I
have to admit up front that I know nothing about gardening—I regularly cause
silk flowers to die by over-watering them.
So it doesn’t take much for me to admire those who have the knack. However, Christine Eirschele has more than a
knack—she has achieved the status of a certified Master Gardener.
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| Author & Gardener Chris Eirschele |
Chris
loves to garden and she loves to write about gardening. Her awesome blog Staygardening.com ranges
from specific tips about container gardening and growing edible plants to
reviews of public, private, and community gardens. She is a contributing writer
at BucketTripper.com and has also written for a variety of other
online sites and magazines, as well as offering her expertise speaking to community
groups. A Wisconsin native at heart,
Chris now resides in Arizona, and so her knowledge of plants spans a breadth of
climates.
Now
Chris offers her readers, gardeners, and memoir lovers like myself a new gift. She has compiled a collection of family stories,
memories, and gardening tips into a volume titled
It turns out that Chris comes by
her gardening acumen via genetics—both her father and her mother were avid, if
perhaps quirky, gardeners. So, she begins
her collection of stories describing her “Legacy of Growing up Gardening.”
In the house I grew up, soil was never dirt and the scents of organic compost no more bothersome than the smell at my nose from a bar of soap.
Earthy memories mix with tender
and often comical vignettes of collecting seeds, transporting fruit trees in
the back of a Rambler (that will date you, if you know what a Rambler is!), and
her father hanging oranges and a banana on his brother’s apple tree that was
too young to bear fruit of its own.
I especially enjoyed the chapter “Leaving
Babette for French Gardens,” in which she brings to life small moments like
burying the family’s pet dog in the garden, “his grave planted over with red and
pink sweet Williams.” Reminiscing about touring France as a child with her mother who grew up there, Chris marvels over French container gardens that contrast with “the formal symmetrical well-manicured gardens found
around the castles and estates” of that country.
Garden Truths
From My Family’s Stories is a wonderful and endearing read. It is Chris Eirschele’s first e-book and is available through Amazon for those who own Kindles.
