Tag Archives: Garden

Books, General

Notable Date to Celebrate: June 6th is National Gardening Exercise Day

 You probably already know that at CMLE, we offer a service called “Notable Dates for your Noggin” which feature special holidays and birthdays of authors, as well as publications of well-known books. In an effort to help you get more from this service, we’ve decided to select one “Notable Date” each month to feature. We will include a few fun programming and activity ideas too, all for you to use!

June 6th is National Gardening Exercise Day!

Gardening is a awesome way to exercise, and a fun way to enjoy the Minnesota summer. You may even be able to garden at your local library, since many of our CMLE members have great library gardens. 

While you are out exploring or exercising in the garden, take a listen to our podcast all about library gardens! We had so much fun talking about library gardens all over the country.

If you are interested in setting up your own library garden, check out this article which has tips for getting started.

Need motivation to get moving in your own garden? Try one of these ten books to inspire your garden. And don’t miss the Smithsonian Libraries’ seed catalog collection which represents 258 catalogs and features 500 images. If you are new to gardening, this article from Farmer’s Almanac will walk you through the steps of setting up your first vegetable garden.

Finally, get your students or young people out exercising in the garden with some of these ideas from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Ideas include activities like alphabet gardening or planting a pizza garden!)

Happy gardening!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Free gardening eBooks

FlowersWe are in the middle of that wonderful season in Minnesota that is springtime! Excited to get outside and begin your next garden or yard project? If you need a little extra help, consider checking out the eBooks MN collection for gardening books.(Not sure what I am talking about? Get caught up with our earlier CMLE posts on eBooks MN).

They have a variety of gardening books, for everyone from the beginner planning their first garden to the experienced gardener. They feature topics like miniature, container, and edible gardening.

This article recommends starting with the Beginner’s Illustrated Guide to Gardening: Techniques to Help You Get Started by Katie Elzer-Peters. The book features helpful color images as well as illustrated tools, tips, and tricks to help you in your next gardening venture!

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/mcpp3y2, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

 

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Treasure trove of old seed catalogs

everything for the gardenWarmth in the air, sun on your face, the feeling of soil between your fingers…welcome to springtime gardening! After the gray and depressing landscape of winter, we are itching for a change – preferably one that is colorful, sweet-smelling, and edible!

With gardening on the brain, you may be interested in this article, which explains that Archive.org is currently working on expanding their collection of over 18,000 seed and nursery catalogs. The National Agricultural Library has been working on digitizing the Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection, a huge undertaking since it includes more than 200,000 catalogs!

These seed catalog collections are important because they teach us about agricultural history, including changes in landscaping, seed prices, and plant hybridization. They also showcase some beautiful line drawings.

An excerpt from Everything for the Garden: 1922 urges readers, “For your health’s sake, grow and eat plenty of vegetables,” advice that we would still be wise to follow today!

Image credit:https://archive.org/details/everythingforgar19pete_19
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Fresh From the Garden: Food in color

Spring has sprung, and the fresh fruits and vegetables are about to spring from the garden!  Popular culture tells us that these foods are bland and boring, but gardeners – and Brittany Wright – know that this is anything but true!  Bored Panda features food photography by Wright, who takes photographs like these “to get people more familiar with what they eat by documenting how it changes.”  Check out the full post for more of this gorgeous photography.

Brittany Wright photography