My pal Ginny Stibolt accomplished what to me is the Herculean feat of writing Sustinable Gardening for Florida and getting it past all the academics who had to review and approve it it for accuracy. (Writing a book just seems to me like doing a term paper that never ends.)
But back to Ginny. She sent me the first cover design and I posted it on GardenRant, asking for feedback and getting a ton of it. And not in a good way. But a new design was better and it’s in print and damn, the first review – in the Daytona Beach News-Journal is a winner! It only stayed online about a week so I can’t link to it but luckily I grabbed what I thought was the most interesting part. It’s Ginny’s 8 steps to sustainable gardening. Not "easy" steps, the silly propaganda fed to us by the media. She calls the steps "complex" – such brutal honesty! So, what do you think of them?
Sustainable Gardening in 8 Complex Steps
1. Having minimal impact on the environment
2. Making the best of available resources
3. Saving time and money
4. Reducing carbon dioxide and increase oxygen in the air
5. Offsetting some of the heat absorbed and stored by buildings and roads
6. Increasing habitat for wildlife
7. Preventing damage to underground infrastructure
8. Preparing for hurricanes, fires and drought
I love how big-picture it is. Usually you see sustainability defined as just number 1, sometimes 6, occasionally 2, but never the rest. Never (okay, rarely) is the resource of human beings considered – like our time and money, those factors that make something feasible in the first place. The focus of "sustainability" is so often on simply avoiding doing harm, ignoring the pro-active, positive impacts that sustainable gardening has – like Ginny’s 4 and 5.
And I’d never have thought of 7 or 8 but hey, I’m glad someone’s thinking about them. Congrats, Ginny, on the book and the great review!
{ 1 trackback }
{ 8 comments }
Hi Susan,
Thanks for this post. Dang. I wish I’d copied the whole review, too. Who knew that it would disappear like that. Here’s the parts I copied:
“Ginny Stibolt doesn’t beat around the bush. Her opening sentence in “Sustainable Gardening for Florida” reads: ‘This is not an armchair or coffee table gardening book; it’s a let’s-work-together action book . . .’”
“It’s a workbook full of insightful details about complementing Mother Nature’s sometimes moody ways. Keep in mind that this is an educational adventure, not a quick read. Consider it a detailed reference book for helping take care of the planet — one piece of property at a time”
I hope enough people saw it. I’ll be traveling around Florida talking to folks about sustainable gardening. It should be a fun adventure.
Hey Susan, I tagged you for a Meme award. Please visit my blog today. H.
P.S. it was kinda hard to do, but rewarding.
Susan, thanks for this great review. Ginny sounds like a woman after my own heart, and I can’t wait to read this book, even though I don’t live in Florida. I’m linking here in my Sunday weekly roundup because this sounds like an awesome book. And yes, I like the new cover much better!
Wonderful recap of everything sustainability really encompasses. In California where I live, people seem to think it begins and ends at recycling and saving water but it’s so much more.
And I remember the first book design – I was one of the commenters – no question this is much nicer.
Congratulations!
Yes, Susan, the cover is much better. I was able to make a really good case against the original cover because the wonderful garden ranters were so brutely honest. Thanks.
Thanks to one of your readers who found the whole book review on a cached page. It’s now posted on the book site http://www.sustainablegardening4florida.com
I just love the networking here.
Great review. I am new to the sustainable thing so I will probably pick up this book now! Ginny, Congrats on the book and the great review!
Thanks for sharing the eight steps for sustainable gardening! Being water-wise while gardening will help us enjoy the positive impacts of gardening. Water is in short supply; hence a few simple tips will lead to a sustainable garden. Using native plants and implementing water conservation techniques like xeriscaping will help in maintaining a beautiful garden! For more tips on water-wise gardening, check http://bit.ly/uYuL8
I live in Holiday, Fl. on the west coast and I love to garden! I recently went to Vermont and was very amazed at the sence of community there and am looking for that here. I am very into the shop local grow your own kind of sustainable lifestyle and am haveing a difficult time finding local farmers markets. Any ideas where I could continue my search?
Comments on this entry are closed.