As mulching, planting and weeding took more and more of my time, I had less and less time for reading. In the spring, I was lucky enough to get through Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilema,” a must-read for anyone who likes to eat. I breezed through “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” but, it took me all summer to get through Elizabeth Royte’s “Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash,” — a mere 336 pages about landfills, recycling programs and dreams of zero waste.*

Somehow I still found the time to buy books, a stack of good intentions waiting patiently for the first snowy Saturday morning and a cup of coffee. Amy Stewart’s “Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers” is a the top. The bright orange cover taunts me, “Why plant mums when you can read about the flower industry?”

Good point, little book. Maybe I’ll skip the mums and grind up some coffee beans.

Besides all the colorful, drool-inducing catalogs, what garden reads are you looking forward to this winter? What titles would you recommend to other gardening bookworms? Do you make it through your pile, or give into guilty pleasures like Harry Potter?

This weekend you can do something for the environment — and your garage: Recycle your plastic plant pots.

You can drop off clean plastic pots between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at metro-area garden centers, including Linder’s, Highland, Gertens, Lotus, Mickman, Dundee and area Bachman’s. (For a complete list of participating garden centers, go to www.GardenMinnesota.com.
They’ll take garden pots of any size and color, but hanging pots should have the hangers removed. (No household plastic.)

Plastic plant pots are the bane of green-leaning gardeners. Most nurseries don’t re-use them because of the risk of spreading plant diseases, and many cities (including Minneapolis and St. Paul) don’t recycle them. This is your chance to see that those pots stacked in your garage become landscape lumber instead of landfill fodder. C’mon green gardeners! Do your part!

All by myself
Don’t wanna be
All by myself
Anymore

Remember that old Eric Carmen chestnut? (or, a Celine Dion chestnut, if you’re younger than I am). It’s stuck in my head today.

Normally, I tend to think of gardening as a solitary activity. It’s blissful to have a day to myself, shovel in hand, cavorting with plants that don’t talk back, aren’t sarcastic and offer hope of great things to come. Being by myself in the garden means time to think, reflect and plan.

But this time of year, specificially this weekend, the social side of gardening shines. It’s high season for plant sales, like the mammoth Friends School plant sale and the sale at the Minnesota Arboretum. But those are just the beginning. Numerous garden clubs, such as the Dowling Community Garden offer plants for sale this weekend, too. There’s a big list in the Star Tribune gardening calendar. Oh, and did I mention that this is the biggest weekend of the year at local garden centers? You can find one near you in our new garden center guide.

Everyone who has ever bought mom a hanging basket (and there are millions of you) know it’s a sea of shoppers out there. I know because I worked at Bachman’s garden center on Lyndale many years ago. I still remind myself not to wear purple or green while doing my own shopping there because everyone asks me where stuff is. Even after 15 years, I almost always know, so I don’t even bother to tell them I don’t work there.

Since I have a tiny touch of agoraphobia — fear of crowds — it’s sometimes challenging for me to join the masses to get to the plants I covet most. But I do it anyway, and am always rewarded for taking the risk in ususual ways.

Last year at the Friends sale, I stood in line next to a doctor from Paraguay and really loved learning what it was like for her to work in a suburban hospital here. I saw so many coworkers at the sale, it was practically a reunion (though I’m sure they weren’t playing hooky like I was). I watched kids and parents and grandparents come together around an interest.

Being around people who share a love of gardening reminds me some things are bigger than me and my shovel. There’s positive energy and good things growing almost everywhere. And there’s great joy in having company like that.

I’ve been poking around the garden centers lately. I haven’t blown my paycheck yet. Only because two things have saved me. 1.) The plants I’m looking for aren’t in yet. (”Coupla weeks,” I keep hearing. “Coupla weeks.” And 2.) I have a list.

A list is what Smart Shoppers carry. A list doesn’t prevent them from making impulse buys, but it can help limit the number of just-gotta-have-it plants that end up in one’s shopping basket.

Some other tips from Smart Shoppers:

Unless you love crowds, shop when it’s raining, or on weekdays or nights. (Thursdays rock. The shelves are stocked, crowds are thin and some stores start their weekend specials then.) If you have to shop on weekends, go early or late.

Go to the big garden centers for one-stop shopping. Head to the smaller, specialty nurseries for unusual plants.

Don’t forget about the plant sales sposonsored by plant societies, garden clubs and fundraising groups. Many of them have good prices and selections.

Do your homework before you go. Know what kind of soil you have, how much sun your garden gets, and what kind of space you’re trying to fill.

Ask questions, but don’t believe everything you hear. (Few plants need no care, grow to 10 times their size, bloom all summer and put themselves to bed in the fall.) Temporary seasonal staff may not know their stuff. Find someone who does or hit the books.

Bigger isn’t always better, especially when it comes to perennials. Smaller plants transplant more easily and can be cheaper. Go for healthy, not huge.

Try not to get carried away. Remember, little plants get bigger and fill in. Do the math in your head (or on your cellphone) before you get to the cash register. Screaming “HOW MUCH???” in the checkout line is bad form.

Check out our garden center guide in the Home+Garden section on Wednesday and online at www.startribune.com/gardenguide. And share your Smart Shopper tips with us.

Last week, author (and gardener) Michael Pollan spoke at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum about his latest book ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’. The event was a part of the Arboretum’s 2007 Public Policy Program.

Curious about who grows our food and how it gets on our dinner plate, Pollan explored farms, feedlots and forests. The result is a fascinating (and sometimes very amusing) journey through our country’s confounding food landscape. By the end of first chapter, I was in love with ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ (Seriously, who knew the history of corn could be so fascinating?) and could hardly wait for Pollan’s presentation.

Thursday, the lecture hall was packed and I was anxious to learn how I could turn this knowledge into action. I expected to be blown away, but, to my great disappointment, instead of expanding upon the book, Pollan merely summarized it (MPR will broadcast his talk later in the week).

Food scientists, nutritionists, cattle ranchers and local chefs, several times my attention shifted to the who’s who around the room. I suddenly realized that these were the folks working behind the scenes to create a sustainable food chain. Pollan was but a megaphone for their message.

The real hero of the day was Mary Vidas, the arboretum’s public policy manager who brought together all these people from their diverse, yet interconnected disciplines. She was surprised when Robyn and I asked for an interview, but we were curious about something as simple as plants and something as complicated as public policy intersected. (You can hear our interview by pressing the play button on the right. Don’t forget to use your headphones if you’re at the office.). As it turns out, we often take both for granted.

What did you think of ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma?’ Where do you see plants and public policy intersecting? Do you know where your dinner comes from?