Check Out “Dig This” Bookazine!

I am super excited to tell you about a new gardening magazine/book called Dig This, put out by a buddy I know through the magic of the internet, Kelly Norris. And my excitement is only in part because yours truly has a small article in what Kelly is calling a “bookazine.” Mostly I am excited because this part book, part magazine is exactly what the gardening world needs. It’s fun and hip, while still thoughtful and interesting.

So what exactly is a “bookazine” you ask? As far as I can tell, it is what would happen if a plant hybridizer turned his attentions toward crossing a book with a magazine. It has articles like you’d expect from a magazine, but doesn’t have any advertising (except for the back cover). And has way more articles than a typical magazine.

The bulk of the bookazine is divided into four sections, one section for each season. In each season’s section there are plants profiled that are particularly stunning at that time of year, along with articles discussing gardening techniques or other relevant info.

The section my little article is in is called “How’s It Growin” and features short essays from gardeners all around the country. My essay is about having at least one special plant that you love in your garden. For me, that’s bearded irises. Also included in this issue is an op-ed critiquing the mailorder plant industry, an ode to what Kelly calls “zoneworthy” plants, and some neat plants (with beautiful photos) that you might not have tried…yet.

To give you a sample of the kind of interesting things you can find in Dig This, I thought I’d share the plant selections from one of my favorite articles in the bookazine…

Eryngium Mentioned in Dig This

Photo by Giannux

Have you ever heard of Eryngium? Sometimes it’s called Sea Holly, though it’s not native to areas close to the ocean. I started picking up this neat looking plant on my radar a week or so before receiving Dig This in the mail. It is a really neat looking plant that produces flowers that look like miniature pineapples sitting atop a blue star burst. Yeah. They’re that kind of awesome. So imagine how stoked I was when I saw an article dedicated to Eryngium. Here are the varieties mentioned in the article:

Blue Hobbit – Kelly describes these plants as “adorably dwarf” and in his own garden, pairs the steely blue plants with a grey-green sedum and creeping thyme. I bet it looks very sophisticated and chic.
‘Big Blue’ – Kelly lovingly calls Big Blue a “diva plant” and I think it would look awesome with most of the orange plants listed in the blue-orange post I published a couple of weeks ago. Orange cosmos anyone?! Wowza. I also saw one recently that was growing next to a purple smoke bush. That looked awesome too.
Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium) – A stunning plant with yucca-like leaves and thistle-like, greenish-white flowers. Native to the Eastern half of the U.S.
Eryngium leavenworthii -

If you think these bad boys are cool, then you will love the rest of Dig This, it was chock full of cool plants and interesting gardening info, not to mention short pieces about regular gardening “stuff” written by all sorts of gardeners all over the U.S.

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