Gardening Comment from Michelle:

My mother in law bought your book for me when I was first married.  I have enjoyed it immensely.  It is rather thrashed, but none-the-less fabulous.

I decided to find out if Australian Peppers will allow plants to grow underneath them.  While reading your posts, I discovered that you went to Scripps College.  Last year I brought my three children to the Margret Fowler Garden for a first look.  They enjoyed it immensely.

Thank you for your tireless work for the California gardener.

Response from Pat:

Thank you so much, Michelle, for your appreciative comments. It sounds as if you have an older edition of my book. They are all good but the first edition published in 1991 is outdated. The second edition published in 2000 is still very good but includes a lot of products that are not organic and many that are no longer made. The third edition published in 2010 is all organic.

As I may have stated in the post you read, I was married in the Margaret Fowler Memorial Garden on the afternoon of the day I graduated from college. My husband and I were married for 45 happy years until he died. He was a lawyer and a judge and never a gardener, but he appreciated my garden and was very admiring. We had 2 daughters and 5 grandchildren. I now have 8 great-grandchildren and another en route. All of them plus 3 nephews and their families spent Easter Sunday in my garden.

I have recently retired from writing garden books and giving garden lectures, but I plan to continue this blog indefinitely and painting in watercolors and oils for the rest of my life. The reason I retired is two-fold. First Chronicle Books stopped printing my organic book which means I have no books to sell at my talks. Secondly lymphedema in one leg slowed me down. The time spent in the morning getting the swelling down and compression stockings pulled on and then reaching the venues on time was too stressful. When I was younger I could take it, but in three more years I’ll be 90. It’s a shame in a way since everything in my books and a whole lot more is still jammed in my brain and readily available. Also, i can still give a good talk and make my audience laugh a lot en route.

Thanks for writing!