Former Prof. launches new book!!

One of my professors and advisers as an undergrad at the UW is having a book launch tomorrow night at the UW Botanic Garden's Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle. Professor Sarah Reichard has written "The Conscientious Gardener: Cultivating A Garden Ethic". A total departure for her as someone who's used to technical writing for scientific journals and such, but as an avid gardener, she's combined both worlds into a book that looks to be an easy and pleasant read.




Sarah is an authority on invasive species and has played an important role in raising awareness towards plants that have become so problematic in our ecosystems. She's also a conservation biologist and has put that knowledge base to work in a program called Rare Care. Rare Care enlists a large group of volunteers each year to head out into the wilds of the Pacific Northwest and monitor species known to be threatened and study their population to ensure their survival and continued existence. Pretty awesome, huh?


The very first class I took in my major was her Intro to Urban Ecology course, which definitely set the tone of my studies and my awareness towards the heavily utilized and disturbed environments around me and how plants and people play their roles. It's one things to garden and make the world a more beautiful place to live, but what Sarah has instilled is, you have to do it responsibly and this is what the book is all about.

As much as I'm stoked about her new book and all of her efforts in putting it together, I have to be a bit critical about it's "imaging". We never should judge a book by it's cover; no, but we're human and will often do so anyway. In a highly competitive field where books in print are slowly and sadly dwindling, the publishers could have done a MUCH BETTER job with the cover. The photo is nice, but the choice of font is very "old school" and the whole packaging gives it a "just picked up on the 50 cent pile of used books at the local Goodwill". I had similar comments about Dan Hinkley's "The Explorer's Garden" a few years ago; I just hope people actually open it up and start reading about a lot of vital information we should be keeping in mind as we work in our landscapes.

Do join us and help launch her book and support a great conservation program as well as proceeds go towards Rare Care:

* Thursday, February 17, 2011
* 6:45 pm Reception and Book-Signing; 7:30 pm Lecture
* Co-sponsored with UW Botanic Gardens
* Location: NHS Hall, Center for Urban Horticulture
* Tickets are $15; for reservations, contact Karin Kravitz at
nwhort@aol.com or 206.780.8172

Her books will be for sale. Let's help her out in numbers so they reprint it with a better cover!!! heheh


Cheers,

Riz