Sleeping with a Sunflower ~ A Treasury of Old-Time Gardening Lore

Description Sleeping with a Sunflower offers gardening folklore for All Seasons! Did you ever wonder how to attract hummingbirds? Fish by the moon, dowse for water, or grow the best tomatoes in town? Drawn from decades of gardening experience and from centuries of gardening lore. Louise Riotte can read the signs of the earth and the sky-the weather, the season, the moon, stars, and sun -and she shares her knowledge with you in this wise and earthy book. Arranged month by month, this book is packed with gardening folk wisdom. Planting by the moon, fishing where the bass will bite, and more. A treasured gift for anyone interested in the forgotten lore of gardening. You can find pertinent information for any time of the year. In March, you can start an asparagus bed, plant English peas, gather violets-and then take off to go fishing. In September, you might can tomatoes, make watermelon pickles, and grow giant vegetables. Throughout, Louise seasons her advice with warm humour, history, and memories of growing up “in the early days” of Oklahoma. She doesn’t just tell you how to win prizes at the county fair, she also shares her own experiences. Beloved author and life-long gardener Louise Riotte passed away in 1998 at the age of 89. During her life, she wrote twelve books on gardening, companion planting, and garden lore, among them the ever-popular Carrots Love Tomatoes. Her father taught her how to practice astrology, while her mother was an herbalist. Together they greatly influenced her life and her books, including Roses Love Garlic, Astrological Gardening, Sleeping with a Sunflower, Catfish Ponds & Lily Pads, and Raising Animals by the Moon. Riotte was an artist as well as a writer, and her own drawings appear in all of her books. She took great pride in her garden near her home in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Vintage ~ 1987