THE 3,000 MILE GARDEN Two professional gardeners, one British, the other American, having met at a New Hampshire "mushroom foray," continue to share their gardening adventures in this delightful collection of their letters. Journalist/author Land (The Modern Country Cook) has country gardens in Cushing, Maine, and upstate New York; Phillips, a prolific writer/lecturer and plant photographer (Quest for the Rose), gardens by committee in London's three-acre city park at Eccleston Square. The difference in their situations intrigues them both and is instructive. They exchange discoveries about climate, garden design, rare and common cultivars, soils, mulches, pests and numerous other details of concern to gardeners. They spice their letters with botanical myth and gossip, bits of local history and geography and custom, and compare favorite recipes for their edible plants. Among other titillations, Phillips tells her how he heated a ham in mulch, and Land describes her experiments with diluted urine as a greening agent. But every page in this chatty, exuberant book is a feast of tips and surprises whose abundance and utility well serve any gardener. Photos not seen by PW. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Library Journal Land is an American food writer who gardens; Phillips is a London-based plant photographer and writer who cooks. The two met in 1989 at a mushroom bash in New Hampshire and began a conversation that was too good to end. They continued it by mail. The resulting letters, through 1994, make up a book that is an exchange of ideas, drawings, practical tips, recipes, and personal tidbits. The correspondence is also the basis of a public television series that will air beginning in December of this year. Of particular interest are Phillips's references to the garden squares of London. We learn a bit about their history, the committee that oversees them, and the assaults on them by builders of high rises and car parks. Land's garden is in Maine, and the reader enjoys following her struggles with weather, soil, and terrain. The letters, witty and entertaining, are unfortunately published with no linking narrative, leaving gaps and unanswered questions. Though not an essential purchase, this book nevertheless will be enjoyed where anglophilic gardeners or public television fans are numerous. Carol Cubberley, Univ. of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

I am so glad, Sue, I know everyone will enjoy it! Funny you mention the cost. When I first embarked on this, I was thinking it will be a big impact present where the gift is our time not the cost. Yikes, even with the 50% off, each book was $200 OMG. I didn't really expect that, but after all the work putting it together, I wasn't going to go back and trim. I may regret making them so large, 11x14, but I know i usually like photos to be bigger. I also fell for that very pricey for that "lay flat" upgrade that allow you to do those "centerfold" shots. Heck, i actually fell for every type of upgrade they offered, including a storage box. And then I have the engraved USBs and those boxes. But oh they will be so pretty. I actually went with this one because I liked the idea of putting a photo with it. They also have them in navy, grey, and Tiffany blue. I was upset that I had to switch my product to Shutterfly, but I have to give them a big shout out. They have added so many features to their books, and so many options for designing them. Plus, they still had my photos on there from 2005, though I had not done business w them in years. In some cases, they were photos i did not find anywhere else in my files. Whew. One of the best parts of making the book was doing the captions, and adding in things like scans of their footprints, their baby announcements, etc. I also commissioned DH to write a letter to each of them talking about the day they were born and their first few years. He did a wonderful job, brought tears to my eyes and made me laugh, too. We finished yesterday. Finally. Annie - love that tree! we do have a few photo ornaments, but a whole tree! Fab Running - Even from book 1 to book 3 i got better at it and fancier. There are soooooo many options and embellishments and features. And if you have the right dates on your photos, the autofill feature is a great start. Enjoy!

I have written a book and had it published by a publisher. It was a nonfiction business book that I wrote with a colleague of mine. We thought we had a good idea for a book, but did not have an agent, so we doubted that we would have much chance of getting published. We did use the Writer's Market as Jay06 above suggested, and prepared a proposal that included sample chapters, an outline and the other things recommended in Writer's Market. We made a list of publishers that, based on their descriptions, might be interested in the book. We sent our proposal out to the top three, figuring that we would work our way down the list as we got our rejections from those publishers. To our surprise (and delight!), two of the first three publishers were interested. Each of them had very different ideas on how to price and market the book, and we chose the one that we thought could get more copies sold. Anyway, it has sold pretty well over the years and in any event, it's fun to see one's name in print. We have by no means gotten rich from sales, but the royalties have provided some consistent "extra money" twice a year. If you are trying to sell a book, definitely getting a publisher is much easier than self publishing unless you have the energy and talent to market it yourself. However, if you have no intent on publishing for sale and just want to have the book for fun, Shutterfly seems the perfect option.

Ah, photos. I've never been good at organizing my own which ended up stuffed in lots of cardboard boxes-many still in the photo envelopes from back in the day when you got em printed at Walgreens or CVS. I also took all of the photo albums and loose photos when we cleared my MIL's house. And last year when my dad died I took HIS photos when we cleared the house. I've started going through them and as others have done, I was pretty clear about dumping certain categories. I do not save vacation pictures, or pictures of friends and friend gatherings. For some reason my MIL was extremely fond of taking pictures of rooms and household objects she had-gone. I took pictures out of albums and then loosely started organizing them in photo boxes, usually grouped by families and/or individuals. I use Shutterfly to make photo albums and I do enjoy that process. I made one of my BIL's life in pictures for what turned out to be his last Christmas, and he was very moved by seeing a lot of images that he'd not viewed in many years. Have done an album for my son in law of baby/childhood pictures of my daughter, which he also seemed to like. Still want to do my son's equivalent for my DIL--they dealt with infertility for several years so I didn't know if she would want to see lots of baby pictures but now they've had their daughter so I will probably do that for Christmas. I do struggle with discarding pictures of my kids; it's just so damn difficult to throw away their images, even the ones that are blurry or not well composed. I'm not generally very sentimental but photos are an exception, I am so reluctant to see entire batches of family images tossed out. And at least unlike furniture or other large objects they don't take up huge amounts of space!