Plant Talk

The first reviews on the new book are in! From Publisher's Weekly:

"Open your eyes and keep it simple: those are two lessons Easton (The New Low Maintenance Garden), a garden writer and Huffington Post columnist, passes on from her own 40 years in the garden. When selecting and arranging flowers for bouquets, you needn’t spend a bundle buying a bundle of imported flowers.....Easton offers guidelines and principles....as well as a journal of possibilities through the seasons. The result....will be unique, local, imaginative, and inexpensive. Color photos throughout illustrate and inspire."

Petal & Twig will be in bookstores on January 31, and will be available for the iPad, Kindle, and all those kinds of devices...

I'm the first up speaker on Friday morning, 11 a.m. at the Portland Convention Center for the Oregon Association of Nurseries big event. I'll show plenty of photos and talk about how to turn your entire garden (and neighborhood) into a cutting garden for uncomplicated little handheld bouquets in every month of the year...it's all about the simple joy of bringing nature indoors...

"Over the years, countless books have espoused a low-maintenance approach to gardening. None have been as engaging, practical, or inspiring as this latest of Easton's contributions to the gardener's bookshelf,"
- Pacific Horticulture magazine, Jan/Feb/Mar 2010

"A handy guide to a garden you can raise without a corresponding increase in your blood pressure..handsome and informative...."
- Metropolitan Home, Dec. 2009

"A garden can be a consuming passion—at least until you feel it consuming you. When Val Easton found herself in that spot, she knew it was time to move on, this time to a gem of a low-maintenance garden she made for herself. It kept her passion for gardening alive and spawned a terrific book, The New Low-Maintenance Garden."
- Sunset's "Fresh Dirt" blog

"This book is an invaluable addition to the garden library – destined to be a classic for many years to come."
- Garden Design Online

Paperback copies of "The New Low Maintenance Garden" are in bookstores for $19.95, Timber Press is out of hardback copies ($29.95) but you can buy them on online at HomeStyle Book Club; more hardbacks will hopefully be available in bookstores early in 2010.

The banner and portrait photos were taken by Jacqueline Koch; all other photos by Val Easton unless otherwise credited.