You Grow Girl™

Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden
by Diane Ackerman
©2001. HarperCollins

In Cultivating Delight, author Diane Ackerman takes us on a journey through the life cycle of her garden. Not so much a garden diary as a year-long Walden, the book brings us with Ackerman as she connects emotionally to each season, each garden pest, each gardening process. Ackerman is our sensitive, well-read guide to her own thoughts in the garden, bringing literature, history, myth, and science along for the ride. It's a stream-of-consciousness type of book: and although plenty of tips, practical wisdom and a few well-chosen quotes (and jokes) reside within the pages, it mostly meanders through: garden-as-thoughtful-experience. The writing, while lovely and rich, is flowery, there's just no other way to say it.

And, well, perhaps it should be flowery - Ackerman grows rare varieties of roses and other flowers and spends a great deal of time in her garden. She has people to help her do the stuff she doesn't like to do and can consult with professionals about pest removal and garden design. While most of us at You Grow Girl struggle to spend quality time in our gardens (many of us use our gardens to cultivate time for ourselves), Ackerman is painfully oblivious to the fact that her version of "cultivating delight" happens once you are beyond "cultivating time" (and money).

We'd like to give a shout out to Ackerman for supporting causes we believe in: organic gardening (rare for a rose enthusiast), appreciation for winter, embracing gardening as a sometimes murderous pastime, and placing gardens/gardening in a global context. Despite an at times lightning pace, the book is not cover-to-cover type reading. The sentiments may be a bit too overblown for those of us that are in touch with our sensual sides. However, this could be a book, read a few pages at a time, that would help the detached person connect emotionally with, and discover enthusiasm for, the garden/world around her.

-EF, GS

Buy This Book