Washington Gardener Donation Supports Brookside Garden's Horticultural Reference Collection

Corinne Stephens and Albert Arevalo
with new garden book donations at the Brookside Gardens Library.

By Alexandra Marquez

Washington Gardener staff stopped by Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD, last Friday to drop off a donation of books that will be added to the Horticultural Reference Library. 

Editor and publisher Kathy Jentz has featured reviews of several of the books in previous editions of the magazine. The books cover a wide range of horticultural topics, such as growing succulents, creating fairy gardens, and urban garden design. 

The value of this batch of 15 donated books is about $415, which, added to previous donations, adds to a total of about $6,971 worth of books donated to the Horticultural Reference Library in the past six years. The magazine’s largest yearly donation was its first one in 2013, with $3,070.94 worth of books donated.

The mission of the Horticultural Reference Library at Brookside Gardens is to be a resource for Brookside Gardens and Montgomery County Parks staff, the citizens of Montgomery County, MD, and any other individual interested in learning about the science and art of Horticulture. Volunteer librarians are there and ready to help you find answers to your plant questions; they are available Monday through Friday at 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., or by appointment.

About the Author:

Alexandra Marquez is a rising junior journalism and anthropology major at the University of Maryland. She is an editorial intern at Washington Gardener this summer.

Garden Book Donations to Brookside Garden's Library

Guest blog by Gaby Galvin 

On July 29, 2015, the Washington Gardener team took a trip to Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD, to donate 25 gardening and landscaping books to the Horticultural Reference Library in the Visitor's Center. This donation marked 197 total books donated by us with a total value of $5,506.66 since 2013.

Jared Ashling, volunteer coordinator at Brookside, said Washington Gardener Magazine’s donations have been helpful in keeping their library collection up-to-date and relevant. They have more than 7,000 books for horticulturists to conduct research. They rely mostly on donations.

Kathy Jentz, editor and publisher of Washington Gardener, received many of the books as review copies from the books’ publishers and authors. She expects to have another large crop of reviewed books to donate this fall.

Ashling said the Brookside Gardens' library has many generous donors who support them and that over the years they have received more than 5,400 books through donations. They accept gardening and horticultural books in good condition as donations. They inspect each book before adding it to their library. Books that don’t meet the criteria are either sold to earn money to buy more books or put in one of the three free little libraries on the grounds, where anyone can come and take them. 

About the author:

Gaby Galvin is a Washington Gardener Magazine summer 2015 intern who is studying multiplatform journalism at the University of Maryland. She does some gardening at home in Davidsonville, MD, with her mother and grandparents. 

 

Discuss Tulipomania with the Washington Gardener Book Club

For our first 2015 selection, we will be reading: Tulipomania by Mike Dash. I have reserved a meeting room at the Shepherd Park " Juanita E. Thornton" Neighborhood DC Library for Tuesday, February 10 from 6:00-7:30pm. The library room allows food and drink and you may bring your dinner and/or snacks to share.

(We will move the location around to various DC library locations near public transit for each meeting pending library staff approvals, the location will be confirmed to you when you RSVP.)

The book club meetings are FREE and open to anyone who would like to attend. Please RSVP to "WG Book Club" at WashingtonGardener@rcn.com. I will be limiting attendance to 20. If you need to cancel, let me know ASAP so we can give your spot to someone else, should we have a wait-list.

I will announce the date for the next book club meeting's date and location after each previous meeting. We will meet roughly once each quarter/season.

The other book club selections for 2015 are:

~ Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
~ Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life by Marta McDowell
~ Teaching the Trees by Joan Maloof

PIN THIS FOR LATER:

National Ag Library Tour - Save the Date

For the past few years, Washington Gardener Magazine has co-hosted an open house and tour at the USDA's National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, MD. We had scheduled it in late winter thinking that was a good time to get people to the library as they would not be out gardening. However, we always have to bite our nails over the forecasts and worry about ice on the roads.

This year, we thought we'd change it up to be a mid-summer date. Our thinking is that it would be relief to spend a Saturday morning at the library and be out of the heat and humidity. We also hope to catch some folks who are maybe not in town during the winter months.

So, save this date: Saturday, August 10 at 10am, and look out for more details and how to RSVP this summer.

Video Wednesday: A Visit to the National Agricultural Library

Last month, Washington Gardener Magazine hosted a special visit to the USDA's National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, MD. This video shares a few of the special collection highlights.