like Garden Rant because it covers such a range of topics and regions and I
like the strong opinions, and I'm not just saying that because this is a
response to Elizabeth's post).

I love to look at gardens, but I'm not a horticultural genius and I just
don't have a lot to say about gardens and gardening that hasn't been said
before.  In my own writing as well as my own reading, I like to try to think
in the larger context--gardens as functional parts of landscapes and
ecosystems--probably because my first career was in policy wonkery so I'm
drawn to issues such as regulation and incentives.

Just my two cents.  Thanks, Elizabeth, for your thought-provoking post.

Linda McIntyre
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