Time and the Gardener: Writings on a Lifelong Passion (Concord Library)

Rating:
Summary: Good second .....
Review: If you've read and appreciated Elizabeth Sheldon's PROPER GARDEN and can distinguish among the varieties of sage and salvia you will probably enjoy her 'sequel' TIME AND THE GARDENER a little more than if you have not and can not. Sheldon has traveled all over the U.S. giving talks on gardening to mixed audiences. Her colorful slides and gardening anecdotes are always appreciated no matter what the background of audience members, however, she does not write for the novice or new gardener. In addition, whereas PG at least included a number of colorful illustrations, there are none in TG. So, it helps if you are an experienced gardener who can visualize in the mind's eye how Lathyrus thunbergii might appear when surrounded by asters (particularly A. Frikartii 'Mönch') and dusty rose chrysanthemums.

I heard Sheldon speak at a conference held at the National Wildlife Federation headquarters here in the Washington area. I enjoyed the talk and her beautiful slides but also noticed that over half of the audience was composed of landscape designers, nursery staff, and other gardening professionals while most of the other folks were people who were hiring these professionals to work in their gardens. Only a few of the attendees were "very good gardeners" (some with 'Master" gardener status) and non-pro.

Sheldon's advice is best suited to gardens in areas comparable to Ithaca New York-zone 5 with plenty of rainfall and rich black loam. If you can't grow a garden in the Finger Lakes area you are really a failure. If you don't live in zone 5 and/or don't have rich black loam from the last ice age, you will have to improvise to implement Sheldon's suggestions. You might be able to pull off some of her combinations but not without a great deal of effort. If you can't use her gardening advice, you can still enjoy her sketches of famous women gardeners also included in this book. However, be warned, Sheldon is neither as amusing as Henry Mitchell nor as philosophical as Allen Lacy so don't expect more.

Rating:
Summary: Good second .....
Review: If you've read and appreciated Elizabeth Sheldon's PROPER GARDEN and can distinguish among the varieties of sage and salvia you will probably enjoy her `sequel' TIME AND THE GARDENER a little more than if you have not and can not. Sheldon has traveled all over the U.S. giving talks on gardening to mixed audiences. Her colorful slides and gardening anecdotes are always appreciated no matter what the background of audience members, however, she does not write for the novice or new gardener. In addition, whereas PG at least included a number of colorful illustrations, there are none in TG. So, it helps if you are an experienced gardener who can visualize in the mind's eye how Lathyrus thunbergii might appear when surrounded by asters (particularly A. Frikartii `Mönch') and dusty rose chrysanthemums.

I heard Sheldon speak at a conference held at the National Wildlife Federation headquarters here in the Washington area. I enjoyed the talk and her beautiful slides but also noticed that over half of the audience was composed of landscape designers, nursery staff, and other gardening professionals while most of the other folks were people who were hiring these professionals to work in their gardens. Only a few of the attendees were "very good gardeners" (some with `Master" gardener status) and non-pro.

Sheldon's advice is best suited to gardens in areas comparable to Ithaca New York-zone 5 with plenty of rainfall and rich black loam. If you can't grow a garden in the Finger Lakes area you are really a failure. If you don't live in zone 5 and/or don't have rich black loam from the last ice age, you will have to improvise to implement Sheldon's suggestions. You might be able to pull off some of her combinations but not without a great deal of effort. If you can't use her gardening advice, you can still enjoy her sketches of famous women gardeners also included in this book. However, be warned, Sheldon is neither as amusing as Henry Mitchell nor as philosophical as Allen Lacy so don't expect more.

Rating:
Summary: Gentle garden wisdom
Review: Reading "Time and the Gardener" is like visiting an elderly gardening friend whose gentle wisdom and time-honed observations cloak an educated, highly literate mind and an acute wit.

Elisabeth Sheldon is an experienced gardener - her experience is marked in decades rather than years. Gardening in New York State, she seems to have tried most species of flowers, trees and shrubs that might grow in that area and climate zone, and she has tried many varieties of each of the spcies. She writes about them gently, understanding that some grow politely wile others lean on their neighbours and others scramble over everything within reach.

I found myself smiling through the first section "What I've learned over time" and learning a great deal from the second section, "Timeless Plants: some of My Favourites". In the third section, "Gardeners of Other Times" I re-visited old acquaintances such as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and found a sharp and insightful mini-biography of Jane Loudon.

This is a delightful book from a writer of great experience. Treat yourself, or a friend, to a copy and curl up beside a winter fire, or under the shade of a tree in summer to relax, learn and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Elisabeth and her colorful garden
Review: TIME AND THE GARDENER brings together Elisabeth Sheldon's unpublished writings, from the last 13-14 years, on flower gardening. The author begins by calling gardening "delightful, absorbing, intensely gratifying, maddening, and exhausting" digging, planting, weeding, working, and reading, reading, reading. It's also mind-changing, because of "lost plants and new ideas."

Sheldon once gardened properly, in white, silver and pale yellow or grey and pink, lavender and lime. Then she gardened flamboyantly, in hot-colors. Next, she border gardened, with purple flowers and leaves. That took her garden full circle. In fall, purple looked so good, with Lespedeza thunbergii 'Pink Fountain', 'Ballerina' rose and Dianthus; dwarf sage, grey 'Hidcote' lavender, and helianthemum; and white-leaved prickly poppy.

Just as with color combinations, plant dislikes and likes change. Hot-color gardening got Sheldon to plant dahlias, marigolds, petunias, and zinnias. Border gardening in sulphur and wine let in yellow-leaved plants.

So gardening might well leave the gardener with "nothing to hate." But it won't always grow better people or weed out curmudgeons. For example, on a cold winter night, nineteenth-century gardening know-it-all William Robinson opened windows and put out stoves in a hated former employer's greenhouses.

In large part, though, Sheldon finds gardeners "exceptionally" gentle, as students of humbling lessons. In the second part of her book, she therefore shares gardening trials and errors, in central New York. There, on a Cayuga Lake area farm, her garden shows its age. How can it do other than sicken and die along with, or shortly after, her? It's the only way, what with the three "b's" of bad weather, beasts and blunders.

It's blundering over trees Sheldon regrets. To her, they were thirsty rivals to plants for nutrients and water. Now in her 80s, she wishes that she had long ago set aside one of her fields as an arboretum. It's not just because of what trees do, for air and dirt. It's also for color and looks. What can beat the year-round "silky" grey bark of European beeches, the ruby red of sour gum in fall, and the flaming torch patterns of apricot-, crimson- and flame-colored Korean maple leaves against the sky?

Sheldon's practical lesson-learnings are helpful and well-written, with excellent examples. They cover all bases, from seed collecting and growing; through plant breeding; to shady and woodsy gardening and mixed shrub and tapestry bordering. But it's the ending sections, on favorite plants and history-making gardeners, that stay with me.

Plants that pass Sheldon's test of time are astilbe, border clematis, chrysanthemum, columbine, gaura, lysimachia, and nepeta. If she lived more southerly, she might favor the pale lemon or white marguerite. Up north, though, Dianthus caesius (gratianopolitanus) is where she hopes to end her days.

Finally, her five history-making gardeners are Gertrude Jekyll, Jane Loudon, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Alexander Pope and Horace Walpole. Not surprisingly, something Miss Jekyll once said perfectly sums up Sheldon's book and gardening. Never let an idea get in the way of beautiful plants and combinations.