Unearthed

March 28, 2016
Blogger and gardener Risen’s debut memoir is based on a “collection of reminiscences” from a 10-year period. After the death of her father, an emotionally distant man from the Ukraine, the author and her husband purchase a ranch-style house and an acre of land surprisingly situated in downtown Toronto. The garden is neglected, but Risen, steeped in “love of nature and living things,” sees the possibilities. Having spent her childhood playing in a ravine near her home in Alberta, she’s eager to restore the abandoned property, once part of a larger estate. The land is rife with unexpected delights: a huge, decaying pagoda, underground aquifers, a pond, koi, deer, and all manner of vegetation. She soon begins making maple syrup, cattail fried rice, and bleeding heart valentines (recipes, instructions, and foraging guidelines included). As the restoration painstakingly progresses, Risen simultaneously delves into her past, exploring why her immigrant parents never revealed details of their family history. She also shares her love of the land with her ailing mother and with her husband and young son (who grows from toddler to techie teen in the course of the decade’s work). As she restores the property and heals her long-troubled soul, Risen paints a vivid and exquisite portrait of nature and its profound significance.

May 1, 2016
A Canadian essayist's account of how rehabilitating an abandoned garden helped her to better understand her hard-shelled Ukrainian-born parents.In her first book, Risen chronicles how she and her husband decided to buy the "anonymous hidden house" with the overgrown garden shortly after her always-silent father died. The house was the least of their renovation worries, however; it was the junglelike garden that they knew would make the greatest demands on their time and budget. Yet the author relished the challenge, in part because the one-acre plot--located minutes from downtown Toronto--made her feel closer to the gardener-mother who always seemed to keep her at arm's length. As she began her landscape renovation project, her mother's health declined rapidly. Risen soon realized that she would never be able to share her garden--with its duck pond, broken-down pagoda, secret paths, and hidden wildlife--with her too-frail, increasingly demented mother. The project also brought up memories of the life she had shared with her parents. The small river that ran through her property recalled the river to which she would escape as a youth, and apple trees she discovered in her garden recalled her mother's cooking. The more that Risen worked on her garden, the more she realized that her task was not to transform it into a neatly manicured landscape but one that respected the local ecology. Learning to bring sustainable order to her patch of earth as well as uncovering family documents that offered clues to her parents' difficult early lives helped the author come to terms with her mother and father. She could not change the people who raised her; she could only accept them and know that they "did the best they could." Interspersed throughout with recipes for forager-style dishes and desserts, Risen's book is as much a celebration of nature and family as it is feast for the heart and soul. A generous, poignant memoir.

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April 15, 2016

Risen's first book is a tapestry of involvements with family members and friends, personal experiences, and cherished memories, all woven within the context of a major garden restoration. As the old, overgrown outdoor space stirs back to life at the author's new home, unfolding obstacles become a metaphor for life's journey. Each chapter features an interesting recipe or craft that can be created using different plants. Comparable with Tara Austin Weaver's Orchard House: How a Neglected Garden Taught One Family To Grow, this book successfully imparts the message that such a massive restoration project can be both physically and emotionally exhausting. Risen says the rewards are ultimately worth the effort, and for her, the endeavor was time and money well spent. VERDICT Readers who appreciate memoirs and prosaic reflections on gardening will relish this title. It may serve as a cautionary tale for brave souls contemplating a significant garden overhaul after years of neglect.--Deborah A. Broocker, Georgia Perimeter Coll. Lib., Dunwoody

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2016
To call this book's subject a massive project would be a massive understatement. The unkempt garden that Risen and her husband bought belonged to an old estate that had been carved up, and as the family assesses the work to be done, they make discovery after discovery. Not only does the garden encompass a full-fledged ravine with a pond, abandoned construction equipment, a secret pathway, and a crumbling, decades-old pagoda, it is also home to a host of wildlife and plants determined to maintain their place in the ecosystem. The story of how they tackle their enormous undertaking over a period of years is notable for both its breadth and depth. For Risen, it's a powerful window into the passion of her Ukrainian-immigrant mother, at a time when her mother's faculties are fading. She ruminates on her parents, their secrets, and the toxic silence that permeated their home, the story of her upbringing unfolding along with the seasons spent battling the wilderness outside into submission. The story, like the garden, is ambitious in scope, but Risen's amazing dedication pulls it together, both on the page and in the garden. A remarkable book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)