5 comments about Gardening at Ginger: My Seven-Year Obsession with Designing and Planting a Personal Landscape.

1. Raimes' recounting of his "growing" obsession is subtle, graceful and altogether involving. He includes lots of background from his English childhood, gardening experts he's consulted and absorbed, his sometimes bemused wife who nevertheless stands by his often backbreaking, daylight hour devouring transformation of a landscape into areas of inviting woods, stonework, flower beds, greensward, specimen trees and water. It made me stop and think in a new way about my own gardening and enriched my understanding of what all gardeners do.



2. The essays and stories that make up Gardening at Ginger are about things like greenness (the color, not the movement), the author's city-born-and-bred wife's reaction to insects that get indoors (not hospitable) and where to place a bench. James Raimes' writing is by turns personable, erudite, witty and earnest, and his book goes a long way toward explaining why gardening, an activity that regularly leaves its practitioners filthy, pooped and bleeding, also makes them so happy.



3. Seven years ago the author and his wife bought a country home on nine acres in upstate New York, calling it 'Ginger' and evoking in him a desire to learn about plants and gardening. Raimes grew up in England, so his instinct in this area was always there: his desire to shape a landscape proved challenging, however, and GARDENING AT GINGER: MY SEVEN-YEAR OBSESSION WITH DESIGNING AND PLANTING A PERSONAL LANDSCAPE reviews his efforts, achievements and failures alike. A vivid memoir of the 'gardening bug' involves all.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



4. What an amazing and enchanting book! So different from the run of the mill "how to". The author shares his plans, dreams, hopes, experiences with the reader. (After completing the chapter on Digging in Clay, I was so exhausted that I needed a lie down to recover.) Please can we have a sequel or at least a blog with photos and maps. I want to see it all.



5. I am actually not done with this book yet but am thoroughly enjoying it. I would think that only a dedicated, avid gardener would like this book. I, too, am obsessed with my gardens - which are still young (2 years) and I am quite impatient for improvement and growth. So, I can completely relate to the experiences this author went through. I actually take comfort in reading it and come out the other end with great hopes! It is very inspiring from a garden design standpoint and helps one realize that the sweating, aching back, itchy bug bites, and dirty finger nails are all worth it in the end. There is also subtle humor within. I only wish that there were photographs of all the gardens discussed - unless the point was for the reader to picture them in their mind's eye?

4 comments about 12 Lessons on Life I Learned from My Garden: Spiritual Guidance from the Vegtable Patch.

1. 12 Lessons on Life I Learned from My Garden : Spiritual Guidance from the Vegetable Patch by Vivian Elisabeth Glyck is one of those books that might bring a joyful tear in your eye. Brilliantly written. She uses real-life metaphores from her beautiful garden. Most of them are about problems I still face in my life. Most likely this woman is wiser than she might realize herself. This is no vague spiritual stuff - this is a real-life reality check, quite tough and tender.

   If my friends would read this, we could change our daily lives. Not only because we change our perception of events and therefore we may project other things and events in our lives, but mainly because we actually will change our behaviour.

   I started to like the book in 1997, and it is getting stronger and stronger because it is still very practical and applicable. It is as if she's talking to me. It's absolutely lovely.

   Guys give it as a present to your wives or girl-friends.

   Girls go and get it and read it to your man while lying together in bed.

   Go out buy it, read it and it will never ever go away from your life.

   Vivian you did something beautiful to the world. What's your next project?




2. As a Christian, I did not find the 12 spiritual lessons helpful, because they were not Biblically based.



3. This is book is a quick read with many wonderful thoughts
   that make you reflect on your life (and even on your garden).

   The author's sharp truths really struck home for me. So often we
   just rush through our days trying to force our lives down a
   certain path. Ms. Glyck's lessons help us to step back and see
   the bigger picture of what's going on in our lives and what
   action we can take to help our current circumstances.

   You don't have to know anything about gardening to enjoy and
   benefit greatly from this beautiful little book.




4. Truly one of the best spiritual books out there, written in such a down to earth manner.

2 comments about A Garden's Promise: Spiritual Reflections on Growing from the Heart.

1. I could not resist picking this book up at the book store. And now I cannot put it down! Already I have given it to several friends as gifts (it is priced low enough to do that) and they think I'm totally brilliant because of my selection. I wish the author would do more on this topic. She obviously has much to offer her readers and does so with an absolutely delightful passion for her subject.



2. This book is beautiful in its layout, design, photos, but most of all in its message. It offers great tips on growing plants, and also on growing your soul. Judith Couchman is a gifted communicator and a great gardener, and a woman of strong faith. All of these gifts shine through in this wonderful book. I recommend it.

No comments about Gardens of Alcatraz.

1 comments about Gardens of Use & Delight: Uniting the Practical and Beautiful in an Integrated Landscape.

