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Earth on Her Hands celebrates the kind of people who have quietly and to minimal acclaim, over two centuries, developed and polished American garden style. These are the avid gardeners--mostly women--who establish and support community horticultural organizations and whose own gardens are examples of personal expression with unique local characteristics.
Starr Ockenga has interviewed 18 women who have worked and shaped their land, often over the course of several decades, into their dream gardens. From Ellie Spingarn's Connecticut stone wall to Georgie Erskine's Southern California citrus allée, each has features that are unique but fit seamlessly into their environment. There are meadows, orchards, a bonsai garden, vegetable gardens carved out of woodland, one walled English-style garden, and one that's intensely French, with topiaries, espaliered bushes, and a copper-roofed teahouse. Each woman is a plant collector of sorts, and each garden description is accompanied by a list of recommended plants. This is a joyous, soulful book that explores the complexity of garden-building and the effect it has on gardeners' lives.
Customer Reviews:
Not for women only!!.......2007-03-27
Men: please do not be put off by the title! This book is an inspiration that proves to be accessible to both sexes. Beauty in the garden cannot be bounded by gender lines. The photographs (many of which are full-page, with lovely sepia and white prints of the women themselves) are stunning, and this is one of the few gardening books where I actually read the accompanying text.
This is not a how-to-do-it, but more of a how-they-did-it; the stories really capture the continuity that results from a years-long commitment to one's land. For instance, one photo shows how a single plant purched in the 50s has grown into a sweeping carpet along a stone wall.
18 women and their US spaces are showcased here. (However, Alaska and Hawaii are not featured and I think this could have made the book even more wonderful.) Each woman gets a separate chapter, complete with pages and pages of well-captioned glossy photos, very readable text, a hand drawing of their garden designs, and several relevant lists. Some of the lists cover woodland carpet plants, white annuals/perennials/bulbs, and personal recommendations.
All sorts of gardens - alpine, rock, seaside, miniature/bonsai, water, citrus, huge-scale, small-scale, woodland - make up this large compendium. The book is 12.5 by 9 inches - a great contribution to a field where books seem to be getting smaller and smaller, and its size is really appropriate for the subject matter.
This is a book that I would have been thrilled with, sight unseen, and it would make a marvelous gift for someone special in your life, if you could bear to part with it. This one's a keeper, and it will not sit still on your coffee table!!
Refreshing Approach to Gardening.......2004-07-06
I love gardening how-to and reference books. Although this book is neither, I love it nevertheless. The idea behind this book is simple. 18 women and their gardens. Each woman is interviewed, there are many many photographs of both the gardens and the gardener. You get to hear each woman's voice and hear her wisdom. You get to see plant lists, garden plans as well and understand the philosphy and approach that each woman has taken in her gardening endevour. If the context of this book were a village, it would serve as a storyteller of the female elders and their creation of special space. Gardening is most than simply landscaping. Reading this book you understand the difference. I only with there were more women gardeners in this edition!
Beautiful women, beautiful gardens.......2002-11-24
Another fabulous Clarkson Potter Publishers book, Earth on Her Hands is a series of short biographies of 18 women who are non-professional, private gardeners and who have spent a lifetime growing and creating outstanding gardens. Each biography includes stunning color photos of the gardens and lovely sepia toned photos of the gardeners themselves as well as garden diagram sketches and individual gardener plant or project recommendations from their personal experiences. Ideas, inspiration and knowledge abound from these women (use flower arrangements IN the garden for areas where color is needed; 'Jersey Knight' asparagus is male and will not seed making it more productive) and their lifelong committment to their land, spaces, and plants gives every gardener something to aspire to. Any gardener worth her soil will find this an inspirational gift to give and receive, and a delightful off-season read.
An inspiring book.......2001-11-10
This is definately one of the most beautifully photographed books I have seen. Eighteen women gardeners from across the U.S. and their stunning gardens are profiled. Most of the women gardeners here are older and have been working on their gardens for decades. Some of them are also active in their local communities in garden clubs, parks and botanical gardens. If you enjoy looking at other people's gardens, you will love this. The photos are mouth watering. Each profile (about 10 pages in length) is wrapped up with a list of the gardener's recommended plants. This would be a good companion to Rosemary Verey's excellent book "The American Man's Garden".
