Oh, we are getting so ready for spring. We’ve got our seedlings ready to go outside as soon as we’re sure the Midwestern weather won’t fickle out and produce MORE winter weather. (Note our winter background on the improved site. Springs pics will appear when it really STAYS spring.)
We’re excited to bring back our favorite feature - INTERVIEWS - and we have a great Q&A with gardening guru Sharon Lovejoy. I was thrilled to have Sharon take time from her current grand-parenting book she’s working on (release date of spring 2010). Sharon reports that it’s a journal or scrapbook format filled with illustrations and color photographs from her home as she highlights gardening, art, cooking and nature. Make sure to check out Sharon’s Web site, too.
ALSO, WE’VE GOT A GREAT GIVEAWAY! You know how I love comments. IF you leave a comment at the end of this post (by April 16) I’ll enter you in our GIVEAWAY for a copy of Sharon’s splendid book “Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots, Gardening Together with Children.”Â
After reading Sharon’s books (a few are pictured above) I’m keeping my eyes open for those every-day items that could be used in a new way in the garden. (I kept a plastic cupcake container because it could make a good seedling starter area and I’m keeping plastic milk cartons to protect my seedlings once they’re transplanted outside.) And Sharon’s graceful artwork even inspired me to try my hand at decorations for this post. (See illustrations below.)
I got the idea for a Sunflower House from Sharon’s books, but after I planted more than 30 sunflower seeds, I realized that I’d selected the DWARF Sunflower variety, making the house doable for garden fairies but a bit confining for my girls. Plus only FOUR of those seeds came up last year, so we’ll have to again attempt the Sunflower House this growing season.
Needless to say, a Q&A with Sharon couldn’t come at a better time…
1. How do you entice young children to help out in the garden?
SHARON: I’m so glad that you said entice! It shows that you are in tune with children. I just act excited about what is going on outdoors, from the bumblebees doing buzz-pollination rumbas, to the hummers, creeping vines with tendrils, you name it. Nothing is too small or insignificant for a child to notice and watch. Everything going on outdoors, even an infestation of aphids and the resultant ants, is fascinating to a growing young mind.
2. My daughters don’t like to get their hands dirty. Do you have some tricks for changing my princesses into garden kids?
SHARON: Go ahead and buy them some cute little garden gloves. One of my grandchildren is the same way. Keep wipes out in the garden for quick clean-ups.
3. “Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots” has great theme gardens for children. Is it good to have children help pick out what the family plants? Or are there some no-fail plants you suggest for a child’s first garden?
SHARON: My top 20 plants at the beginning of “Roots Shoots ” is pretty foolproof. I do feel that we MUST let our children choose plants for their garden. Take them to a local nursery and peruse the selections. Study “Roots, Shoots” and talk to them about their favorite theme garden and what they want to grow.
4. Are some seed companies better than others? What should we look for when trying to decide what to plant?
SHARON: I try to purchase seed that is untreated. Look for seeds that are proven successes in your area and don’t try to force a sun loving plant to exist in a shady forested area. Suit the plants to the site and water needs. I love The Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa. Wow, they are a living museum of plants that are stimulating, historic, wonderful! I also like Seeds of Change, Renee’s Seeds, Nichols Seeds (their catalog is a learning experience for children), and so many more. Please look at my Web site list too.
5. We plant on the south side of our house and I make sure the exterminators don’t spray there. But should I be concerned about any residue that could harm our garden?
SHARON: EXTERMINATORS??? Where do you live? I am fearful of the chemicals they wield and what remains and builds up in the soil. Ever use boric acid? What critters do you have? I don’t allow any pesticides, herbicides, fungicides etc. in our garden. Children touch everything and often their little hands go into their mouths right away.Â
6. Ugh! I think I’m going to have to rethink my battle against nature’s pests here in Missouri. Okay, on to prettier thoughts. You have great illustrations in your books. When do you have time to both garden and illustrate your books?
SHARON: I garden early in the morning in my night gown. Who has time to clean up, wash hair, and dress, then go outside, get dirty and start all over? So I skip the in-between steps and proceed from bed to kitchen table (or porch in Maine), then out and into the garden where I can work joyfully for an hour or two before cleaning up and quickly running through housework and making bouquets. Usually, unless my editor is on the phone, I spend mornings tending house and garden, afternoons doing illustrations and writing.
7. My goal is to someday be able to use that phrase: “I’m making bouquets.” But I am proud to say I’m seeping my Chamomile tea right now to give my indoor seedlings — a tip from your “Trowel & Error” book. Do you have a database to keep all your great gardening tips or do you just go back through your many gardening journals?
SHARON: I do keep a database and when all else fails I go to The Bio-Integral Resource Center for help. I did lots and lots of research for the cures etc., in “T&E.” Sometimes I would read a scientific paper and then turn to the bibliography and go back through scientific papers to back up the claims I read. “T&E” was about 400 pages long when I first submitted it. Lots of science, but my editor said something like, “People want little bites of information, not an entire meal.” So I Â aerated it and gave bites to my readers.
8. Speaking of bites of info, I think it would be fun for my oldest to keep a journal of our garden. What’s the best way to get started and how often and what should she be recording?
SHARON: There are no “should be recording” rules for journal keeping. Buy her a great notebook, some colored pencils, a micron pen or two, and perhaps a book on journal-keeping (check your library). Allow her half an hour of her own private free-journal time. She can write down the plants she loves, take a photo of it, do a drawing, note the date it bloomed, etc. No fact is too small, everything is important. A good thing to do would be for YOU to keep a journal, too, and maybe in a parallel way; Go outside when she does, but go into your own area and don’t look over her shoulder. I love journals. Think of the history it passes to future generations.
9. What are some of your favorite plant varieties?
SHARON: I’m wild for native plants, herbs, especially lemon verbena and Dittany-of-Crete, fruit trees (especially citrus), old fashioned perennials, sunflowers, and heirloom edible plants. We are crazy about berries and have blueberries and over a hundred strawberry plants, which grace breakfast, lunch, and dinner from May through October. Every year I embark on a new journey of learning about different plants.
10. I remember the strawberries we’d pick when I was growing up. Ahhh, it was pure heaven to eat right off the plants. So, what do you plan to try this season?
SHARON: I’ve already seeded out lots of annuals and perennials, scabiosa, cosmos, nastutium, dianthus, the list is endless. I recently planted a tepee hide-out for my grandchildren and bordered it with a mix of sunflowers (Autumn Beauty, Evening Sun and more), zinnias for the butterflies, ‘Painted Lady’ runner beans for the hummers and a privacy screen. This is my passion! I don’t buy clothes, I buy plants and seeds.
I’m starting to see how this can be addictive, Sharon. Thank you for your time, and good luck on your book. Feel free to stop by and see how our garden grows this season!
And I encourage all of you to stop by Sharon’s site for more insight and inspiration.
