How my library turned me into a gardener

I could not have been more excited to cut colorful flowers from the first-ever bunch I grew from seeds—zinnias and snapdragons!

THERE WERE SIGNS. Frankly, I should have seen it coming, but personal growth and change can be so subtle that you sometimes don’t realize you’re doing it until you’ve done it. In my case, things started small: snapping a photo of a wildflower while on a walk, admiring my friend’s summer crop of vegetables. Before I knew it, I had invested in a membership to the Cleveland Botanical Garden and a set of grow lights and seeds for winter sowing in my basement. When I literally squealed with delight upon discovering “Gardening with Monty Don” on the Hoopla BingePass at PLA 2024, it dawned on me that I was no longer someone who just liked plants...I’d become a gardener.

Like those trying out sourdough starters, my personal transformation had its origins in the pandemic, when being outdoors was the main source of entertainment for my family. Our visits to Cleveland Metroparks provided inspiration, but I credit my library with giving me the information I needed for a full metamorphosis. I went from borrowing Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden to browsing back issues of Fine Gardening via my library Flipster account. I’m now fully immersed in the content, even borrowing—God help me—The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Who am I??

This month’s Life + Style supplement features hundreds of titles that could be the very guide that transforms some other person into a gardener…or a baker…or a crafter…or a world traveler. They’re the kinds of books that allow someone to test out a version of themselves that they may be surprised to find could exist.

When I think about the transformative power of books, I tend to think primarily in terms of novels or memoirs—the stories about real or fictional people that give readers insight into lives from which they might draw inspiration. Yet, for someone to really figure out how they can transform their life, they might need to head over to 641.5, where Ottolenghi Flavor by Yotam Ottolenghi or Hetty Lui McKinnon’s Tenderheart make vegetable-centric recipes so enticing, they end up changing their diet. As much as reading Richard Powers’s The Overstory reshaped my understanding of humanity’s relationship with trees and nature and inspired me to be more environmentally responsible, a book like Making Things by Erin Boyle and Rose Pearlman might be just the thing that helps readers take their first steps into living more sustainably.

When it comes to gardening, I admit I’m very much a novice—for real gardening know-how, you’ll have to turn to Kathy Ishizuka, editor-in-chief of School Library Journal, who is our resident Master Gardener—but I’m having fun learning.

While libraries often track learning over the summer by counting minutes spent reading, I might measure my learning this summer in hours spent digging in the dirt after picking up Garden Wonderland by Leslie Bennett and Julie Chai or scoops of ice cream consumed following Adrienne Borlongan’s The Wanderlust Creamery Presents: The World of Ice Cream.

Libraries are places of lifelong learning, and I can think of no better time than the summer to dive into a fresh subject and explore whether it fits who you are today or who you might like to become tomorrow.