My Wild Garden

December 1, 2019
An agreeable set of essays in which gardening teaches perspective and the rewards of hard work. When Israeli novelist Shalev (Two She-Bears, 2016, etc.) first saw his home in the Jezreel Valley, its garden was dried up and derelict. Although his grandfather kept an orchard and his mother took pride in her Jerusalem garden, he had little personal experience with horticulture. In this pleasant "collection of impressions of a modest wild garden and the gardener who tends it," he charts the development of a hobby that soon became his "new love." With the help of an elderly village guru, he learned what to plant and what to cut down, creating such an idyll that a wedding party once mistook his garden for a countryside photo shoot location. The book rests on solid botanical knowledge but is never heavy-handed. Rather, Shalev sometimes indulges in whimsy, as when he asks his sea squill plants if they want to be sown together or separately. Though the author notes an overall decline in local wildlife, he still enjoys owl calls and nocturnal visits from fruit bats. In a standout chapter, Shalev good-naturedly chronicles a losing battle against mole rats. The author weaves in Jewish wisdom via stories of the Tree of Life and God's providing water as well as King Solomon's words in praise of ants. Shalev contends that keeping a garden helps with cultivating a proper sense of time--not just planning ahead with annuals, but also planting a tree that will remain hundreds of years after its planter is gone. "This patience is not something I brought to the garden," he writes, "but rather something I received from it." He persuasively likens gardening to writing in that both necessitate time, dedication, and back pain but ultimately produce beauty. At the end of the book, when he describes how he cut down his old, dying lemon tree to replace it with another, it reminds him of his mortality: "I, too, am a rather old lemon tree." Charming musings on the "moments of bliss" found in the garden.

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December 16, 2019
Shalev (My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner), an Israeli novelist and amateur gardener, endears in this delightful memoir cum gardening guide. Inspired by his Hasidic grandfather’s Ukrainian garden with fruit trees inspired by the Torah, the author developed his own garden, gathering hyacinth squill bulbs, anemone, Syrian cornflower-thistle and lupine seeds from neighbors’ gardens, and sage and marjoram from a nearby nursery. He generously references the Bible (“The first fruit trees to be given names were the tree of life and the tree of knowledge that grew in the Garden of Eden”) and elaborates on the virtues of the pomegranate, blood orange, and lemon tree (it “does not make any special effort to endear itself to its owners”). Shalev’s own garden, he proudly writes, has attracted everything from brides and kindergartners to mole rats, bats, and aggressive ants. Punctuated with charming botanical drawings, Shalev’s musings flow effortlessly from start to finish. His lyrical prose, generous pacing, and passion will please any reader with a green thumb.

January 1, 2020

Israeli author Shalev (A Pigeon and a Boy) descends from a long line of gardeners but only became interested in the subject himself relatively late in life, eventually curating his outdoor space from a neglected landscape. Here the author shares a collSECTION of short essays about his relationship with his wild garden located in the Jezreel Valley of Israel. Topics range from individual plants, such as sea squill, cyclamen, or lemon trees, to favored tools to the destructiveness of the local mole rats. Shalev writes of learning patience as he grows plants from seed that will not flower for several years, and how as an observer of nature, especially in his own yard, he gently shapes the garden while celebrating its wildness. A nurturer of plants who is careful not to waste even a single seed and mourns the death of a tree, Shalev is a lyrical stylist and philosopher who writes with passion and humor. Drawings by Shir enhance the text. VERDICT A beautiful love letter to gardens that is sure to appeal to anyone who has cultivated one of their own.--Sue O'Brien, Downers Grove, IL

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2020
Gardeners, by their very nature, are observant beings attuned to their surroundings by necessity if not design. Prolific Israeli writer and journalist Shalev (Two She-Bears, 2013) is one such gardener. His property in the Jezreel Valley is so lush and vibrant that it is frequently mistaken for a wild, public land, invaded by marauding wedding photographers and exuberant children. Teeming with cyclamen and poppies, fruit and olive trees, it provides homes for spiders and snakes, mole rats and wasps. It is also where Shalev's heart and soul soars. In this poignant, smart, funny, and uplifting memoir, delightfully augmented by Refaella Shir's cunning illustrations, Shalev is not so much concerned with imparting horticultural how-to as he is with conveying emotional why-not. Why not treat garden ants with equanimity instead of scorn? Why not embrace the wildness that carries a norm-defying beauty? From the slow-to-grow squill (in the lily family) that imparts valuable lessons in patience to the spiritual rewards of walking the earth barefoot, Shalev's life-embracing and -affirming reflections are buoyant reminders of life's rewards and nature's precious bounty.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)