An Ecology of Enchantment: A Year in the Life of a Garden

By Des Kennedy

Book Overview

For the past 36 years, Des Kennedy and his family have lived largely outside their hand-built house in intimate contact with the Earth -- its creatures, its changing seasons, and its weather patterns. In this charming book's 52 chapters, Kennedy brings readers deep into his garden, week by week, from winter's dormancy to summer's splendor. With his trademark self-effacing humor, the author captures the essence of the gardening experience, exploring his triumphs, failures, mishaps, and occasional magic. Undaunted by setbacks and lusting for the perfect garden, Kennedy takes readers with him on a gardening journey rich with insights and adventures. The effects of devastating snow storms; the slow-food cuisine of rutabagas, parsnips, and carrots; the gardener's inalienable right to dress in rags; the outlandish behaviour and florid oratory induced by flowering poppies -- these and scores of other topics meander through the book's gardening year alternately informing, inspiring, and amusing.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 155365370X
• ISBN13: 9781553653707
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Greystone Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

lovely watercolored ramblings

Slow, gentle, pensive, and occasionally very funny, Des seems to be someone who would make a true and open friend. I enjoyed this read in my own sweet time, nipping off bites here and there while I had afternoon tea or just before bedtime reading. I start with the word slow - not as a criticsm - far from it, but as a description of the unfolding paragraphs that draw you into an event or garden scene. Without pouring bucket after bucket of Words over your head the author bares his passion and pain in his garden. I can identify with many of the triumphs and failures, but I also think a nongardener who enjoys biographies of real people going about their real lives would enjoy this in the same way I can read of racehorse stables without ever wanting to own one. Des Kennedy has a sound grasp of the English language and, except for the very rare overworked sentence, he plays with words as joyfully and freely as an artist does with watercolors. In his chapter 'Ever So Blue' he made me hunger for blue as if I had been starved, writing down names and looking them up, even becoming a tad anxious in case my garden be denied anchusa due to availability or climate. In case you've been disapointed in other garden biographies, try this one, while gentle and lyrical, it is not a hard slog.