In a Green Shade

Writings from Homeground
by Allen Lacy

I feel a bit discouraged that this seems to be the week of books I don't care for. And that a lot of them are from the reading list I made for my own reading challenge, so I'm having to rework the entire list as I go! Here's another one- a collection of writings by a gardener. Just my thing. It's a nice enough book. It has a lot of information about different plants (mostly flowers) arranged by the seasons they show their colors in. Also a small section on thoughts about gardening work, and another about the author's pet peeves! But it wasn't nearly as engaging as Thalassa Cruso, and lacked the advice on horticulture that I appreciate. Lacy shares lots of info about the history of plants- their countries of origin, the persons who discovered them and made them popular. He quibbles a lot about plant names, too. But the discussion of nomenclature in Weeds in My Garden was far more interesting. I really only read a solid fifty pages, then started thumbing through to try the parts about my favorite flowers (nasturtiums) or plants I'm more familiar with (hostas and marigolds). Even the part about calling the stuff underfoot dirt or soil only vaguely annoyed me. Sorry, I had to put another one aside!

Abandoned             290 pages, 2000