Susannah Seton - Every Garden Is a Story: Stories, Crafts, and Comforts

First published in 2007 by Conari Press,

an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

500 Third Street, Suite 230

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.redwheelweiser.com

Much of the material in this collection was previously published in Simple Pleasures of the Garden by Susannah Seton, Berkeley, CA: Conari Press, 1998. ISBN: 1-57324-104-0 (hardcover); ISBN: 1-57324-501-1 (paperback).

Copyright 2007 by Conari Press. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN-10: 1-57324-318-3

ISBN-13: 978-1-57324-318-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Seton, Susannah, 1952

Every garden is a story : stories, crafts, and comforts/Susannah Seton.

p. cm.

ISBN 1-57324-318-3 (alk. paper)

1. GardeningAnecdotes. 2. GardensAnecdotes. 3. Nature craft. 4. Recipes. I. Title.

SB455.S429 2007

635--dc22

2007011601

Cover and text design by Donna Linden

Typeset in Futura and Perpetua

Cover photograph Alison Miksch/Brand X Pictures, Interior photographs: Pages 7, 12, 15, 20, 25, 27, 37, 41, 50, 65, 67, 79, 85, 99, 110, 115, 121, 123, 125, and 126 Alison Miksch/Brand X Pictures; pages 2, 6, 19, 30, 117, and 128 Corbis; page 8 Tomo Jesenicnik/iStockphoto; page 22 Ewa Kubicka/iStockphoto; page 35 Jean Schweltzer/iStockphoto; page 39 Sherry Holub/iStockphoto; page 42 Robyn Mackenzie/iStockphoto; page 45 smiley joanne/iStockphoto; pages 47, 53, 57, 75, 92, and 100 iStockphoto; page 49 Christine Glade/iStockphoto; page 55 Don Enright/iStockphoto; page 60 Vladimir Ivanov/iStockphoto; page 63 Stuart Berman/iStockphoto; page 69 Oleg Kazlov/iStockphoto; page 70 Massimiliano Pieraccini/iStockphoto; page 73 Karin Lau/iStockphoto; page 77 Tom Ediger/iStockphoto; page 80 Joseph Justice/iStockphoto; page 83 Annett Vauteck/iStockphoto; page 89 Stephanie Daoust/iStockphoto; page 90 Frank Richard Kebschull/ iStockphoto; page 95 Pamela Moore/iStockphoto; page 105 Roger McLean/iStockphoto; page 109 Andrew Howe/iStockphoto; page 113 Jon Tyler/iStockphoto; page 118 Peggy Easterly/iStockphoto.

Printed in China

MD

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A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.

Chinese Proverb

When I was a child, I had the good fortune of growing up next door to my grandmother, an avid gardener who always had something wonderful in bloom. Each year in late May, the star of the garden was Nana's climbing rosesdazzling cherry-red blooms so abundant that they covered the side of her house and had to be tied to the trellis to save them from their own joyful profusion. As soon as there were enough, Nana would come fetch me, scissors in hand, to cut the first bouquet. That one was for me to take to my teacher. Dozens more followed for neighbors up and down the street, for the church, for friends at the nursing home, for my mother's kitchen table, for the counter at the corner grocery store. Often I was the delivery girl, so I got to see firsthand what these gifts from the garden meant to those who received them from surprise to delight to tears. From Nana's yearly ritual of the roses, I learned early on a truth about gardeners: they are generous souls.

No wonder I fell immediately in love with Every Garden Is a Story! In these pages, Susannah Seton offers her readers a bouquet as generous and abundant as any I delivered for Nana. And like my grandmother's roses, this bouquet of stories, garden tips, recipes, quotes, and clever how-to ideas surprises, intrigues, delights, and touches the heart.

The stories that Susannah has so carefully chosen take us into gardens from the northeast coast of England, with its harsh climate and stony soil, to the blistering sun and brassy blue skies of California. But, as you'll discover, where the garden grows or what is grown in it matter little. It is the passion for gardening and the openness to receiving Earth's lessons that create a common language among gardeners, no matter where they turn the soil. I found kindred spirits on every page of the book.

Who could not be inspired by the man with a tiny yard and enormous optimism who, against all odds, made his dream of creating a seven-headed sweet pea come true? Who among us doesn't have a dream? As for weeding, I understand perfectly how satisfying the weeding vacation was to the woman who, like so many of us in the modern workplace, is immersed in the intangible world of ideas. She transformed weeding from drudgery into meditation and took pleasure in a kind of work that marks tangible progress.

Some of the most touching stories remind us that you don't have to have a big yard or a lot of money to have a garden. A sweet potato propped with toothpicks in a Mason jar soon filled the kitchen window of a tiny three-room apartment with a curtain of graceful vines, transforming a shabby little room into a place of wonder. The magic of that sweet potato also awakened in a small child a lifelong love of gardening.

Mixed in with the stories is a multitude of practical tips and fun how-tos. How to attract butterflies to your garden and how to repel pests without poisoning your soil with chemicals. Where to purchase an army of ladybugs to combat aphids on your roses. How to cut a bouquet to make it last the longest. How to dry hydrangeas properly, decorate serving platters with rosemary rings, grow produce if you live in an apartment, beautify your old straw hat with a ribbon of flowers, and grow your own loofah sponges (did you know they are actually gourds?).

One of my favorites is creating a memory garden to honor friends and family. Give a rhododendron as a sympathy gift. Plant one in your own garden to remind you of a friend or relative that has passed away or moved away. Plant a birth tree for a child, then involve that child in helping to take care of the tree and track its growth by tying a bit of yarn to the out most tip of a brancheach fall and seeing where the yarn ends up after the next summer. Swap seeds and bulbs to create a friendship garden that reminds you of your connections as you work or walk in it.

And when you come in from the garden, exhausted and covered with dirt, this lovely collection offers recipes to soothe your aches and reward you for your hard work. You can start by relaxing in the tub with bath oil made from lavender grown in your garden, then pamper your skin with the peaches and cream skin moisturizer, then treat yourself to a cup of tea, a delicious blend you can make with basil, mint, and rose hips from the garden.