A Garden Book for English Majors

by Kathy Purdy on June 4, 2005 · 3 comments

Laurie of Prairie Tide and I have a similar opinion of gardening books:

To learn more about gardening, I’m hungry for good gardening books. I bring home stacks of books from the library, and whenever I visit a bookstore, I browse past the garden section to see what’s new. I crave garden books with good writing, detailed directions, and passion. Garden writing, though, can pretty bland. I’m amazed how many books out there offer the same tired advice.

Consequently, when she called
The Literary Garden a garden tour in a book and “a keeper,” I sat up and took notice. It’s sitting in the discount section of her local Barnes & Noble. Hmmm. Maybe it’s also in Edward Hamilton. Maybe I’ll just put it on my wishlist. What other gardening books of your acquaintance have “good writing, detailed directions, and passion”? Most of the time, I’ll settle for two out of three.

1 Judy Miller June 5, 2005 at 10:19 pm: Thoreau’s ‘Faith in a Seed’ and ‘Wild Fruits’ are wonderful. They are not so much advice (though Pollan isn’t either, he’s projection) as lyrical and thought provoking. The sort of books you hate to return to the library.

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2 Laurie June 5, 2005 at 12:40 pm: Michael Pollan is a fine writer who has taken up his pen to write about his garden from time to time. I especially like his “Botany of Desire” and “Second Nature”.

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3 bill June 4, 2005 at 2:44 pm: I particularly enjoy the writing of Scott Ogden. “Garden Bulbs for the South” and “The Moonlit Garden” are special favorites of mine. He gardens in Central Texas so I don’t know how much he would be appreciated by a gardener from a colder clime.

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