Gardens are wonderful places but keeping them in good condition seems to take a lot of work, leaving gardeners little time to just enjoy them.
Some people have managed to not only work at and enjoy their gardens, however, but have also found time to write about their garden experience.
A number of excellent books extol the virtues of the garden and allow us to dream even if we don't have a real garden to enjoy. If you like gardens, these books will inspire you to new understanding of the beauty around you.
A Blessing of Toads, with delightful colour illustrations by writer Sharon Lovejoy, is a collection of her "Heart's Ease" columns from Country Living magazine. This book is a satisfying read and a source of advice and inspiration, with chapters such as "The Seediest Garden in the Neighbourhood" and "How to Enchant a Wasp." Share in the down-and-dirty of the garden as well as the appreciation of its inhabitants. Sit on the porch in an evening and experience with the author the joys of the natural world around you.
Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden by Diane Ackerman celebrates the sensory pleasures to be discovered in a garden. Whether deadheading flowers, feeding hummingbirds or studying slugs, she enjoys all aspects of the work and the pleasure of her garden. Sprinkled with garden history and lore, the lyrical prose invites the reader to share in the wonders of the garden world.
For gardeners with a philosophical bent or philosophers who enjoy metaphor, Gardening Philosophy for Everyone: Cultivating Wisdom is a fascinating collection of essays from a variety of writers, each with a unique slant on the contemplation, history and the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of gardens. This is a great book to read on a plane or snuggled inside on a cold winter night.
For a more light-hearted look at gardens and gardening, take time to relax with Des Kennedy's books The Passionate Gardener: Adventures of an Ardent Green Thumb and Crazy about Gardening: Reflections on the Sweet Seductions of a Garden. These irreverent, tongue-in-cheek essays about the follies and foibles of the passionate gardener capture the brilliance of the gardening life, with all its successes and failures, as well as the moments of sheer delight that make all the work worthwhile.
If you enjoy memoirs as well as gardens, have a look at My Natural History: The Evolution of a Gardener by Liz Primeau. In this captivating story, the author reveals her lifelong passion for gardening, from her childhood theft of green onions from her father's vegetable garden, through raising four children, to her career as editor of Canadian Gardening magazine. Packed with fascinating facts on the history and art of gardening as well as advice, this book is for everyone who enjoys a relationship with growing things.
Gardens are developed to individual taste and much of who we are is influenced by the land around us. The Garden that You Are by Katherine Gordon explores this idea through the lives and stories of eight very different gardeners from B.C.'s Slocan Valley. Richly illustrated with photographs and full of anecdotes, history, gardening advice and recipes, this book is about everyone who is a gardener, whether in fact or imagination.
These and many more garden-inspired books are available at your public library.
A Good Read is a column by Tri-City librarians that is published every Wednesday. Barbara Buxton is head of adult services at Port Moody Public Library.
