Library Mama

odinyotoo wrote about this on her blog a while back. And then I was weeding in my 500s, and there it was, just waiting for me. I’d never even noticed it before. It falls in the dreaded number 508, the number for general natural history. This is where natural history memoirs go. They usually get starred reviews in the journals, so I feel obliged to buy them, but no matter how interesting the book may be to actually read, I can’t get any of my patrons to actually check them out. This book was over ten years old, though, so even though I read it and it was really good, and anyone interested either in gardening or in having a low-maintenance yard should read it, it’s now in my personal collection, not the library, but still up for borrowing.

Noah’s Garden by Sara Stein Author Stein wrote in a previous book about her family’s journey to become Gardeners, after buying a largish property. This book is about her becoming an un-gardener, planting with native plants rather than exotic imported plants, letting the flowers feed the bugs and the birds rather than spraying the bugs and raking away the food. Noah’s ark wouldn’t really have worked without bringing the plants, because the larger predators eat the smaller insect- and herbivores, and everything is highly adapted to live off of the native plants of that particular region. That means that if we want birds, rather that buying birdfeeders, we can look for native flowers and fruiting shrubs, without even knowing what will feed who when. Though she’s got a recommendation from Michael Pollan, this book is closer to Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle than The Ominvore’s Dilemma, more her own particular tale with some background woven in than the reverse. Even though their property was an old farmstead, she talks about the power of everyone planting their corners and edges with fruiting bushes that provide food for birds and cover for small animals, creating safe corridors where they can travel. There are ideas here for yards small and big in this gentle and inspiring book.

For us, we were already planning on replacing the long-ago vegetable garden and more recent raspberry and maple jungle with a native meadow. (Sadly, they didn’t have the kits at the farmer’s market yet this weekend.) After reading this book, I’m hoping to put in more understory trees, shrubs and native woodland plants in, expanding the shady areas of our yard where the grass doesn’t like to grow anyway. We’ll save the front lawn, and in the back, eventually, have paths to three or so open grassy areas. That should provide a lot more for wildlife, and also make mowing much less of a chore. I’m anticipating that exploring paths will be more fun for children than one big open lawn, too.

Here's one for Earth Day, a day early.

I'm happy to say that things have changed for the better since I had Mr. Froggie Pants. When I was pregnant and reading about how to have a green baby, everything seemed very fringe. The products they recommended were astronomically expensive, available only by mail order (I'm ok with mail-ordering diapers; paint, not so much) and looked like they would fall apart under normal usage. It all seemed so scary that I just ignored most of it.

Green Babies, Sage Moms by Lynda Fassa

Now comes this very accessible book, full of solid advice on every aspect of keeping dangerous chemicals out of your baby’s life. It's geared towards pregnancy and baby care, but since just about everything in the house affects a baby, it covers enough to be useful to anyone wanting to improve their health and the environment at the same time. Here's a short list: food, beauty products, gifts, cleaning, baby gear, clothes, detoxing the home, outside play, winning over family and neighbors, and connecting to other mothers. The advice is solid, and comes from a woman who didn't want to give up mascara or spend all her time in the kitchen cooking. The reasons for going green are covered without being too scary, and sources are given for everything she recommends. She has numorous small contributions from experts in the field, including makers of chlorine and gel-free disposible diapers and makers of cloth diapers. Every chapter ends with a summary, dividing steps to be taken into three levels of green: evergeeen, pea green, and spring green, with the easiest and most important steps under spring green. That makes it easy to determine your level of commitment or to take things in smaller steps. For example, for food, spring green is buying only the Dirty Dozen fruits and vegetables organic, pea green is buying all organic, and evergreen is buying all local organic. The resource guide at the back includes even more resources than are given in the main text. This is a great start for anyone looking to go organic.