Seedfolks / Paul Fleischman / 69 pages / Color in the title / Required Reading / Tasty cover

In Cleveland of 1997, a young girl takes inspiration from her late father, who was a farmer, and plants some lima beans in a dirty vacant.  At first, it starts off as her own private garden, but as soon as more and more people find out about it, the vacant transforms into the neighborhood's community garden, where people from diverse races and cultures come together to work, celebrate, and even look after one another.

It was a nostalgic read, as this was a book I had to read in my 6th grade English class, almost ten years ago.

Mulch / Ann Ripley/ 279 pages/ SCCCLD May Challenge

Mulch is the first novel in Ann Ripley's Gardening Series.  Louise Eldridge is determined to create a beautiful garden at her Washington D C home.  All she needs to complete the task are some leaves to fill in a low area.  She collects leaves bagged and  left out by people for recycle pick up.  Little does she know those bags may hold more than leaves.  This was an enjoyable mystery that did a good job of introducing the neighborhood characters.  For more information and read-a-likes see the SCCCLD website

The Butterfly Gardener's Guide - Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guides / Design Your Own Butterfly Garden - Susan Sales Harkins / 111 pgs & 45 pgs

*Yes I will blog anything for points, and I did read these books cover to cover so here they are*

The Butterfly Gardener's Guide, gives a nice overview of Butterfly Gardening, but does not get into much specifics.  Each chapter was a short essay written by a different author covering topics such as Gardening with Children, Butterfly Biology, Herbs for Butterflies, and so on.  Then there are brief 2 page essays on Gardening in different regions: the Northeast, Pacific Coast, Florida, Midwest, Southeast, and Southwest.  Good place for some quick tips and you really only have to read the chapters that interest you because the overall effect of the book is a bit disjointed.


Design Your Own Butterfly Garden by Susan Sales Harkins and William H. Harkins is written for the school-age crowd and is brief, colorful, and to the point.  What I like about it is that is give exact directions on how to plan, prepare, plant and maintain the garden.  There are also nice charts that show what flowers to look for and how butterflies use them.   

Garden Spells / Sarah Addison Allen 290 p.

The Waverley’s of Bascom, N. C possess special talents. Claire uses hers in her catering business by creating foods that “affect the eater in special ways”. Some try to escape as her mother did; abandoning Claire and her sister when they were young. Claire has remained close at home, unwilling to open up to people; while her sister Sydney follows in her mother’s footsteps in taking off for New York and living with a string of abusive boyfriends. When the two sisters reconcile, each helps the other. Sydney discovers her power lies in hair dressing; Bay, her daughter, in knowing where things belong. Their elder cousin has the ability to anticipate what items someone will need, whose value is later revealed. And the apple tree on the Waverley’s property plays a part…too much more may be a scene spoiler. Lovely, magical, enchanting all describe this work as well as romantic.