Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts

May 3, 2023

5 favorite new garden books




With the addition of my new potager garden that I designed and installed in January, I have a lovely variety of garden books to share with you. 


These are brand-new books that have proved to be great sources of information and inspiration for me in my own garden.

 




There are six new raised beds surrounded by gravel and filled with edible delights! I did reserve one of those beds for cut flowers, some of which, like Calendula and Pansies, are also perfect for decorating a salad with their pretty blooms.

 




Check out my video of the potager garden from last month:





And this NEW VIDEO.


Now here are the books that helped me in a big way while planning and planting my new veg garden…

 




1. The First-Time Gardener: Raised Bed Gardening


Raised bed gardening has never been more popular, but it can also be intimidating, especially for beginner gardeners. 


The First-Time Gardener: Raised Bed Gardening by CaliKim is the perfect guide for newbie growers, offering advice on everything from selecting the best raised bed for the available space and filling it with healthy soil, to planting plans and plant-care tips.


Why is raised bed gardening booming in popularity? 


The benefits are numerous. No matter your yard size, raised beds are the perfect fit. They allow for a controlled growing environment, filled with fertile soil. 


Raised beds help gardeners with less-than-ideal soils, there’s little to no weeding involved, they’re accessible, and they can be as large or as petite as you’d like. 


This book helps with learning how to select the best raised bed for your space, what to fill it with, and tips for staking and trellising plants to save space and improve yields. 


Also included are  DIY plans for building quick and simple beds, info on soil, mulch, watering and fertilizing, tips to maximize production, and much more.

 

 





2. The First-Time Gardener: Container Food Gardening


Container gardens can take up as much or as little room as you’d like. They’re portable, so you can locate them wherever conditions are optimal for plant growth.

 

And you can grow just about any veggie in pots, as long as you have the right container, the right soil blend, and the right care tips.

 

In this book, author Pam Farley of BrownThumbMama.com lines the path to container food gardening success in clear, simple steps.

 

Find a dozen fully illustrated planting plans for themed container food gardens, including a Smoothie Greens Garden, a Spring Stir-Fry Garden, a Spaghetti Sauce Garden, a Salad Greens Garden, and many others in this fun book.


No room? No problem. Lousy soil? Nothing to worry about. Not enough time? Think again. Growing food in containers is fun, easy, and perfect for beginners.

 




3. Sustainable Homestead


If you’re like most homesteaders, the dream is to make the most of your land by working with it, not against it. 


From capturing water and building strong soil to helping your animals live their best lives, The Sustainable Homestead is about making your homestead stronger by achieving synergy between what can seem like different parts.


In this book, new and veteran homesteaders alike can find detailed information to use this year, this month, even this week! 


Angela has spent more than a decade building and strengthening her small acreage homestead and shares the lessons through chapters covering site selection, soil, growing, animals, the role of the homesteader, and much more.

 




4. The Elegant and Edible Garden


Stylish and celebratory, The Elegant and Edible Garden takes food growing to a higher plane, presenting a vision for creating a garden space where food and flowers grow side by side. 


You’ll flatten the learning curve for designing a beautiful, edible garden by sharing common-sense tips and inspiration and ideas from Linda’s own personal experience of starting a garden from scratch, while still allowing your style and personality to shine. 


“This is a book about capturing the romance, the artistry, and the experiential nature of a garden and garden living." 

 




5. Tiny +Wild


Meadows don’t have to be big to make a difference and the perks of creating one, even on a small scale, are many. Tiny but mighty meadows help mitigate climate change, foster biodiversity, sequester carbon, and calm the senses. 


With as little as a few square feet of space, you can create a beautiful, naturalistic planting that supports a diversity of plants, pollinators, and a plethora of other living things, not to mention its visual appeal to human eyes. 


Author and landscape designer Graham Laird Gardner helps you find inspiration in natural spaces so you can successfully site, design, plant, and care for your own small-scale meadow.


Whether you live in the city or in suburbia, perfect places for mini-meadows are everywhere: a small corner of the yard, flanking the front walk, around your mailbox, that little area between the house and driveway, tucked next to the front stoop, in the center of your vegetable garden and so many other places.


The plant lists and charts in Tiny + Wild share the best plants to include in your micro prairie, and Graham offers plenty of practical advice on planting your meadow from seed, transplants, or mature plants, depending on your budget, the site, and your timeline. 


Plus, learn how to care for your wildflower planting, including tips for watering, plant care, and weed management. Discover how small spaces can make a big difference in Tiny & Wild.

 




"The Elegant and Edible Garden" is a vision of the very best things a garden can offer: food, beauty, connection, and a place to breathe.

 




It's a book about designing a garden that is distinctly yours, using edibles as ornamentals, with lots of pictures for inspiration and emulation. If I did it, so can you.

 







ciao! fabiana

 

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Please note that this post may contain affiliate links.


 


 

March 15, 2023

book review: charcuterie for movie fans




I just found the perfect book for my aunt Jackie and uncle Bob who are huge move fans and amazing gourmet cooks. Once Upon a Rind in Hollywood: 50Movie-Themed Cheese Platters and Snack Boards for Film Fanatics.

 

This is a unique cookbook featuring 50 different snack board ideas, from timeless charcuterie to candy platters and cocktail pairings, all themed around iconic movies.





