‘How to Buy the Right Plants, Tools and Garden Supplies’

Jim Fox is a senior citizen. I know he is a senior citizen because he qualifies for a “senior coffee” at McDonald’s. More about Fox’s rapidly advancing age later.

If you like gardening or know someone who does, and you need a stocking stuffer for Christmas, consider Fox’s latest book: How to Buy the Right Plants, Tools and Garden Supplies. This 2013 pocket-sized book by the Timber Press is the latest significant accomplishment of a local fellow who has done well.

Before I review the book, I should dwell a little longer on describing the elderly Fox. Jim Fox was born and raised in Palmer, a third generation descendant of New Deal Colonists. He graduated from Palmer High School in 1974. Shortly thereafter, in 1980, he published his first book — The First Summer — a coffee table photo history of the beginning of Palmer in 1935. It is excellent and now a valuable collector’s item.

Fox became a nationally recognized authority on both the Palmer New Deal Colony and gardening. He was an instrumental figure in the creation of the feature length movie “Alaska Far Away,” about Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal Colony in Palmer, which brought his own family to Alaska.

He has also been widely published in national horticultural publications. He has served on the national board of the American Rock Garden Society, and for four years he was the seminar coordinator for the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle. He is both a private horticultural consultant and a leader of overseas garden tours.

In short, he has become a national commentator on both gardening and the New Deal Colony in Palmer. Not bad for an old man.

Fox’s latest book is the kind of gift someone should have bought me decades ago, before I made most of the mistakes he cautions against. For example, Chapter Three, at first, seems overly basic “How to Read a Plant Tag or Catalog Description.” Yet, in fact, the chapter explains what is not self-evident in such tags and gets into the heart of potential long-range problems from misunderstanding “plant size” descriptions and how in the long run you may have to face the reality that “there’s no disgrace in cutting down a tree...” because you didn’t really understand the tag was talking about 10 years of growth as opposed to a lifetime…

Fox is pretty good at keeping his core convictions neutral in the book, however, there are moments where the righteous indignation of the old gardener boils to the surface, as in Chapter One where he states: “Some communities have absurd laws about cutting down trees that reward people who leave huge trees susceptible to wind damage or to falling on you or your neighbor’s home…”

One suspects the Palmer winds left an indelible scar on old Fox. Nevertheless, it is sound advice and a perhaps genetic Alaskan suspicion of too much government.

The book is in paperback form and really is a great buy. From the first chapters on how to assess your garden potential and then plan and budget for a good result, through the chapters on how to get the best plants, to the final chapters on proper tools, it is an easy practical read. For established gardeners, there are plenty of little hints for gardening that might very well still be new ideas for even a veteran horticulturist.

It is interesting that the book fails to mention Fox’s significant history with the Alaska State Fair flower and plant judging. While perhaps not germane to the purpose of the book, anyone who knows Fox understands his sensitivity to the topic. Apparently, once in his capacity as a judge, he became quite animated when someone mislabeled an entry by failing to understand it was a crabapple not a cherry. Although judge comments are allowed, generally speaking, the contestant names are covered, and the comments are normally professional. Judge Fox, however, somehow saw the name of one contestant, a former high school student from the Palmer High School class of 1976, and then wrote several rather uncharitable comments about the minor error. I have forgiven Fox for his poor temperament and have offered this objective book review for the old codger as a token of my appreciation for his talent, in spite of his elderly foibles.

For long-term local people, the Acknowledgments section at the end of the book is a pleasurable walk down memory lane, as Fox kindly acknowledges his Palmer roots and the people who set his fascinating mind on a course of engaging and productive writing.

Everyone in the Valley will have the opportunity to meet old Fox at 11:30 a.m., Dec. 21, at Fireside Books, where he will be available in person to sign his new book.

It would be a great opportunity to meet the genial old geezer (Jim Fox, PHS ’75) in the flesh, ask him about his breach of judicial protocol at the state fair garden display, and get a stocking stuffer at the same time.

Talis Colberg, Palmer High School class of 1976, is a former schoolmate of Jim Fox. He currently serves as director of Matanuska-Susitna College, after stints as borough mayor and Alaska’s attorney general.