Rating: 
Summary: A magnificent book.
Review: Page after page, I'm charmed, surprised, amused, and informed by this extraordinary book. I'm a lifelong gardener, with a passion for garden books, and this is my all-time favorite. The intelligence, sense of humor, experience, and sheer literary sparkle combine in a uniquely wonderful way.
Rating:
Summary: Peace, Humor and Delight in the Garden
Review: Poet and naturalist Diane Ackerman loves her garden. It must be a fairly untidy, eclectic garden as she enjoys many weeds, welcomes deer and generally works hard to let nature have its way. Running through the span of seasons, this wonderful book allows many discursive, delightful riffs on such topics as John Muir, tagging squirels, the passing of time, moon and bird watching, and sick houses. It would be a great fun to spend time with her: deadheading asters, learning the different scents of her 100+ roses, and flowering arranging every spring and summer morning. But failing that opportunity, spending time with this garden book that's not a garden book, poem that is not a poem, essay on natural history that's certainly not an essay is almost as fun!
Rating: 
Summary: Stop and Smell the Words
Review: Previous reviewers, grumps and rhapsodics both, are pretty accurate in their review of this work. If you're looking for a lot of how-tos about gardening, you won't find them here. What you will find is someone who LOVES her garden, and loves reflecting on it. While the "hard labor" of gardening is something she is glad to hire other people to do for her, she revels in it's lovely blossoms and the wildlife who visit it. My husband was put off by her hiring out the hard work too, but all I could think was, "If I could afford it, I'd hire out the nasty stuff too"
I really don't think it is the author's intent to instruct us on how to garden, what she does is inform us, through her example, that delight can be found in many aspects of gardening. It is a zen-like philosophy; focus lovingly and intently on what you do.
While there are no earth shattering revelations here, Ms Ackerman's musings reminded me of poems I had forgotten, books I'd been meaning to read, and, yes, plants I'd been meaning to plant. While some may have a problem with this as an overall book, I can't imagine anyone objecting to it page-by-page. This may be one of those books to be read just a few pages at a time. Savor each page as you would a rose blossom, enjoy the loveliness of it, then move on.
Rating:
Summary: A uniquely fascinating book,a literary treasure.
Review: Smart, witty, informed, observant, funny, practical, and powerfully moving-- Ackerman combines all of these qualities in a book that's both superb natural history and stylish literature. As a scientist, I'm continually amazed by Ackerman's scrupulousness. As a gardener, I'm impressed by her inventiveness (I'm going to try some of her strategies this season). As a lover of literature, I find myself rereading poetic passages of unbelievable beauty. This is one of my favorite books on any subject, because it's brimming with her trademark-- a fascinating sensibility, who loves and is endlessly curious about the natural world, while keeping an equally fascinated eye on the human condition. All that combined with the soul of a poet. In short, a literary treasure.
Rating:
Summary: Rich artistry, full of fascinations.
Review: Somehow Ms. Ackerman manages to combine fascinating facts and lore, practical gardening wisdom, and a poet's sensibility. I don't know how she does it, but the result is a beautiful work of art.
Rating:
Summary: The New York Times Book Review was right!
Review: The New York Times Book Review was right-- Ackerman's attention to sharp details is as delicious as her voluptuous joy in gardening. She is indeed excellent company on every page. I found the book brimming with natural history surprises, unexpected humor, and also powerfully moving digressions. She's a brilliant observer of the world of nature and humans, an important thinker, but also a modest and delightful one. The gardening dramas and lore are endlessly fascinating, and the lyrical style took my breath away. It's sheer poetry. On so many levels, this is among the richest books I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Ackerman, another feast for the senses.
Review: This book is a rich feast for the senses. In fact it reminds me so much of A Natural History of the Senses that I think of it as a continuation taken outside into the garden. It's classic Ackerman, another beautifuly-written, deeply felt celebration of life. She manages her large garden with minimal help or fuss, but an endless supply of curiosity, wonder, humor, and passion. It's the perfect book to re-read this winter while I wait for spring.
Rating: 
Summary: THE UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE....
