The Black Attendant

Our recent (Summer 2019)  Garden Book Club selection was: Onward and Upward in the Garden by Katherine S. White. I cannot say that I highly recommend this book to garden readers. The first third was dull as dirt, but it gets better as it goes along. What did strike my interest though was this photo on the very last page:

That missing chapter would likely have made the book a whole lot more readable and relatable, but alas, the lady passed before she had time to write it. The cat, referred to as a "black attendant" is clearly the focus of the photo with the garden and its human mistress as mere backdrop -- as it should be and it leads me to ask: Who then is really the attendant and who the mistress in this setting?

Pennock's Cats

Jenny Rose Carey, senior director of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) Meadowbrook 

Farm in Jenkintown, PA, shared information on the PHS Meadowbrook cats. 

She said, "The ginger cat is Rocket. The black cat is Jug Head. They are very cute. Rocket sometimes follows tour groups around the garden. On a recent Thursday, I was giving a flower arranging workshop and he came to check it out."

Meadowbrook Farm was designed and created by J. Liddon Pennock, Jr. (1913-2003), and remains his garden legacy.

Photo sources: PHSonline.org and Yelp.

Judging by the Cover

I knew I'd love Time-Tested Plants: Thirty Years in a Four-Season Garden by Pamela Harper the second I laid eyes on the cover. On it, Pamela is standing mid-garden, holding one of her garden cats.Pamela says her cats "keep her garden free of rabbits."

I had the pleasure last weekend of visiting her Tidewater Virginia garden in person and though I didn't get to see any of these hunting kitties, I did get to talk to Pamela and see the many wonderful plants she is growing almost 20 years after the publication of that legendary garden book.

Here are some photos from that visit:

Pam in a hat!

"hot color" beds

quince espalier

tulips

primrose

Japanese Maple

Cats in their Gardens

 

I probably should not have been surprised when a gardening pal (also a cat lover), Pat Howell, mentioned one of her favorite books has a title very similar to that of this blog. HOw had I never heard of it before? My fingers flew to google and I found a used copy and ordered it immediately.

It arrived this week, post-blizzard, and has been welcome reading between shoveling sessions. "Cats in their Gardens" by Page Dickey was published in 2002 and is a slim book, but chock-full of great photos of kitties and gardens. It seems this was a sequel to her book, "Dogs in their Gardens" and she notes on the book flap that, "cats rather than dogs are the preferred companions" for many notable gardeners. Included in the book are the cats of Martha Stewart and Penelope Hobhouse, among many other garden luminaries.

The author points out that cats, unlike many dogs, are ideal for bringing out the sensual pleasures of the garden -- cats show us gardeners how to slow down and soak up the atmosphere, scents, and scenery of out gardens.

I highly recommend grabbing a copy for yourself if you see it in a used book store or available for order online. It is also an ideal gift for the garden-cat lovers in your life.