The Writer in the Garden

December 1, 1998
This delightful collection of writings from gardeners and writers who consider themselves somewhat knowledgeable about the challenges of gardening is a fun and thought-provoking read. Garmey, a writer and television/audio producer, released an audio book under the same title last year and has used it as the basis for this title. Selections from the likes of E.B. White, Edith Wharton, and Charles Kuralt mingle with pieces from garden writers Allen Lacy and Thalassa Cruso. Their experiences with growing plants will inspire readers to consider their own gardening experiences and the place that gardening has in their lives. More than 50 writers have contributed to a collection that provides opportunities for reflection on the frustrating and satisfying world of gardening. Recommended for all public libraries.--Dale Luchsinger, Milwaukee Area Technical Coll.

November 15, 1998
Editor Jane Garmey has gathered a sweet bouquet to carry us through winter and beyond. There is, for example, the touching tribute by E. B. White to his beloved wife, Katherine: "she . . . walked among her flowers as she walked among her friends--nicely dressed, perfectly poised." There's Geoffrey B. Charlesworth's unadorned account of the quotidian life of the gardener, who's perpetually chased by bugs, dodgy weather, and his own shortcomings. And the poet Homer: "The balmy Spirit of the Western Gale/Eternal breathes on Fruits untaught to fail." These 65 pieces from more than 50 writers past and present form a sort of roundtable discussion on the nature of gardening. Garmey, a garden writer herself, has judiciously weeded out the self-indulgent (an occupational hazard among garden scribes) and the proscriptive. The talk is mostly light, informed, and--like the idea of gardening itself--ever contradictory: "It isn't that I don't like sweet disorder [in a garden]," Vita Sackville-West tells us here, "but it has to be judiciously arranged." ((Reviewed November 15, 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)