1. It would be hard to overpraise this exceptional book. Written by two people who are master practitioners of our grandparents' ways of living as well as master gardeners, this book is a gem!
   It is at once a book on gardening (flowers, herbs, fruits & vegetables) and independent living, a book of recipes and remedies, and an arresting narrative of thirty years of work creating a self-sufficient life (and all manner of wonderful gardens) on the bare bones of an old, abandoned farm on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. It is also a book of considerable visual beauty, being generously illustrated in vibrant watercolors by Champlain Valley artist Elayne Sears.
   I found Gardens of Use and Delight not only meaningful and enjoyable reading, but also a very useful reference for many aspects of flower, herb, fruit and vegetable gardening, and for all manner of things "homemade." The recipes in the chapters, "The Kitchen Garden," "The Contained Garden," and "An Old-Fashioned Fruit Garden" are mouth-watering gems often rescued from the cookbooks of yesteryear (the Herb Salt and Apple Ginger recipes to name two favorites!) And the wisdom and humanity distilled from the lives of these two people who decided to truly live their beliefs is instructive and inspiring.
   Perhaps more importantly, though, the book is a reminder of the elements of a rich and healthy life that have been forgotten, if not lost, in these times.
   I recommend it highly!

2 comments about Gardens of Inspiration.

1. Beautifully enhanced with the photography of Vivian Russell and deftly edited by Erica Hunningher, Gardens Of Inspiration is a gorgeously illustrated showcase of lush and memorable gardens that serve as personal inspiration for fifteen of the greatest gardeners and horticulturalists from around the world. Thoughtful, informative, and occasionally inspiring narrative text, combined with insights for garden aesthetics and beauty, and truly dazzling color photography mark Gardens Of Inspiration a superb choice as a giftbook for gardening and plant enthusiasts, and an outstanding Memorial Fund acquisition selection for community libraries.



2. The photos did not inspire me at all. Too many individual plant pics, too many boring or small pics. Better to just get a free plant catalogue.

1 comments about My Garden in Summer (My Garden Series).

1. E. A. Bowles book, MY GARDEN IN SUMMER, is part of a several part series of books he wrote describing his garden at Myddelton England during his tenure in the early part of the 20th Century.

   I bought this book because I enjoyed books written by Beverly Nichols, an English writer who moved to the countryside after WWII and rebuilt the garden surrounding an old house. Nichols has the help of an excentric gardener, and all sorts of adventures with his cats and kooky maiden neighbors. I thought Mr. Bowles would prove to be another Brit gardener with a wry sense of humour but he is not -- at least in this book.

   I am also a fan of Elizabeth Lawrence, a horticulturist with the N.C. State government who practiced her craft in the latter part of the 20th Century, beginning in the 1940s. Ms Lawrence referred to Mr. Bowles books in her own books. I love Ms. Lawrence writing because she not only provides the scientific particulars of each plant, she shares the gardening experiences relayed to her via her correspondance -- with Mr. Howdyshel in Ohio and gardeners in other parts of the country. Ms. Lawrence also provides the reader with many anectdotal bits about the plants, as well as the history of the plant. Ms. Lawrence is factual, sometimes amusing though not funny, and I find her books entertaining.

   If MY GARDEN IN SUMMER is a fair sample of Mr. Bowles writing, his book will appeal to no one but the avid historical garden enthusiast with an in-depth knowledge of plants and curiostity about another gardener's experiences with various plants at different times in the last century. Or, someone who intends to visit Myddleton Garden in England, or has visited it might enjoy the book. Being able to see the real thing often helps, and the gardens are being restored--probably why the book was republished.

   Mr. Bowles book contains a dozen or so black and white photos of mixed quality. For some reason, about half of them appear in the section he wrote on sedums and succulents. One photo in particular is very pretty, showing a long terrace with about 30-40 pots of various succulents. I'd like a blow-up of that photograph for it's aesthetic properties. You won't be able to identify many of the succulents in the pots, however.

   An appendix in the back of the book provides the reader with the current names of the plants Mr. Bowles discusses. In spite of this update, I found the sections of greatest interest to me a bit deficient. On my next visit to England, I will visit Myddleton Garden, and then I'll reread the book -- or sections of it. That should help me better appreciate it.

No comments about Just Weeds: History, Myths and Uses.

No comments about Rosemary Verey's Garden Diary.

1 comments about Visions of Paradise.

1. This is pure garden porn. I bought it solely because of one picture of a garden seldom shown, Castello Balduino in the hills outside Pavia. The concept of the book is to assemble great photos gathered through the career of the photographer. They are then presented chapter-wise under headlines like Italian Style and Potager. Take an armchair journey to some of the most fantastic gardens of the world presented in glorious photos.