This book outlines everything you need to create cheesy cinematic pairings (and even cheesier puns) like:


 

*May the Fromage Be with You (Star Wars)

*Draw Me Like One of Your French Gruyères (Titanic)

*I’ll Harvarti What She’s Having (When Harry Met Sally)

*Quesoblanca (Casablanca)

*Brie-king Dawn (Twilight)

*Roquefort Horror Picture Show (Rocky Horror Picture Show)

And so many more!





I even picked up a copy for myself because I feel like you never know when you'll have the occasion to celebrate your favorite films. 


I'm going to keep my eye out on TCM for some of the movies featured in this book and then DVR them for a fun-filled film night! 


Creating a delicious movie-themed charcuterie platter and pairing it with that movie is just the party theme I need for 2023!

 


ciao! fabiana

 

For lots of fun extras, follow me on instagram!

 

 

 

You can check out some of my favorites here at “Tablescaping Essentials”*. 

 

 

 

 

Please note that this post may contain affiliate links.

 

 





May 27, 2022

5 favorite new gardening books




Gardening is a self-taught hobby for me. My interest and earliest memories come from my father, who always had a small vegetable garden in the backyard.

 

My most vivid memory of my father’s touch in the garden is when he decided to take the dozens of small lilac seedlings that lined one side of the yard, and plant them straight across the other side of our front yard, creating a living fence between us and our next-door neighbors the LeFleurs.

 

Those lilac shrubs grew quickly over the years and filled my springs and summers with the sweetest scent. I was surrounded by all the purple and green loveliness that embodies lilacs, and I’ll never forget it!





The spirit of my childhood lilacs was reawakened with the discovery of tis most beautiful book, simply called Lilacs.

 

From cover to cover, it’s filled with amazing tips, growing methods and best of all glorious pictures. 





Lilacs by Naomi Slade and Georgianna Lane. 

Other similar lovely books include:

 

Here's a peek at one of the pictures from the Lilac book...




A new portion of my garden that I created in early 2020 has come to be known as the Cottage Garden. It’s where I grow so many of my favorite old-fashioned flowers, mixed in with all kinds of herbs, kale, an apple tree, a lemon tree and even several tomato plants.

 

Have you ever heard of growing tomatoes together with sunflowers? The sunflowers grow tall and strong and become the perfect stake to hold tomatoes up, and best of all they’re the best companion plants.


I've grown all the sunflowers and tomatoes from seeds, so it's been a really fun process to see them grow so quickly.





That’s why you can never stop learning with gardening. There’s always so much to discover!

 

I’ve been delving into to a few other amazing gardening books over the past few months, and I want to share them all with you now:

 

 




Containers in the Garden by Claus Dalby has incredible inspiration. Claus is one of my favorites to follow on Instagram, so I was thrilled when I found out he had come out with a brand-new book!

 

He’s written over 30 gardening books and is considered to be the foremost gardening expert of Denmark. Not only does he create beautiful planted containers, he also has the most amazing gardens and makes gorgeous floral arrangements.

 

I really get inspired by all Claus’ seasonal and holiday displays too. Check him out here on Instagram and on YouTube.   

 

 


ciao! fabiana

 

 

For lots of fun extras, follow me on instagram!

 

 

 

You can check out some of my other favorite books here 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Please note that this post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase via one of these links, I may receive a small commission from your purchase. This commission does not add any cost to you but helps me to continue to share new products and companies with you. Thank you for always being so supportive!   






 

August 7, 2020

it's a Houseplant Party





Houseplants are making a huge comeback this year! With all the time we’re spending at home, a lot of us are putting our efforts into the joys of gardening indoors. 

I know my living room’s plant population had a huge growth spurt in March when all this self-isolation went down. Propagating plants, or growing new plants from existing plants, is pretty fun, and I found a new book to give me even more easy houseplant tips for successfully growing houseplants. 




The book is called “Houseplant Party” and it’s full of great projects and growing tips. This book the perfect guide for a novice or an experienced gardener, and I especially love the first section called “The Best Plants for Your Living Space.” 

This section is a dictionary of sorts with some of the most popular houseplants listed and the best way to grow and care for them. With our growing knowledge of each individual plant comes the fun part... how to successfully make our own plants!

Think of all the money we could save by growing new little plants of our own, especially succulents. You know how expensive they can be! 




This is my favorite part of the book... Houseplant Party goes into full detail on how we can all grow new beautiful succulents simply from leaf cuttings! 




Echeveria, one of my favorite succulents! 




It’s all simply explained in the book. We can literally propagate dozens and dozens of new plants so easily. In fact, a beautiful succulent planted in a pretty pot makes the most wonderful gift for a hostess, new neighbor or just about anyone!  




This book also has so many step-by-step plans for making:  

✔  A knotted plant hanger made from an old t-shirt. 
✔  Macrame projects. 
✔  Instructions for shadow boxes. 
✔  An indoor wooden trellis. 
✔  An aquatic garden with a Japanese moss ball. 
✔  A stress-reducing indoor Zen succulent garden. 
✔  A creative test tube wall planter. 




With my re-found love of houseplants, I can tell you from experience, they create a whole new level of ambiance to any home.  

My sunny living room is now so inviting with the addition of at least 15 new plants ranging from classic houseplants like pothos and spider plants to succulents like jade and aloe. 




Houseplant Party is a brand-new book, and I just love all the easy-to-follow houseplant projects and insight, as well as the crisp bright photos included on every page. You can find a copy here, if you’re interested. With a little helpful advice, it's so easy to decorate our world green!




ciao! fabiana 

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Photo Credit: Heather Saunders Photography 





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