Love of books is deeply rooted - thanks mom

There are two places where I love to get lost - in nature, or in a good book. Thankfully, my mother planted both of these seeds in me at a very early age by often taking me to the beautiful little woods in our small hometown and to the local public library. My love of both nature and reading have stayed with me throughout my life.

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month - "a time to remind everyone that a library card is the smartest card of all". If you haven't visited your local library recently, I encourage you to do so. Here are some excerpts from a couple of the books that I picked up on my last trip.

The Vegetable Gardener's Bible , by Edward C. Smith, ©2000 - I really picked this book up to learn more about which vegetables I might be able to grow at this time of year. I didn't even notice that "Ed's High-Yield W-O-R-D System for All North American Gardening Regions" is based heavily on using organic methods. In fact, "organic" is the "O" of the W-O-R-D system, which stands for Wide Rows - Organic Methods - Raised Beds - and Deep Soil. The book contains wonderfully detailed information about environmentally friendly topics such as compost, natural pest control and fertilizer, testing your soil, worms and many of the other topics that I have been studying over the last few months. In fact, if I had found this book earlier, I could have saved myself a lot of research time on the Internet. The second part of the book has detailed instructions for growing many popular vegetables. As is often the case, visiting the library allowed me to "preview" this book and decide that it is a must-have for my own personal library.

American Gardening Series Waterwise Gardening, by Lauren Springer, ©1994 - An excellent book on saving water in a landscape written in a fun, chatting-over-the-garden fence tone. Here are some excerpts from the introduction: "Waterwise gardening is just plain old common sense. Good gardening practice means adapting to the conditions at hand. Why have a garden that depends on large amounts of a resource that appears to be ever more expensive and elusive? Why not bank on the future and create a less needy garden? Even if there has always been enough water in your area, a drought-tolerant garden allows you to go away without cumbersome arrangements for watering in absentia. A garden in harmony with its surroundings, both in appearance and in terms of cultural needs, is a healthier, more beautiful garden. Plants that receive the conditions they prefer are better able to fight off pests and diseases. Plants that get by on less water demand less to look their best."

As usual, I also picked up a couple of fiction books while at the library. I've already been able to read the two new James Patterson novels as well as the latest John Sandford. All of that fun and knowledge for less than $2.00 (I was a little bit overdue on some of them!)

Some people say that public libraries are becoming obsolete because of computers and the internet but I know I will never feel that way. I could no more do without the public libraries then I could do without being outside in nature.

Thanks mom, for giving me both of those loves.

P.S. I still miss you.

To find your closest local public library, visit this site: Search for Public Libraries