Fearless Gardening book launch and GIVEAWAY
Midwinter is a great time to take stock of your garden and mull over what you want it to be, how you want it to evolve, and — let’s be honest — how you want it to freaking WOW you every time you step into it. Maybe right now you’re poring through seed catalogs and making lists of must-have plants. Maybe you’re sketching ideas for a new patio garden, a welcoming entry garden, or a pollinator or food garden. Ah, the possibilities! Whatever you’re planning, I encourage you to be FEARLESS about it. Don’t fret about what the neighbors will think or whether you know enough to do it. Just start gardening!
This is the empowering message of my friend Loree Bohl’s brand-new book, Fearless Gardening: Be Bold, Break the Rules, Grow What You Love (Timber Press, 2021). You likely already know Loree thanks to her terrifically inspiring blog Danger Garden. Maybe you’ve seen my write-ups about her lushly spiky, jewel box of a garden in Portland, Oregon. She also has a popular Instagram page. Well, now she has a book, and it’s just the thing to get your inspiration flowing and gardening motor running before spring arrives.
I read an advance copy of Fearless Gardening last summer — devoured it from cover to cover, more like — and provided an endorsement for it. Here’s what I wrote about the book then, and I stand by every word:
Loree Bohl blasts the tired, oft-repeated “rules” of gardening into smithereens and cheers on experimentation, planting what thrills you, and zone pushing. Fans of her popular Danger Garden blog will pore over images of her artfully “cramscaped” garden, while the uninitiated will find page after page of inspiration featuring bold plants, found objects, and, of course, more plants! With droll humor and infectious enthusiasm, Bohl provides all the encouragement needed to stop worrying what the neighbors think or what is the right way to garden and just start planting.
Book launch and GIVEAWAY!
This week I’m delighted to be part of Loree’s book launch party. Cue the party horns and drop the balloons! I’m so impressed by her new book and all the work that she’s done to inspire other gardeners, including myself. I join a number of other bloggers writing about her book and offering giveaways, because what’s a party without door prizes?
Thanks to the generosity of Timber Press, I’m giving away to one lucky reader a copy of Fearless Gardening. But wait, there’s more! That same reader will also receive a copy of The Bold Dry Garden (click for my review), which Loree refers to in her book. That’s two great books to inspire you!
Giveaway Rules
To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post, sharing one fear that you’ve overcome in your own gardening — or would like to! There are no wrong answers, just as there’s no “right” way to garden, in Loree’s own words. One comment per person, please. The giveaway will run through Friday, January 15th at 11:59 pm Central time, and I’ll draw a random winner and announce their name on the 16th. This giveaway is open only to residents with a valid United States mailing address, including all 50 states. Sorry, overseas readers, but I welcome your comments too, and of course you’ll find the book for sale online and at booksellers everywhere.
Other FEARLESS Giveaways
After you enter here, be sure to check out the other giveaways too. I’ll add to this list as they are published:
- Succulents and More: Fearless Gardening by Loree Bohl: book review + giveaway
- Chickadee Gardens: Fearless Gardening by Loree Bohl: Book Review
- Dirt Therapy: Fearless Gardening – A Book Review and Giveaway
- Late to the Garden Party: ‘Fearless Gardening’: Advice from an Expert
- A Growing Obsession: Fearless Gardening by Loree Bohl; a review/giveaway
- Just a Girl with a Hammer: Book giveaway! Fearless Gardening by Loree Bohl (her blog is having commenting issues with the Chrome browser, so try Firefox, which works for me on both PC and Mac)
Live and garden boldly, friends!
Update 1/16/21: The winner has been announced! Click over to my announcement post to see who won.
Disclosure: Timber Press sent me a copy of Fearless Gardening for review. I reviewed it at my own discretion and without any compensation. This post, as with everything at Digging, is my own personal opinion. Images from the book courtesy of Timber Press.
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Digging Deeper
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All material © 2024 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
I’d like to overcome the fear of uncertainty – waiting to plant an area because I’m not sure it’s exactly what I want.
Thanks!
Stagnation and indecisiveness due to overthinking, being afraid of making a mistake and waiting until everything is perfectly planned out.
I have overcome the fear of just going for it! I’ve learned that if it doesn’t work out you can just take it out and try something new.
