Reviews (15)

Clippings from Orene's Garden
Orene Stroud Horton, renowned garden writer and true southern lady gives us a wealth of practical and artistic information in this book.It is a wonderful resource for novice to expert gardners, as well as pleasant reading.Espically important arethe numerous plant combinations that provide guidance to southern gardners for beautiful color and texture. It wonderful to have her wisdom in one place and not scattered on many slips of paper. A special thanks to her family who have made this gift available to all.

A User Friendly Gardening Guide
After years of trial and error gardening that's hard on the back as well as the budget, I welcome this practical guide that tells me as much or as little as I want to know. Walking with Orene through her winter garden
This afternoon is gray and cold, but I've really been unaware of it, as I've had the companionship of Orene as she "walked me through" her winter garden.With her today, I have seen things I have never dreamed existed outside in winter. Having lived all my life in North Carolina, I have always taken for granted the flowers and trees that are indigenous to this area.My mother had a "green thumb" and worked in her roses tirelessly, humming to her heart's content.I merely enjoyed the fruits of her labor. Until today, as I walked with Orene.I was totally unaware of the wonders that take place before and during the growing season.For her to hold my attention so completely and to bring several chuckles to my lips as she describes her world has been a thing of beauty.I have several hobbies that are so different from hers (although hers was a way of life) that it really surprised me just how much I learned from her sharing and how much it kindled my interest in gardening.I can readily see how gardeners share her interests and have knowledge of the names and habits of the different flowers and trees she so beautifully describes gain much from the pages of her book.It is easy and enjoyable reading and written in such a personal way that one feels she is talking strictly to them.After having shared this adventure with Orene, I know that I will be more mindful of the surprises that lurk in my own yard and seek to see them through her eyes.How grateful I am that she has left these thoughts and the vast knowledge she had about her love of gardening so that we may benefit from her life forever.Such love and beauty should be preserved and treasured.How like her to devise a way to continue to give and to share her passion, not only for gardening, but for God's people! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. General    6. Regional - South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA   

Subjects:  1. History - General History    2. Landscape    3. Great Britain    4. Renaissance    5. England    6. Gardens (descriptions, history etc)    7. Renaissance art    8. Europe - Great Britain - General    9. English Garden Design And Planting    10. Gardening    11. Gardening/Plants   

Reviews (1)

Graceful Garden Guidance
A very useful blend of how-to gardening information, personal reflection and essays, and guided meditations... and well-written also.Barrett uses the analogy of Mind Gardening to lead the reader into a way of gardening which can be deeply transforming individually and socially. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Gardening / Horticulture    3. Inspiration & Personal Growth    4. Meditation    5. Rhetoric    6. Self-Help    7. Mind, body, spirit: disciplines & techniques   

Reviews (1)

Great set of reflective essays on the gardener's life...
One of the sad realities of growing older is that you realize what is being lost daily, and that unless we educate younger people they will not miss these things because they will not know they ever existed. For instance, says Allen Lacy in his book FURTHER AFIELD, the wild Cyclamens of Greece and Turkey are systematically dug up and shipped to unsuspecting buyers in the U.K. and the U.S.Lacy's friend Nancy Godwin of Montrose nursery in NC has worked hard over the past few decades to ensure that Cyclamens grown from seed will reach American consumers and hopefully undercut the trade in endangered bulbs. Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Flowers - General    3. Gardening    4. Gardening / Horticulture    5. Gardening/Plants    6. Gardening / General   

Reviews (1)

Relatively complex, not for beginners....
If you've reached the stage in your garden education where you're a Master Gardener or the self-taught equivalent, you will be ready for "A Garden of One's Own" by Elizabeth Lawrence (1904-85). Ms Lawrence wasa landscape architect, botanist, horticulturist, and garden writer wholived and worked in North Carolina. The editors, Scott and Ward havecompliled and distilled her writings from many sources (magazines, letters,plant society bulletins) into a useful resource.Read more

Subjects:  1. 1904-1985    2. Essays    3. Flowers - General    4. Gardening    5. Gardening / Horticulture    6. Gardening/Plants    7. Landscape    8. Landscape Horticulture    9. Lawrence, Elizabeth,    10. North Carolina    11. Southern States    12. Gardening / Essays    13. Lawrence, Elizabeth    14. Other prose: from c 1900 -    15. horticulture; garden history; garden literature; landscape architect and writer; horticultural expertise; trees and shrubs; bulbs; perennials; native plants; North Carolina; Raleigh; Charlotte   

Reviews (2)

A great gardener, sharing his wisdom
It's not often you find a book that lives up to its cover blurb, but this one does. In it the author, who has restored and maintained some of England's most important gardens, shares his own garden and plant wisdom with the reader. The cover reads " The Garden Through the Year is an Invitation to stroll around the garden, season by season, month by month....The reader receives the benefit of Thomas's tremendous experience, delivered in the form of a conversation with an intimate friend." That, together with beautiful and relevant illustrations, are what you get in this book. The Last Book from the Best
The Garden Through the Year is a beautiful and wonderful book. It would make an excellent addition to any serious gardener's own personal library. It would also make a terrific present for anyone you know who loves gardening.Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. Landscape    6. Landscape gardening    7. Landscape plants    8. Gardening / Reference   

