Out in the Garden: Growing a Beautiful Life

by Dean Riddle

The very mood and atmosphere of the garden -- its scents, colors, and textures -- are often indelibly linked to scenes from the gardener's life. As he dispenses excellent hands-on gardening advice in Out in the Garden, Riddle draws on his past and present, reflecting on family, childhood, and growing up gay in South Carolina. Back in 1980, when Dean Riddle was a young horticulture student, he "thought annual flowers, not to mention birdbaths, were...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060188057
• ISBN13: 9780060188054
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Truly inspiring and beautiful!

I first picked up this book on a whim in Dean's friend's shop in Phoenicia and assumed it would be just another gardening how-to book. Boy was I ever wrong! I have never had a gardening book inspire me in such a way! I wanted to go out straight away and work in the garden and smell the rich earth and let the sun warm my back. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of reading this book during the long Catskill winter! Now, I read Dean's book each and every spring to give me the inspiration to spend hours digging and planting, and I frequently browse for articles and/or other books written by Dean, or similar in style. (I haven't found any that compare!) Not only do I wish Dean was my neighbor, but I wish he would write another book! This book is one of the few that I am actually wistful when I finish the last page....I want it to go on and on. I also had the great fortune of touring Dean's garden during a garden tour 2 years ago...what a treat that was! I went home and wanted to rip everything out and start over, or at least have Dean come and advise me. His garden is every bit as beautiful and inspiring as his book. A "must read" for EVERY gardener!

Never too late

The librarian at Skene Library in Fleishmanns, NY foisted this book upon me as I had missed Dean Riddle's personal appearance and reading. I politely took it home. I started to skim read and three hours later had finished the book and made a list of pages to return to for information. This book is a jewel of a read and a must for any Catskill gardener. I have had a "failed garden" for ten years in the Felishmanns area. I used to be a good gardener. Not in the Catskills! Mr Riddle provides a virtual how to manual for my next year's garden. But beyond the practical, it is a delightful, fast paced, funny read.

Best Book to Read in the Garden with a Cup of Coffee Award

Out of all the gardening books I've purchased for our public library in the last four years, I would recommend Dean Riddle's book first and foremost to our readers as a balm to the soul, an inspiration to gardeners everywhere, and a plain old good read. The focus of the book is informative yet personal: it is the story of one man's coming of age in the garden, his connection with the strange and often-ignored vibrancy of the horticultural world, and his joyous appreciation of people, plants, dirt, sticks, old glassware, fried eggs, and just about everything else. For four months a year I read virtually nothing but gardening books of all types as our orders come in to the library. Very few of the writers are able to touch and inform readers at the same time, and it is this gift that Dean Riddle brings to his writing. The book is organized in such a way that Riddle is able to incorporate stories into his highly readable and clear descriptions of his own garden plans. Within the space of a few paragraphs, the reader finds himself in Dean's world. The fully-colored images and sensations of Dean's garden stay brilliantly painted in one's mind long after the book is closed.

A Beautiful Life Indeed

To say this is a gardening book is to approach it with a focus much too narrow. To say it is a gay memoir, or an AIDS loss memoir, is to have missed the passion and dedication of one incredible man in search of his own joy.I agree with Jean from Kentucky... there is nothing I would enjoy more than a cup of coffee with Dean at daybreak, walking through his little green dewey acre, talking about the plants, the design, the view, the stories, the hopes, the fears and dreams that we sometimes hide and sometimes share. Also of note are the fantastic, Warhol-esque illustrations.In a world far too hectic in the quest for more, he has said, "I have enough." And with this, he has set his soul free to live every day of his life. Hey Dean, nice refrigerator!

Flowers, friends and more

This charming book with lovely illustartions made me laugh and cry and want to plant Mexican Sunflowers! And most of all wish Dean Riddle were my friend and neighbor...I feel like he is both after reading this book. Full of wonderful gardening information (I kept wanting to make notes and write down names of flowers to plant though I couldn't quit reading long enough)but even better it is filled with wisdom and love of not only gardening but life.