Growing older with your garden: practical wisdom from a lifetime of gardening

205 Pages·2010·7.334 MB·English

by  Proctor, Kimberly Day;Eddison, Sydney

Gardening for a Lifetime

Gardening
for a
Lifetime
How to Garden Wiser
As You Grow Older
By Sydney Eddison
Illustrations by
Kimberly Day Proctor
Timber Press
Portland (cid:2) London
Copyright © 2010 by Sydney Eddison. All rights reserved.
Published in 2010 by Timber Press, Inc.
Th e Haseltine Building
133 S.W. Second Avenue, Suite 450
Portland, Oregon 97204-3527
www.timberpress.com
2 Th e Quadrant
135 Salusbury Road
London NW6 6RJ
www.timberpress.co.uk
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Eddison, Sydney, 1932–
Gardening for a lifetime : how to garden wiser as you grow older /
by Sydney Eddison.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-60469-065-1
1. Gardening for older people. 2. Low maintenance gardening. I. Title.
SB457.4.A34E33 2010
635—dc22
2009046594
A catalog record for this book is also available from the British Library.
In memory of my husband,
John Martin Ryalls Eddison
(cid:2)
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Contents
Acknowledgments 9
Preface 13
1 A Look Backward: Tracing the Garden’s History 17
2 Changes: Rethinking the Perennial Borders 27
3 A Step Toward Simplicity: Substituting Shrubs
for Perennials 39
4 Minimum Care: Appreciating the Shady Border 47
5 Woodland Gardens: Living in Harmony with the Forest 57
6 Sanity Saver: Learning to Make Lists 69
7 Juggler’s Dilemma: Searching for Help 79
8 Lessons from the Garden: Accepting Imperfection 91
9 From Lawn to Meadow: Learning from Experience 103
10 Pick Your Battles: Managing Mature Plants 115
11 What Next? Deciding Whether to Stay Put or
Move On 127
12 New Gardens: Keeping Th em Small and Simple 139
13 Borrowed Landscapes: Using the Garden Setting 153
14 Container Gardening: Arranging Potted Plants with
a Purpose 163
15 Miniature Landscapes: Exploring New Ways to Garden 175
16 A Summing Up: Making the Most of What You
Have Left 189
Index 197

Acknowledgments
Writers are advised to write about what they know. I’ve
taken that advice to heart and written, yet again, about my own
garden. As the garden is central to my life and happiness and to
the book, its ongoing maintenance is critical. But without Erica
Carroll, it might not have been possible. I have been physically
unable to garden for the last fi ve months.
Nevertheless, this remarkable young woman, who comes for
only six hours a week, has managed the entire garden all season,
with less-than-regular help from a college student. She found her
own pace, set priorities, and never let one area take up time at
the expense of another. For what she has done, I admire and
cherish her and am deeply in her debt.
Almost as vital to the garden and the book has been the help
of Terence Farrell and his young family. In the grip of the gar-
dening passion, Terence is busy making his own garden, which
will one day be admired and visited by many. But he has also
volunteered in mine for the last two seasons, more than once
bringing a friend from work, Georgia Shafer-Suriani. Terence
has also been pressed into service for his computer skills, and his
long-suff ering wife, Rosa, and seven-year-old twins have put up
with it all. My gratitude to the Farrells is boundless.
A Master Gardener with his own gardening business, Larry
Birch volunteered to deliver three yards of topsoil and twelve
yards of mulch, and to shovel it off his truck. He also trans-
ported topsoil to the woodland garden, where he weeded and
planted primroses. What kindness!
To help me deadhead the daylilies this season, friends have
9