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants   

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants   

Subjects:  1. Architecture    2. Essays    3. Landscape    4. Landscape gardening    5. Gardening   

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. General    6. Home Gardening    7. Vegetable Crops    8. Vegetables    9. Biography: general    10. Gardening / Vegetables    11. Gardens (descriptions, history etc)   

Reviews (2)

Your grandmother's garden....
THE ONCE AND FUTURE GARDENER, GARDEN WRITING FROM THE GOLDEN AGE OF MAGAZINES 1900 to 1940, by Virginia Clayton is a collection of articles printed in leading "women's" magazines over the first half of the past century. Although some of the ideas in these articles remain salient, and Clayton has inserted the current scientific (Latin) notation beside each named plant described and/or recommended by the various authors, this book is not as much a garden book as it is a useful resource for garden historians or readers who want to take a trip down memory lane. Much more information than meets the glance
Its handsome period illustrations and subtitle--garden writing from the golden age of magazines--suggest that this is just a charming exercise in nostalgia.Far from the case. These articles offer a great deal of practical gardening information from hands-on gardeners that is often very hard to find. It's particularly helful on gardening with native plants and I find myself consulting it repeatedly. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. Gardens    6. Collections & anthologies of various literary forms    7. Fiction   

Features

• Illustrated

Subjects:  1. English gardens    2. Essays    3. Fiction    4. France    5. Gardening / Horticulture    6. Gardening/Plants    7. Gardens    8. Gardens, English    9. General    10. Home Gardening    11. Literary    12. Provence    13. Provence (France)    14. Regional - General    15. Spark, Muriel - Poems & Criticism    16. Biography & Autobiography / General    17. Biography: general    18. English    19. GARDENS_FRANCE    20. Garden design & planning    21. Gardening / Regional    22. Gardens (descriptions, history etc)   

Reviews (24)

very good
I haven't spent much time looking at the recipes & I'll admit I skipped a few boring(in my eyes) paragraphs here & there.
Not so much about organic gardening
I have really enjoyed this book and felt a kindred relationship with the author.I too have gutted a house and had a garden in full swing at the same time.I loved the recipes that went along with her stories of vegetables and fruits and enjoyed the passages about her homes.
would not want her as a neighbor
While the subject matter was good, the writing style was lacking.Plus, I don't think she applies the same level of high-mindedness to herself as she does to other people.She seems to like to cut down trees but then complains later about flooding from upgradient homeowners that have cut down their trees.Also, she drowns possums.She complains that she raises her food to live on and she can't spare any to varmints.I'm not sure what she thinks the possum was eating the food for.I suspect to live on.And some of her arguments don't hold water.Like the vegetarian argument mentioned earlier.THis book could have used better editing. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Cookery (Vegetables)    2. Essays    3. Gardening    4. Gardening / Horticulture    5. Gardening/Plants    6. Gussow, Joan Dye    7. New York (State)    8. Organic    9. Organic gardening    10. Piermont    11. Vegetable gardening    12. Vegetables   

Reviews (1)

A profusely illustrated history of the Rhododendron
In collaboration with the Portland Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society, horticulturalist and gardener Sonja Nelson presents the reader with a profusely illustrated history of the Rhododendron (first discovered in 1792 by Menzies on the shore of Puget Sound), and the people who have a passion for growing, collecting, and hybridizing rhododendrons. The informative text is enhanced with beautifully executed color photography. The Pacific Coast Rhododendron Story is enhanced further with a list of West Coast Hybridizers, a list of the West Coast hybrids; a selected species form; a photo index, and an extensive bibliography for further study. Also available in a hardcover format (0832305375...), The Pacific Coast Rhododendron Story is a unique and very highly recommended reference for personal, professional, academic, garden club, and community library gardening and horticultural studies collections. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. Regional - General    6. Regional - West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY)    7. Shrubs   

Reviews (1)

My all-time favourite gardening book!
This is my most-cherished gardening book.The photography is absolutely gorgeous, the ideas accessible, and the writing is both witty and poignant.My favourite parts of the book are the planting combinations, photographed in detail and discussed; most of them are unusual and creative.I also enjoyed reading about how the design of the garden came into being, and appreciate that the author did not start out with the 'perfect' plot -- she started with a long, narrow, swampy, asphalt-covered, shady lot, in a Northern climate, and created something magical with it.There is hope for us all!There are a few task lists, arranged by season, and a few planting and growing tips, but for the most part this book is an essay on the trials and tribulations of gardening, and a photographic tribute to Marjorie Harris' overwhelming success. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Gardening / Horticulture   

Reviews (2)

A splendid gift for gardeners
With a text that glows as brightly as the book's sumptuous photography, Growing Home is a triumphant celebration of "diversity." But Ms. Price's work is far from mere political correctness; every page is warmed by her deeply felt sense of community with her subjects. From theRussian-born botanist who declares that gardening "is my soul" tothe Hmong mother preserving her Laotian heritage and feeding her extendedfamily, these men and women represent "a vast, invisible network ofpeople living full, well-integrated lives." Their serenity and commonsense testify that "even in the midst of a culture nourished on fastfoods and hurried entertainments, it is still possible to live in concordwith the rhythms of the earth." Beautifully designed and produced, thebook is a perfect gift for any garden enthusiast...I love it.

