What happens when a lifelong gardener finally realizes that he must collaborate with Mother Nature rather than work against her in order to achieve his dream of creating the perfect garden? In this delightful and thoughtful narrative journey of horticultural discovery, Bill Terry asks how and even why we garden, and to what end?
These are personal stories, thoughts, and ideas about the "perfect" garden interspersed with humorous, imagined conversations with Mother Nature herself. As he works in his West Coast garden, choosing wild roses over the fancy hybrid teas, and discarding manmade hybrids and cultivars in favour of the charm and simplicity of peonies, hellebores, and tulips as they grow in the wild, Terry learns to welcome and encourage happy accidents, greatly reducing the work and effort required to maintain order (as most gardeners seek to do), and instead embracing a substantial measure of disorder.
The perfect garden, he discovers, respects both Mother Nature’s demands—integrating endemic plants, choosing natural species and varieties—and the gardener’s personality—expressing her own taste and creativity, and rich in private memories. This is a light-hearted and witty collection of reflections that will appeal to gardeners everywhere.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Description conventions
- rda
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 635.9/676
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 23
- Distributor
- Canadian Electronic Library (Firm),
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- ISBN
- 9781771511285 9781771511261
- LCCN
- SB439
- LCCN Item number
- T47 2015eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOONL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (183 pages)
- Published in
- Ottawa, Ontario
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)kck00235993 (OCoLC)924820357 (CaOOCEL)449147
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOONL
Table of Contents
- Contents 6
- 1: Meet Mother Nature 8
- 2: The Perfect Garden 11
- 3: Consider the Lay of the Land 15
- 4: Let the Moss Grow Under Your Feet 22
- 5: A Walk on the Wild Side 39
- 6: The Floristic Kingdoms 51
- 7: Rewilding 57
- 8: The Double-flowered Salmonberry 68
- 9: The Lilies of the Field 81
- 10: The Simplicity of Species 92
- 11: The Twelfth Wedding Anniversary Flower 101
- 12: It Isn’t Easy Being Green 113
- 13: Serendipity 134
- 14: A Plant in the Wrong Place 156
- 15: Memory and Personality 167
- 16: Letting Nature Play Her Part 177
- Appendix 182
- Notes 188
- Acknowledgments 190
- About the Author 192
