Notes from the Garden: Reflections and Observations of an Organic Gardener

Rating:
Summary: Regional notes for a national audience
Review: It is a tricky thing to adapt columns written with a particular region in mind into a book with a national audience -- a special trick, perhaps, when a kind of gardening calendar is retained to organize the text. Henry Homeyer's practical "reflections and observations" may seem most germane to gardeners in New England, but if you know enough to place his experience in your own climate, you will find plenty to interest you.

What I like best about this book are the pieces that transcend zones entirely, such as a report of his visit to White House gardens and his interview with Jamaica Kincaid. Discreet illustrations (block prints, a few black and white photos, and a few drawings) add to the text. And there is an excellent index, something which alas can no longer be taken for granted in gardening books.

Despite my misgivings about how serviceable some of these essays are beyond New England, Henry Homeyer's plain and personal prose reminded me of the great American garden writer, Henry Mitchell. I think Mitchell would not be unhappy to find this book on a shelf alongside his own.