Every garden tells a story.
Growing Home is a real treasure of a book.Price has profiled a very diverse group of "transplanted" gardeners--mostly immigrants--who use gardening as a way of maintaining connections between their ethnic andcultural roots and their present-day lives in Minnesota.The profileseffectively turn the subjects' gardens into windows on their life stories,revealing the broader cultural meaning behind the simple act of tending aplot of land.Price skillfully balances the botanical, historical, andculinary backgrounds of the gardeners she profiles, and John Gregor'sphotographs are beautiful on their own.I think this book's stunninglayouts and engaging stories make its appeal extend far beyond the world ofMinnesota gardeners. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Anecdotes    2. Essays    3. Ethnic Studies - General    4. Gardeners    5. Gardening    6. Gardening / Horticulture    7. Gardening/Plants    8. Minnesota    9. Philosophy    10. Ethnic studies   

Editorial Review

Just in time for the 40th anniversary of its original publication, Margery Fish's classic gardening memoir has been published in the United States for the first time. Fish and her husband Walter, a former editor of the Read more

Reviews (3)

Great Garden, Great Book, Not So Great Marriage
Margery Fish must have loved her Walter very, very much to have put up with him all those years.Her account of the garden they made despite each other is one of the great triumphs of the "garden memoir" genre, and vastly more interesting than most such works. A Slightly Depressing Weed Of A Book
I wanted to like this book.I just finished the Dudley Warner Book, in the same classic gardening series, which I had savored like a good box of chocolates, rationing out a few pages, each day.But this one--oddly enough--depressed me slightly.It has a sad subplot.You have this stiff upper lip British Matron, who was married to Walter, who oppressed every good idea she had for their garden.She basically isn't able to implement her visions until he dies.But once he's dead you realize, in her humerous complaints, that she misses him.The rest is all gardening, without the breathtaking observations Charles Dudley Warner has, about plants, and without the richness of his language.Fish is an OK writer, but she's not great.I guess Charles Dudley Warner is an impossible act to follow.Warner has one chapter where General Ulysses Grant visits, then he realizes he must burn the chair he sat in.He's unbelievably funny.That book is full of life and a grand vision.Fish's book is somehow claustrophobic.Reading Warner's book, I feel like I'm in a most interesting place filled with surprises, in Fish's book I feel like I'm trapped in a garden, I'd rather exit.I've read about half of her book, and you'd have to pay me to finish it.I frown when I see it on the pile of books behind my comode.

Garden story....
WE MADE A GARDEN is a lovely little book by Margery Fish, an "elderly" English lady who with her husband (he who must be obeyed or cleverly deceived it seems) moved to a country manor and converted the mostly lawn areas into gardens of shrubs, flowers, and herbs. First published in the U.K. in the 1950s, the book has been republished as part of the `Modern Library Garden Series' edited by Michael Pollan. Read more

Subjects:  1. Cottage gardens    2. East Lambrook Garden (England)    3. England    4. Essays    5. Fish, Margery    6. Gardening    7. Gardening / Horticulture    8. Gardening/Plants    9. General    10. Home Gardening    11. Somerset    12. Techniques    13. Garden design & planning    14. Gardening / General    15. Gardens (descriptions, history etc)    16. Landscape art & architecture   

Features

• Audiobook

Subjects:  1. Audio Adult: Books On Tape    2. Essays    3. Gardening    4. Gardens    5. Literary collections    6. Unabridged Audio - Misc.Nonfiction    7. Fiction / General   

Reviews (3)

If you are interested in orchids...
I read this book not because I was interested in orchids but because I'm fascinated by the lore and legends of plants. It was so beautifully written and so informative that I became interested in orchids. The Orchid in Lore and Legend
Luigi Berliocchi Timber Press 1996 ISBN 0-88192-491-1 184 pages The Mystery of Orchids
This book delves into the history of orchids and their rise in popularity.Some of the topics covered include the culinary uses of orchids, orchids in literature and orchid lore involving religion.Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Flowers    3. Flowers - Orchids    4. Gardening    5. Gardening / Horticulture    6. Gardening/Plants    7. History    8. Orchid culture    9. Orchids    10. Varieties   

Reviews (1)

Drawn from a diverse cast of international authors
Knowledgeably compiled and expertly edited by Bonnie Marranca and now in a newly expanded edition, American Garden Writing: An Anthology is a an impressive and inherently fascinating collection of excerpts from classical and distinguished literature celebrating the inspiration, interplay of art and nature, and bounty of the garden. Marranca's choices drawn from a diverse cast of international authors make for enjoyable leisure reading and an unfettered celebration of mother earth's cultivated bounty. American Garden Writing is very highly recommended reading -- especially for gardening enthusiasts! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. Horticulture (General)    6. Landscape    7. Landscape Horticulture    8. American English    9. Collections & anthologies of various literary forms    10. Gardening / Essays    11. USA