“May I a small house and large garden have;
And a few friends,
And many books, both true.”
—Abraham Cowley
Some people always do things standing up in a hammock,” was how my friend Ed Reppert described people who seem to learn everything the hard way. I often think the hard way is the ONLY way I ever learn—everything by trial (or trowel) and error. Although I began gardening when I was just a tyke, and studied botany and horticulture for years, it was always by doing and redoing that I learned best.
For over twenty years, I faithfully recorded in my journals sad and happy tales of garden woes, triumphs, mistakes, and the secrets and shortcuts of the hundreds of gardeners who stay in touch with me. Recording things isn’t all I do. Every day I test recipes and cures and observe the behavior of birds, insects, reptiles, amphibians, and anything else that stumbles onto my plot of ground.
Anyone walking into my potting area is liable to find four or five mixtures of fertilizer brews and oddball pest blends fermenting and marinating in tubs, strange collections of tools, and cooking utensils hanging everywhere. It is not the aftermath of some cataclysmic natural disaster; it is my laboratory, my living library, and the makings for this book.
Three years ago I devoted my “Heart’s Ease” column in Country Living GARDENER to a subject entitled “Helpful Hints from an Eccentric Gardener.” The column contained an assortment of hints and recipes gleaned from my journals, and the enthusiastic response to the collection gave birth to this, my fourth book-child, Trowel & Error.