I remember when you first visited my garden back in 2011 and shared the news you were working on a book. I was amazed, such an undertaking! I was thrilled to be a part of the book launch for both of your titles, and if you’d have told me someday our roles would be reversed, well, I’d have thought you’d lost your marbles. But here we are! Thank you for being such a fearless inspiration and for helping to spread the word.
Yes, here we are, and see? It just happens! (After a lot of hard work, obviously.) I’m delighted to be able to share news of YOUR book this time. It’s a thrilling feeling to have your words and images and, most important, your thoughts in print. I hope you’re able to savor this moment, and I’m already looking forward to your next book!
I would love to be Fearless more often in my garden! Congratulations to Danger Garden on this new book, I can’t wait to read it and gain some wonderful insights on being Fearless with plant choices and design.
The fear I’ve overcome is placing funky art in my garden. For example, I have a hand-painted garden hose-( purple, green, yellow, orange, and red repeated) curled like a wreath on a hook on my fence. I have a home-made pollinator totem poll that holds a brass butterfly and a pollinator garden sign. It’s also multi-colored. I have a shovel-headed Old Crow Whiskey chess piece decanter on a pole that also holds a home-made birdhouse and a handmade “COVID” butterfly with a haiku on the back. I’ve hand-painted multiple signs…One says, “It’s okay to be different.” Another says, “Welcome to the garden of rejects”. And finally, I have a homemade phallic fountain. I used to be worried what people would think, but I’ve gotten over it. I would love to win Loree’s book…Sorry, I got carried away with this. 🙂
Please post photo of phallic fountain. That’s a wonderful shape that is not utilized enough in this country.
That got my attention too, Paula. She just casually tossed out that mention, didn’t she? 😉
Right plant, wrong place?
Always afraid to plant it and then have to move it- I’ve finally decided SO WHAT?
Don’t know why digging something up was so scary.
Learn by making mistakes, or are they really mistakes?
I have a fear of too much color. I love monochromatic color schemes and since I’m more comfortable there, I don’t push myself enough. I’m working it out as it’s been my struggle for a bit! I would love to order copies of this book for the nursery!
Barton Springs Nursery would be a great outlet for this book. Allow me to introduce you to Loree, Amy! Just drop me an email, either of you, and I’ll connect you. 🙂
I’d like to overcome my fear of what other’s think. So far they mostly say nothing, even that time I left a sheet of cardboard by the sidewalk with, “soon to be flower bed, just killing the grass” written on it with Sharpie, so what exactly am I scared of?
I tell myself, don’t plant here, don’t plant there…the darn sprinkler system is just in the wrong places. Would love to read the books for much needed motivation.
My biggest fear is gardening on my very steep hillside. I would like to add more steps, a greenhouse, maybe a trellised area for orchids, and create a few areas to sit in to be able to enjoy the canyon. Hopefully, the book so give me some sensible ideas.
My fear is whether future owners can maintain my planting projects. Sometimes I resist or regret planting vines that I know could easily be too much work for someone who doesn’t love to garden. Similarity, I have a lawnless yard that requires seasonal maintenance chores that are more varied than simply mowing, and if it isn’t kept up with, it can easily look sloppy. Will I drive by my old house someday and cringe? Sometimes those worries limit me.
My spouse’s biggest fear is that I will buy more plants. My biggest fear is that I won’t be able to buy more plants! So far so good; I keep buying more native and some adapted plants in a quest to ultimately have something or other in bloom at all seasons of the year, for the pollinators and for us to enjoy. I have over 30 mostly old garden roses, in the beds and in large pots, many heirloom daffodils and iris, daylilies that I hope will bloom this year, and as many native shrubs and perennials as I can squeeze into what we left of the established landscaping when we moved here. It remains a work in progress, but what garden is not? I love reading Digging and getting inspired! We are in Fort Worth.
2021 will be the year that I overcome my fear of removing my front lawn and converting it to native and edible plants.
I have a fear that I have several contrary desires for my garden. I love English gardens and the sense of discovery along paths. I love wide open spaces where I can see everything. I love courtyards. How to have all three?
I’m overcoming the gardening fear of creating something big and bold in a very public space. My front “yard” is a steep hillside which sits above a highly trafficked sidewalk. All my successes, failures and garden design ideas are on full display and often lead to discussions when I’m outside working.
