Scan barcode
aoosterwyk's review against another edition
4.0
A beautifully written book about gardening as meditation.
patlo's review against another edition
5.0
A book about zen and gardening? Intriguing, eh? I was recommended this book by [a:Christine Sine|145584|Christine Sine|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-251a730d696018971ef4a443cdeaae05.jpg], author of [b:Return to Our Senses: Reimagining How We Pray|17130457|Return to Our Senses Reimagining How We Pray|Christine Sine|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356137712s/17130457.jpg|23528368] in a gardening seminar that she taught at her urban backyard garden.
The book is a slow entry (and it seems that many other Goodreads reviewers agree). The author is a devoted Zen practitioner and begins her story with a good bit of memoir and illumination of the Zen way. Even for somebody intrigued with Zen, this was difficult to absorb, written leisurely and ethereal as it is.
However, by the hundredth page or thereabouts, when the author begins really to blend Zen and gardening, I fell in love with the book and broke out sticky tabs to begin to mark a dozen pieces that I want to return to over and over again. The sections on soil and on composting were highlights for me.
A small nit from my perspective: The author is clearly not a big fan of small kids in her gardens, and while I understand why, i quickly tired of the attitude whenever the subject arose.
Yet this is a beautiful book about life and land, a good illustration of Zen, and a wonderful exploration of organic gardening.
The book is a slow entry (and it seems that many other Goodreads reviewers agree). The author is a devoted Zen practitioner and begins her story with a good bit of memoir and illumination of the Zen way. Even for somebody intrigued with Zen, this was difficult to absorb, written leisurely and ethereal as it is.
However, by the hundredth page or thereabouts, when the author begins really to blend Zen and gardening, I fell in love with the book and broke out sticky tabs to begin to mark a dozen pieces that I want to return to over and over again. The sections on soil and on composting were highlights for me.
A small nit from my perspective: The author is clearly not a big fan of small kids in her gardens, and while I understand why, i quickly tired of the attitude whenever the subject arose.
Yet this is a beautiful book about life and land, a good illustration of Zen, and a wonderful exploration of organic gardening.
st_gilbert_of_sempringham's review
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.25
gardenjess's review
5.0
Inspirational and informational. I'm not sure how to categorize this one - it's part memoir, part gardening primer, and part Zen. I'll have to add "Tour Green Gulch Farm" to my bucket list for sure. This covers so many different topics, from plant families, to pests, to design, to Zen, to cooking, to seed saving, organic gardening and farming, eating local, community gardening, prison and school house gardening. I'll definitely refer to this one again and again in the future. Excellent book, web, organization, and catalog resources in the back as well.
Page 379: "All children deserve to be fed well and to know where thier food comes from and how it gets to their table. This is not a privilege but a basic right and a necessity."
Page 304: "Recognizing that ten multinational corporations control one-third of the twenty-three-billion-dollar commercial seed market and 100 percent of the market for genetically engineered or transgenic seed crops, inspries me to work my hardest to avoid using the seed of these same corporations that also control the global pesticide and chemical agriculture market".
Page 121: "From the beginning, the fertility of the garden depends on the fertility of the gardener's imagination, on that wild mind that sees death as a gateway into life, a mind that turns with the same delight toward the toothless jaws of decay as toward the untwining, green shoot. Watching the things of the world come apart and recombine is core Zen work and the fundamental anchorage of every gardener's life."
Page 379: "All children deserve to be fed well and to know where thier food comes from and how it gets to their table. This is not a privilege but a basic right and a necessity."
Page 304: "Recognizing that ten multinational corporations control one-third of the twenty-three-billion-dollar commercial seed market and 100 percent of the market for genetically engineered or transgenic seed crops, inspries me to work my hardest to avoid using the seed of these same corporations that also control the global pesticide and chemical agriculture market".
Page 121: "From the beginning, the fertility of the garden depends on the fertility of the gardener's imagination, on that wild mind that sees death as a gateway into life, a mind that turns with the same delight toward the toothless jaws of decay as toward the untwining, green shoot. Watching the things of the world come apart and recombine is core Zen work and the fundamental anchorage of every gardener's life."
hardcoverhearts's review
5.0
Oh how I loved this book. I wish I head read it years earlier. The early part of the summer was spent with this book in my yard, enjoying all the inspiration she had put on paper. I was so enthused by it that I bought one for my mom to read with me. Well worth it.
More...