Rosemary’s Garden: A Photo Almanac of a Midwestern Cottage Garden is a celebration of my mom’s life work. She’s worked the garden for as long as I can remember and still walks it and marvels in what comes up more than 60 years since she started.
It’s also a celebration of the seasons in the Midwest, as written about in A Midwestern Almanac: Pageant of the Seasons. That book was written by Dr. Austin L. Rand and his wife, Rheua M. Rand. They were our neighbors. Mrs. Rand taught my mom a lot about gardening. She was like a second mother to her and grandmother to my brother and me.
In the 1950s, the Rands were also neighbors of my grandfather, who published the newspaper in our town, Chesterton, Ind. The book grew out of columns he asked the Rands to publish in the newspaper. Dr. Rand was head of zoology at the Field Museum of Natural History, and Mrs. Rand was a biologist. They spent a lot of time watching and recording the plant and animal life in the Indiana Dunes ecosystem.
Here are some Spring images. The book is scheduled for publication in Spring 2025. If you’d like to get our updates, drop me an email at collin@collincanright.com