Review: To the author's credit, the book has some creative ideas for the garden and the book is particularly well organized. However, on the downside, Ackerman's melodramatic prose was just a little too much on the mundane side for my liking. The metaphors were "too run of the mill" and lacked originality. Contrary to what some editorial reviews portrayed, I did not find this book to be "emotionally charged," but every reader is entitled to his or her own opinion. Personally, would I buy the book again? To be perfectly honest, no, it came up short of my expectations.
Rating: 
Summary: A Natural History of Diane Ackerman
Review: Well this is going to make me feel like a curmudgeon, since I can see that Diane Ackerman has a devoted following. However, having just tried and failed to get through my second Diane Ackerman book, I have to tell you that I find them boring and unreadable. She doesn't write much about natural history; she writes poetic meditations on natural history. There is a big difference. Her books are about her responses to the natural world, and she can be quite self-absorbed.For example, in one essay she begins by describing her feelings upon seeing a sick raccoon stagger across her yard in broad daylight. She calls the local animal welfare people to look into it. Then she turns to describing her feelings and reactions to the other elements of her garden. I was left wondering what happened to the raccoon. She never told me. If you are looking for Diane Ackerman's personal reactions to nature, this may be for you. But I was looking for some good winter reading about nature itself, for when I miss my garden. At the same time I ordered this book, I also ordered a book by Sy Montgomery called "The Curious Naturalist: Nature's Everyday Mysteries". I just chose it by searching for such books on Amazon[.com]. It turns out that Sy Montgomery was the nature columnist for the Boston Globe, and her essays are delightful, concise, amazing and informative. I didn't learn much about the interior life of the author, but I learned the most amazing things about the nature all around me. I read about the messages that singing insects send in the autumn evenings and how they create their songs; the messages in spider webs; the peculiar life-giving structure of water; the way sound travels over snow in winter. Most delightful of all, the author describes ways of interacting with our animal brothers and sisters. I learned how easy it is to teach wild birds to eat from your hand, and how to use a flashlight in the grass to flirt with fireflies and get them to hit on you. This is the book I was really looking for when I bought Ackerman's book. Once I started The Curious Naturalist, I couldn't put it down. If you are looking for the same type of reading that I was, you will like the Montgomery book.
Rating:
Summary: Stop and Smell the Roses
Review: You can take whatever you'd like from Diane Ackerman's latest work, "Cultivating Delight- A Natural History of My Garden." In the languishing heat of a summer hammock, transport yourself to winter's snow in chapter four. Much of this book is like comfort food. Use it to brake from the news headlines and find yourself ruminating about frogs napping in tulip petals or turn of the century women at evening parties, wearing fireflies in their hair as "sort of living tiaras."
The pages can act like a stress reducing cup of tea with the gardener next door. But, the neighbor is also a teacher slipping in rich tidbits of facts and history. Allow this book to make you stop and smell the roses and it may nourish, educate and provoke contemplation.
Ackerman, both a poet and a naturalist, gives us 'a year in the life' of her garden as a ruse to chronicle and compost a heap of musings that fill her brain. She is delighted to include trivia such as the history of the word tulip. It comes from the Persian word for turban because Persian men were known to wear tulips in their turbans. And the Victorians sent flowers with specific meanings: petunias meant 'never despair' while zinnias expressed 'thinking of you.'
I found myself skipping around, picking a page to gnaw on, to escape to, like a favorite scene in a film. There's no reason to read this book from beginning to end because it is written as though you've stopped by without an appointment and were told the story of why the wisteria has gone mad or how the hummingbird defended her territory.
Ackerman weaves an enchanting garden tapestry and haphazardly tosses in poetry, for example, "firm buds like a young bosom," or Lilly of the Valley who are "circus ladies, perky, talced and heavily perfumed."
A philosophical passage about plants giving us oxygen and we in turn giving them carbon dioxide is a gentle pondering on the design of the natural world. She dutifully pays homage to some of the greats like Thomas Jefferson and includes an addendum of her garden's inventory.
"Flowers are like poems. Consult them for delight and they'll delight you. Look to them for deeper truths and you'll find much to mull over," stated Diane Ackerman.
Her book, like the flowers she writes about, can be enjoyed for it's creative pleasure or used to cull thoughts of grander ideas. It is aptly titled "Cultivating Delight" because it does.
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