I’d like to overcome my fear of spacing. It’s okay to move plants if they grew faster or slower than I expected. It’s okay to space vegetables differently than the back of seed packet says and learn what works in my garden.
I found that besides being fearless,
I also need knowledge, imagination, time, and strength.
“Being fearless” does take the fun to a higher level,
if I can keep up with it. 🙂
I struggle with thinking that I’m planting more than I can take care of as I grow older. (I’m 72). But I hate to miss out on all the wonderful and exciting new plants that come along every year!
A few years ago when I decided to whole heartedly convert my rose and flower garden over to succulents and desert plants I wondered where the color I loved was going to come from. Aha! I’ll paint the pots, of which I had many. Trellises and other garden features got a color make over as well. Yes, I had some fear of criticism, but encouraged by what I observed on this and Loree’s blog I charged ahead on a walker, no less, as I was recovering from a fractured femur. Under the subject line of “Getting Brave with the Paint Brush” I posted photos on the Texas Garden Web where usually I’d receive lots of comments. There was a long silence .. LOL. I wondered, oh lordy, had I made a big mistake? The first friend to visit my garden looked around and said, “Well, it looks a lot better than I thought it would”. Hahaha! Then others came and loved it. With that I’ve forged ahead and continued in the front yard where I painted lawn chairs, lattices, shutters, and pots and have received many compliments from the neighbors. So that’s my story of overcoming the fear of what others would think and doing what I love. I’m glad Loree and others are encouraging gardeners to just do it.
I am overcoming my fear of plant snobs raising an eyebrow at some very common plant or another that is thriving in full public view in the front yard. Many kindly passers-by have commented generously on how good one thing or another looks, or they have asked, “What is that?” I am learning to focus on those neighbors rather than those who turn up their nose at a simple salvia or a humble heuchera. My next fear is to plant sacrificial fruit trees that passers-by can enjoy from the sidewalk. I have a lime and a fig ready to plant when I can muster the guts to have the fruit go public.
I’ve sort of known about my fear of failure or another way to look at it is my lean toward perfectionism. It doesn’t matter what area of my life it is, I hold myself back from my dreams because I’m afraid of the consequence if it doesn’t turn out. Ridiculous I know, but it’s been a torment of my life since I was a young child. I’m now in my 70s & I relocated to a totally different zone for gardening. I have what I consider a bigger suburban yard than I’d like, but I fell in love with the live oak trees on this 1/4 acre lot. I sort of know what I’d like to transform the mish-mash of weedy vegetation including the invasive bermuda grass that flourish wherever there’s sunlight, but my dreams are big & I can’t afford what I want. So, I just need to get over myself & start small taking that first step. I finally did plant last October in the soil a little stunted mountain laurel that I fretted about in so many ways & so far it has not shriveled & died. Now I need to get over my fear of fire ants in the yard!
This sounds like my sort of book, Pam! My #1gardening “rule” has always been to do what you want, THE PLANTS DON’T KNOW WHAT IT SAYS IN THE BOOKS! My biggest gardening fear right now is my ability, at 75, to keep up with my gardens as I age. I need to figure out how to reverse garden, lol.
My biggest fear is that since I’m single and I have no one to stop me, my entire 10 acres may become garden. I can’t seem to stop expanding in every direction. Is there a such thing as ‘Gardeners Anonymous’? My garden motto is the same as my life motto: “Do what YOU want to do; that way at least one person will be happy!”
I’m afraid of … deer! Finally biting the bullet putting up a fence this winter.
I have had a fear of pruning, but have started to learn it’s best to jump in and do it. I look forward to being more aggressive pruning roses and other shrubs that tend to over grow their space next month.
As you know, Pam, I finally overcame my fear of cramming too many plants into my garden. I also hesitated for a long time to use inverted wine bottles for bed edging, afraid they would breed mosquitos, break, etc.. Well, I did finally bite bullet on that one too. I’m so glad i did. I hope listing two fears overcome gives me a better chance at winning Loree’s book!
I am so excited about this book, as “bold” is my word of the year. And the garden is one of the places that convinced me that I needed more boldness, to hesitate less and be willing to make mistakes. Last fall I put a raised veggie bed in the front yard and I love it so much I’ve added another. And I put a poetry box on the curb, where I add a poem each week. These “bold” moves have brought me much happiness during this locked down time.
I bought one for my Cactus Society where I am the librarian but I would love to have a personal copy!
