Finally it is time to think about sunny days and sitting in the shade or at the beach reading. Reading, of course, about gardening and nature. This year my list includes a lot of oldies but goodies, books I feel need to be reread, in order to once again encounter both the enjoyment and knowledge these volumes brought me.

First on the list is the newly issued paperback version of Douglas W. Tallamy”s, “Bringing Nature Home: How Native plants sustain wildlife in our gardens”. This updated and expanded edition holds so much information that it has to be read in focused but small bites. It is a well-written, science-based work that gives the facts about why biodiversity is essential and how a lack of diversity is harming the environment. It is a delight to read and a most needed resource. And the paperback form fits nicely in a bag.

Each year I focus on a special topic. This year it is bugs. For this reason I pulled off the shelf Sue Hubbell’s ‘ Broadsides from the Other Orders’: A book of bugs. This is an extremely personal, often funny, but very informative study of the different bug orders. If you want to become intimately aquatinted with dragonflies, Katydids, gnats, and ladybugs, etc. then this is a great choice. One of the requirements of a good summer read is that it can be perused in small bites. Each chapter will intrigue you, but can be abandoned at time (nap, cocktail or lets dive in the water time) and then picked up without any lose of content.

Another oldie but seriously good book is ‘ My Weeds: A Gardener’s Botany’ by Sara B. Stein. Her other book ‘Noah’s Garden’ is more famous, but this is the book that made me look at botany with a gardeners eye rather than an academic. ‘ Weeds’ meshes nicely with Tallamy’s book, as Sara uses her own yard and town as examples of how nature has been thwarted by, in Sara’s words, “the modern deranged attitude towards gardens”. It is a serious book, but her anger comes through with sharp, eyebrow raising comments.

Of course, there should be some light reading amongst all these deep studies. What about a mystery that involves a city girl who inherits an old orchard and a few dead bodies? The orchard is located in Western Massachusetts and the author Sheila Connolly brings in a lot of regional color and history. The stories provide a lot of authentic information about the trials and joys of owning an apple orchard. But, some of the best fun is her take on living in a small New England town. So far there are only two stories, ‘One Bad Apple’ and ‘ Rotten to the Core’, but I am hoping for more.

The last selection is on my list because I don’t think I finished it. The early chapters stood out as a riotous tour of the outer edges of the gardening world and so funny I need to go back and make sure I remembered them correctly. ‘Beautiful Madness: One Man’s Journey through other People’s Gardens’ by James Dodson, is the story of how a quiet sports writer thinks about making some changes in his Maine landscape and winds up dangling off a cliff in Africa trying to view the world’s smallest flowering bulb. Mr. Dodson, through serendipity, either encounters or is introduced to some of the leading lights in horticulture. Some of the people you will meet are John Shooter, the king of daylilies, Mirabel Osler, Simon Goodenough, and Walt Fisher, the Botticelli of Bulbs. These are names you might not know now but this book will make them very familiar and delightful acquaintances.

Wishing you a great summer with good books, pleasant weather and beautiful gardens!

For information contact the URI Cooperative Extension Education Center Gardening and Food Safety Hotline at 1-800-448-1011 from Monday to Thursday, between 9 AM & 2 PM or e-mail us at: MGgarden@etal.uri.edu or use our website at www.urimga.org.