Monday, May 23, 2011

Talking Dirt: Annie Spiegelman

Apologies for my hiatus: I've just recently been finishing off my master's research project (about student's learning grammar). Nonetheless, I'd been reading when I could squeeze the time in between the various drafts of the paper. In honor of spring and my apartment's balcony garden (strategically designed to be Zombie-free), I dug into a bargain book called "Talking Dirt" by Annie Spiegelman. I wasn't familiar with this author at all, but I was drawn to the book because of the title and simply because I wanted something fun to read but super informative.

I hoped reading a bit of non-fiction would help my gardening skills along the way. I enjoyed Spiegelman's non-chalant and non-intimidating approach to gardening, but at times she was a little annoying and overly self-centered. While I appreciated her attempts at humor, her editor should have encouraged to cut her snarky commentary in half. First off, she dogs Carl Linneaus, and while I appreciate her point of view, she comes off a insulting her beloved hobby because latin names are such a big part of understanding the varieties of plants and how they're related. Even though I'm a newbie, I recognize that much from basic science schooling and language background. As well, it seemed that every other page Spiegelman was concerned about the reader(s) sending her hate mail or cursing her name if some bit of her advice didn't pan out as she'd suggested. Rather that being comical, it just started to seem self-absorbed and ego-centric.

On the positive side, Spiegelman did urge organics and explained some of the links between chemicals and the problems with constantly thinking that chemicals would be the answer. I also appreciated her repetition in pushing for mulch, compost and application of these in order to create a stronger base rather than chemically dependent plants. Her chapters were also broken down into very manageable chunks which made the reading very digest-able. This reading simply whetted my appetite for more gardening projects and eco-reading... which will be coming in the near future when I stock up on my summer reading. Also coming up soon: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Series and Water for Elephants.