Why We Garden: Cultivating a Sense of Place

Rating:
Summary: On becoming a gardener
Review: I am reviewing this book because I read it and it's one of my all time favorites. I'm a fairly successful gardener. People stop on my street and admire my flowers. Many friends and acquaintances ask for advice. I wish I had written this book, it says what I want to say. Learning to garden is a process of bringing forth what already exists inside you. One learns to garden through trial and error, and what works in one garden may not work in another. Cookie cutter directions simply don't work, and when one follows them and fails, one feels like a failure. Nollman writes about gardening in his part of the world, which is not like your part of the world or my part of the world, but the thoughts he shares transcend these differences. There are two major approaches to gardening: one organic--spiritual and esthetic; the other nonorganic and ugly. To be content, Nollman says, all you need is love and an organic garden. Nothing works if you work against nature (probably the reason our forebears were thrown out of Eden). WHY WE GARDEN helped me maintain the link between the inner gardener I was born to be and Gaia.

Rating:
Summary: Not just for gardeners
Review: This is a great book. Not about gardening, but about living on this Earth. Nollman uses his very individual garden to highlight his universal points about organic farming and local ecology. He makes me think about my own plot of land and what it could possibly mean to me. He isn't a perfect human preaching about the perfect way to grow a garden. He shares his process of understanding his own garden as well as the development of his ethics about gardening and tries to tie down some very big ideas about this planet we call home. A worthy read for anyone, not just gardeners, who are up to facing the reality of caring for the planet and ourselves.

Rating:
Summary: Not just for gardeners
Review: This is a great book. Not about gardening, but about living on this Earth. Nollman uses his very individual garden to highlight his universal points about organic farming and local ecology. He makes me think about my own plot of land and what it could possibly mean to me. He isn't a perfect human preaching about the perfect way to grow a garden. He shares his process of understanding his own garden as well as the development of his ethics about gardening and tries to tie down some very big ideas about this planet we call home. A worthy read for anyone, not just gardeners, who are up to facing the reality of caring for the planet and ourselves.