Rate this book

Our Life In Gardens (2009)

by Joe Eck(Favorite Author)

3.79 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0374160317 (ISBN13: 9780374160319)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

review 1: I finally finished this book! I had picked it up in an independent bookstore in Lenox, MA with my mom. It looked like a nice collection of essays on plants and gardening. And it was . . . but one thing ran through it that kept me in constant shock and amusement:The authors are INCREDIBLY POMPOUS!!! It is really weird; this book reads like it was written by some British gentleman circa 1904. The language is so stuffy, arrogant, and waxing poetic in the cheesiest of manners, that after awhile, I kept reading it for the sheer novelty of what else they were going to say.I thought there would be more general gardening tips, or even personal stories that would be endearing or at least absorbing. Mostly it reads as a self-satisfied tour of the authors' gardens, and they jus... moret assume you're still interested as they keep walking along. They are haughtily disdainful of some topics/plants, while fawning over others -- obviously the ones that THEY have chosen for their garden.These guys must spend all their time working in the yard, because they describe a thousand and one crazy gardening tasks (that I would never do) to keep non-hardy plants alive in Vermont. It all just sounds like so much work, and makes them sound a little nutty.Also, I couldn't keep track of the landscape they kept describing. The pen drawings of plants at the start of each chapter were nice, but I would have liked some sort of map of the property so I could visualize all this stuff in my head.Anyway, the most pompous writing I have ever read!!!
review 2: The North Hill Landscape design group is well-known and respected here in New England. Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd's latest book, "Our Life in Gardens" tells their personal story of discovering their shared passion for gardening and how they came to live in Vermont where they have created one of the most beautiful private gardens in the United States. Beautifully illustrated each chapter describes a different plant and the history of its inclusion into the North Hill 7 acre garden. This isn't a book to sit and read from cover-to-cover. Rather, one reads a chapter at a time, looks up the plant discussed, and reflects. This is a gardening book for the garden-lover, not a how-to-garden book, although there is a lot of practical and useful information. Although both authors write in a somewhat serious self-important style there is humor in the recounting of events and experiences that show their humility and reinforce all gardeners realization that, at -the-end-of-the-day, nature is truly in charge. For New England and Northern gardeners.... less

Download links for: Our Life in Gardens

Advertising