GROW ALL YOU CAN EAT IN 3 SQUARE FEET by CHAUNEY DUNFORD

 GROW ALL YOU CAN EAT IN 3 SQUARE FEET by CHAUNEY DUNFORD (Pages 256)

Want to grow your own vegetables and food, but don't have enough space for a garden? Don't let lack of space get in the way of growing healthy, organic foods at home. Apartment dwellers, schoolteachers, and anyone else who wants to grow a lot of food in a little space will find a great small garden resource in Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet.

Small-space gardeners, find your start in Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet, packed with information on window boxes, potted plants, patio gardening, raised beds, small square-foot gardening, container gardening, and everything else related to growing your own small garden. Whether you want to grow a full garden, grow tomatoes, grow an herb garden, or just pick up great tips for small gardens, Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet is the resource you need.

I enjoyed looking through this book and did find some good ideas for container gardening this year!

BEATRIX POTTER'S GARDENING LIFE: THE PLANTS AND PLACES THAT INSPIRED THE CLASSIC CHILDREN'S TALES by MARTA MCDOWELL

 BEATRIX POTTER'S GARDENING LIFE: THE PLANTS AND PLACES THAT INSPIRED THE CLASSIC CHILDREN'S TALES by MARTA MCDOWELL  (340 PAGES)

There aren’t many books more beloved than The Tale of Peter Rabbit and even fewer authors as iconic as Beatrix Potter. Her characters—Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle Duck, and all the rest—exist in a charmed world filled with flowers and gardens. In Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life , bestselling author Marta McDowell explores the origins of Beatrix Potter’s love of gardening and plants and shows how this passion came to be reflected in her work.

The book begins with a gardener’s biography, highlighting the key moments and places throughout her life that helped define her. Next, follow Beatrix Potter through a year in her garden, with a season-by-season overview of what is blooming that truly brings her gardens alive. The book culminates in a traveler’s guide, with information on how and where to visit Potter’s gardens today.

Beautifully Illustrated! I enjoyed reading about the countryside where Beatrix Potter grew up, and all the struggles she encountered and overcame in her life. 

LIFE IN THE GARDEN by PENELOPE LIVELY

 LIFE IN THE GARDEN by PENELOPE LIVELY (Pages 199)

The two central activities in my life - alongside writing - have been reading and gardening.

Penelope Lively has always been a keen gardener. This book is partly a memoir of her own life in gardens: the large garden at home in Cairo where she spent most of her childhood, her grandmother's garden in a sloping Somerset field, then two successive Oxfordshire gardens of her own, and the smaller urban garden in the North London home she lives in today.
It is also a wise, engaging and far-ranging exploration of gardens in literature, from Paradise Lost to Alice in Wonderland, and of writers and their gardens, from Virginia Woolf to Philip Larkin.

I also enjoy gardening and reading, and felt a kinship with the author. It was lovely reading about her gardens in places that I will never be able to visit, which is why I especially take pleasure in reading her story.

THE GARDENER'S PLOT by DEBORAH J BENOIT

 THE GARDENER'S PLOT by DEBORAH J BENOIT  (321 Pages)

A woman helps set up a community garden in the Berkshires, only to find a body in one of the plot's on opening day.

After life threw Maggie Walker a few curveballs, she’s happy to be back in the small, Berkshires town where she spent so much time as a child. Marlowe holds many memories for her, and now it also offers a fresh start. Maggie has always loved gardening, so it’s only natural to sign on to help Violet Bloom set up a community garden.

When opening day arrives, Violet is nowhere to be found, and the gardeners are restless. Things go from bad to worse when Maggie finds a boot buried in one of the plots… and there’s a body attached to it. Suddenly, the police are looking for a killer and they keep asking questions about Violet. Maggie doesn’t believe her friend could do this, and she’s going to dig up the dirt needed to prove it.

I enjoyed this book, especially since I did not figure out who did it early on in the book, so that was a pleasant surprise!