Gardeners | Writer, Gardener Happy To Act As Cheerleader For Others
Combine a passion for gardening with a talent for writing and what do you get?
If you’re Jodi DeLong, you create the informative and beautiful Plants for Atlantic Canada: Handsome and Hard-working Shrubs, Trees, and Perennials.
The book came about as a result of all of the questions the author gets concerning what should be planted where and when.
“Living in Atlantic Canada, we do have some challenges with weather and soil and weather and so on and so forth. I live on the north mountain overlooking the Bay of Fundy, so I get pretty much every weather possible thrown at me,” says DeLong.
“I’ve gardened for a long time, talked to lots of people, learned from my own adventures. Gardening experiments we call them. I thought let’s just put together some information that people might find useful, so that’s what I did.”
She profiled 109 different types of perennials, trees and shrubs, and gave recommendations, based partly on her own experience and partly on literature that is correct, she says.
So far, the book has been really well received.
“I’m just thrilled to bits that people are finding it useful, and they say it’s beautiful, too, which is nice,” she says. “But mostly I was really keen to make sure that I continue to be a good cheerleader for other gardeners.”
DeLong is a big fan of gardening.
“What’s not to love about it? It’s good exercise, it’s very stress releasing, it’s incredibly rewarding when you look at something you’ve planted,” she says. “Really, everything about it is pretty wonderful.”
The author will be in Fredericton on Tuesday, Aug. 23, from 1:30-3:30 p.m. at Scott’s Nursery.
“I’m going to talk about keeping on planting – that’s a big mantra with me,” she says.
When the big box stores open a garden centre for a couple of months in the summer and then pack up in July, a lot of people think that means it’s time to stop planting, says DeLong.
“That couldn’t be further from the truth. … My mantra is to always encourage people to keep on planting. There are lots of things that can be done this time of year if you want to.”
People often complain about a lack of late-season colour, she says, but there are lots of things you can plant that keep blooming or will bloom again or that come in later in the season.
Gardening is one of those hobbies that can keep you busy year round, in one way or another. Some gardeners spend the winter planning what they’ll do in the spring, for example.
“We also plan now for fall and winter
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