New Jersey Author to Offer In-Depth Look at Presidents' Gardens

From Somerset County Library System of New Jersey:

Somerset County Library System of New Jersey is offering the community an opportunity to take a look into the lighter side of the White House. With wit and insight, garden historian and New Jersey-based author Marta McDowell will trace the fascinating story of how our presidents and their families have left their imprint upon the 18 acres surrounding the executive mansion.

“Come for an entertaining and refreshingly non-partisan look at the history of the White House gardens and how they reflect America's garden history, the red, white and blue — and green,” says McDowell, whose book, All the Presidents' Gardens: Madison's Cabbages to Kennedy's Roses, was featured in the New York Times “Fashion, Manners, & Culture” bestseller list for September.

McDowell will present about All the Presidents’ Gardens on the following dates: Oct. 10 from 2-3 p.m. at SCLSNJ’s Manville Library branch, located at 100 S. 10th Ave. in Manville; Oct. 11 from 7-8 p.m. at SCLSNJ’s Peapack and Gladstone Library branch, located at the Municipal Complex on School St. in Peapack; Oct. 29 from 11 a.m. to noon at SCLSNJ’s Mary Jacobs Memorial Library branch, located at 64 Washington St. in Rocky Hill; Nov. 17 from 7-8 p.m. at SCLSNJ’s Bridgewater Library branch, located at 1 Vogt Dr. in Bridgewater, and Nov. 18 from 1-2 p.m. at SCLSNJ’s Bound Brook Memorial Library branch, located at 402 E. High St. in Bound Brook.

McDowell’s book, All the Presidents' Gardens: Madison's Cabbages to Kennedy's Roses, is available at SCLSNJ for checkout. SCLSNJ will be giving away a signed copy of the book during an upcoming Free Book Friday promotion on the Library System’s Facebook page.

Registration is required to attend these programs. Further information is available through the SCLSNJ website.

Marta McDowell lives, gardens and writes in Chatham. She teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden and consults for private clients and public gardens. Timber Press published Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, which won a 2014 Gold Award from the Garden Writers Association. Her first book, Emily Dickinson’s Gardens, came out in 2005. Her 2016 book on the history of American gardening, as seen through the White House grounds, is called All the Presidents’ Gardens, and she is working on a manuscript for Timber Press with the working title A Wilder Garden: The Plants and Places of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House books.

Her husband, Kirke Bent, summarizes her biography as, “I am therefore I dig.”

Photo courtesy of SCLSNJ