My biggest fear of gardening? That I don’t know where to begin. I’m 69 years old, and for the first time in my life I have the time and a blank acre of land, and no experience in gardening.
I need to overcome fear of change and instead embrace the opportunity of trying something different. My garden would definitely benefit from some editing in 2021 so now I have a new years resolution!
Thanks for the giveaways!
I have fear before I start a big renovation of a bed or a new bed, but once you dig that shovel in, you’re on your way. I try to think of gardening as one big EXPERIMENT and to remember to have fun with it and learn from it, which we all do, even decades into our gardening journeys.
I really liked the picture of the Peter Herpst garden. The succulents in the distance framed by the up close plant material and art work. The biggest fear I had to overcome involved being able to add gardens around my one acre property and having the time to maintain them. I was afraid an unkept garden might be worse than no garden.
I guess my main fear is of insect infestation or disease. I am not fond of chemicals, choosing to garden without them. But I have gotten rid of aphids with blasts from the water hose and I have pulled out a couple of plants that had issues that were not being resolved easily. I think I also thought that I couldn’t enjoy the garden unless it was always in tiptop shape, but have gotten more realistic about that expectation!
Current fear: spending as much time in garden centers as I’d prefer, given the pandemic.
My biggest fear is being able to disregard the general tendency in my city of a green carpet with an sculpted shrub eyebrow. I am slowly learning (I hope?) to dismiss well meaning comments such as “is this a test garden?” or “this looks like a jungle!” and to embrace my vision, my love of plants, a desire to save water, and to encourage wildlife.
I would love to read this book. One of my most flagrant ‘rule breakers” is planting weeping willows. No one has anything good to say about them, but I adore them, not only because of my childhood memories of playing in them, but because of how they create movement in the garden. I have successfully grown four…I know they won’t last forever, but I love them every minute they are in my space.
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I am trying to learn DFW Texas gardening being a transplant from Illinois. This book sounds like z as perfect fit in my library.
My biggest fear is the judgment of other gardeners. When it’s just me playing out there, I love it and find it renews my energy. When people are coming to look at it, I find fault with almost all of it.
Seeing pictures of the “busier” styles shows me how to organize an overabundance of plants in a small space.
I’m always afraid people will see through the facade of my lovely yard and garden and decide I’m a fraud, though I have no idea why. I love gardening and growing a large portion of my food organically.
I am working on my garden “21 for 2021” list. I would like to add more color and plant diversity in my garden with various sizes of garden pots. I need to tackle the issue of watering as I live in zone 8 and summers are very hot. Pruning has been a fear of mine and I think I will feel more confident shaping and pruning a small woody ornamental in a garden pot then a larger woody ornamental that offers more garden structure.
I am looking forward to reading your new book and have copied the cover to share with Lexington County Master Gardener members in SC. Thank you!
I’d like to overcome the fear of getting it wrong. I’d love to be able to just go and do and not be afraid that things might fail. I mean, what else is the phrase, “If at first you don’t succeed, try try again” for if not for planting??
I am afraid that my garden is getting so big that I can’t take care of it properly and everything will fall apart if I go on vacation or get sick for more than a few days. Wish I could find good help!
I want to overcome the fear of finding snakes in my garden. I know they are good for the garden but I am really just not a fan of finding them so near to my hands!
I had a fear of anything pink, but when I devoted my tiny front garden to mostly foliage plants with rosy splashes from abutilons, correas, penstemons and coprosmas I learned to love pinks in all its shades!
We live in the country so my biggest fear is all the critters around here – deer, rabbits and slugs!
My fear of gardening is pests and plant diseases. I don’t want to see bugs, slugs, and mold on leaves. Every year there are lots of little warms on the willow tree and I have to remove them by hand because there will be no leaves left unless I do it. It is pretty scary but I don’t want to use pesticides.
I would like to overcome my fear of pruning. I know it is often helpful to prune plants, sometimes quite a bit, so that they will grow back stronger, etc, but I am still reluctant to do it.
[…] I’m sure those of you who entered my giveaway of Loree Bohl’s new book, Fearless Gardening, plus bonus book The Bold Dry Garden, are eager […]
[…] last week I hosted a U.S.-wide giveaway of Fearless Gardening. You can read all about the book in that post. This time my giveaway is open only to Austin-area readers! To be entered, leave a comment telling […]