Won American Horticultural Society's 1999 Annual Book Award.......1999-08-05
Starr Ockenga's luminary profiles of some of North America's most dedicated women gardeners are inspirational for anyone who gardens. This book is a wonderfully designed blend of fine photography and eloquent writing. A must for the avid gardener.
Book Description
Includes sustainable gardening methods from seed preparation to harvest, including the ceremonies, songs, and stories required for a bountiful harvest.
Customer Reviews:
How to grow corn -- Indian style .......2007-07-19
This is a unique and irreplaceable book. In the early 20th century, the author interviewed Buffalo Bird, an old Hidasta Indian woman about Indian farming methods in the mid 19th century. The result is a primer on how the Indians grew corn and other crops on the Great Plains. Interspaced with the explanation of agricultural techniques are charming stories, songs, recipes, and ancedotes told by Buffalo Bird. She also describes how the Indians preserved their crop.
The Hidasta lived in North Dakota and this book is a primer on how to garden in the State without recourse to chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or motor powered equipment. The Hidasta grew five crops: corn, beans, squash, sunflower seeds, and tobacco. Their methods of cultivation, storage, and usage of each crop is described, usually with enough detail to be copied by the modern low-impact sustainable agriculturalist. A large number of illustrations and photographs supplement the text and show how the Indians built fences, dug storage pits, dried squash, and laid out their fields.
A good introductory essay introduces the Hidasta, Bird Woman, and the author to the reader. The whole book is only about 150 pages, but there's a wealth of cultural and agricultural information here presented in a charming and easy-to-digest format.
Smallchief
Hidatsa Gardening Techniques.......2003-10-15
A "must have" for anyone who is interested in doing a garden using authentic Native American practices, as used in the tribes in the Missouri Valley area. Details on laying out the garden, maintaining it, food storage, construction of tools, etc. are all included with sufficient clarity for reproduction.
An unique & enduring contricution to Native American studies.......2000-08-07
Originally published in 1917, reissued in 1987, now released again with a new introduction by Jeffrey R. Hansen, Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden presents an agricultural calendar year's activities as remembered by Buffalo Bird Woman, an accomplished Hidatsa gardener born around 1839. Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden was a doctoral dissertation by a man who believed "It is of no importance that an Indian's war costume struck the Puritan as the Devil's scheme to frighten the heart out of the Lord's annointed. What we want to know is why the Indian donned the costume, and his reasons for doing it (p.xix)." Wilson also went on to write Goodbird the Indian His Story and Waheenee: An Indian Girl's Story (biography of Buffalo Bird Woman, 1839-1921). Using biography to study a culture was effective because it highlighted the variety of traumatic cultural shifts, changes, and transmutations painfully experienced by Buffalo Bird Woman and her family. The use of empathy informs the dated, 'superior' dominant culture outlook. Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden has been called a classic anthropological document. It certainly is that and more. As a model of respectful viewing and learning, as a mirror of the complex lifeway of ;the agricultural Plains Indians, as a chronicle of human adaptation, survival and ingenuity in the face of cultural disenfranchisement, Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden sets the bar for the standard. In addition, it gives eloquent testimony to one of the enduring gifts of the Hidatsa - their varieties of corn, squash, beans, and sunflowers. Even more enduring, perhaps, is the contribution highlighted by Jeffrey Hanson: "buffalo Bird Woman's Garden is not the end, but the beginning. It is a foundation, a viewpoint, and it presents a cultural relationship with nature that we can all appreciate and from which we can all derive benefit. (p.xxiii). Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden describes planting, preparation, cultivating, harvesting and storing practices, as well as traditional songs and prayers sung to honor and encourage the garden's yield. Beautifully detailed drawings by her son Edward Goodbird illustrate Buffalo Bird Woman's descriptions of gardening and storing produce and other activities. It is easy to see that modern ethnologists and authors such as W. Michael and Kathleen O'Neal Gear drew fairly heavily from the information presented in Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden. This is an enduring testament to a lifeway revalued today perhaps more as it should be.
Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer
Re-enactors and gardeners alike will LOVE this book!.......2000-07-17
This is a Minnesota Historical Society reprint of the anthropological study done by Gilbert Wilson in 1917, originally published as "Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian Interpretation." Wilson was among the first of a new school of American anthropologists that felt Indian cultures should speak for themselves, and not be spoken for by "white man's" interpretations. Consequently, the book really is, as the subtitle says, "an Indian interpretation." Most of the text is translated directly from Buffalo Bird Woman's own words, complete with stories, jokes, and personal anecdotes about village life. By the time you are done reading it, you will feel as if you met her personally.
I bought it because I am a Minnesota gardener, so I wanted to see what tips I might pick up from the ways of the indigenous people. The book is rich with useful gardening lore, including diagrams of various tools and structures, along with detailed descriptions of the different kinds of beans, corn, and squash that the Indians grew. Plus, there are native recipes you can try.
I was surprised to learn that, when the Indians dried squash, they didn't use mature fruits with hard skins like we do today, but preferred to cut them when they were 4 days old -- at about 3 1/2 inches diameter. They were more tender that way, easier to slice, and they dried better. The best squashes were marked in the field and allowed to mature for seed.
I also found it interesting that the Indians kept the different colors of corn separate, not like the multi-colored "Indian corn" we buy today for fall decorations. Although Buffalo Bird Woman did not understand the science behind genetics, she and her fellow Hidatsa gardeners did notice that corn varieties will "travel" (her word) from one patch to another if different colors are planted too closely together. So, women with adjoining fields would agree to plant the same varieties side-by-side, to help prevent this "traveling."
The Hidatsa women also understood the principles of good seed-saving techniques, and carefully chose seed from the very best squashes and corn ears in the crop, thereby improving their strains from year to year. Composting, however, was apparently unknown. Leaves and brush were burned, not composted, and they regarded manure as a dirty substance to be removed from the garden. But the Hidatsa did know the value of fallowing, and would allow a less-productive field rest a minimum of two years to renew itself.
Some of the techniques in this book are still quite useful today. I have begun pre-spouting my squash seeds, and planting them in the SIDES of the hills instead of on top, to help prevent the heavy rains from damaging the seedlings. Some of the fencing designs have found their way into my rustic Minnesota garden, too.
This book is also a priceless resource for "living history" re-enactors or "back to the land" homesteaders who might want to know how to build a traditional corn-drying platform, a food-storage cache, a homemade rake, or any of the other tools used successfully for many centuries before the Europeans came here. Simply a delightful book!
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A Woman in Her Garden: Selected Poems of Dulce Maria Loynaz (Secret Weavers Series, 16)
Dulce Maria Loynaz
Manufacturer: White Pine Press (NY)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Literary Theory
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ASIN: 1893996557 |
Book Description
Born in Cuba in 1902, Loynaz established her reputation as a poet in the first half of the 20th century. After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, she retreated to her house, vowing to never write poetry again and refusing to leave the island of her birth. Like a Cuban Emily Dickinson, she lived out the -remainder of her life in seclusion. In 1992, she received the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious writing award in the Spanish language. She died in 1997. A Woman in Her Garden presents a bilingual selection of work from all phases of her career.
Judith Kerman is professor of humanities at Saginaw Valley State College in Michigan. Her books of poetry include Mothering and The Jacoba Poems.
Book Description
For generations, the garden has been a place to find the peace and quiet the soul desires - and, perhaps, the love the heart longs for. In 1631, Helen - A Woman of Valor - enters Marston Hall to care for three children. While the children test Helen's strength and patience, encounters with the horseman unnerve her. Can the garden help bring each one to a gentle understanding? The Victorian garden of Hampton Manor is an escape for Sarah - from the demands of society...and her mother. When she falls in love with the orchard keeper and becomes the Apple of His Eye, can these two social opposites find hope for a future together? With London under German attack, Margaret encounters an endearing Royal Air Force pilot whose beautiful garden sketches stir her soul. As the war rages, can love become A Flower Amidst the Ashes to refresh her heart? In Robyn's Garden, disabled children are taught about nature - and Robyn learns a difficult lesson from a visiting American. He has taken something she has to have back. Can she trust him with it...and her heart? Four women, four eras, one common theme: Joy and rest are found in God's careful nurturing and pruning. Come, experience His peace in the garden!
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful inspirational romance reading.......2002-03-13
The English Garden is an anthology of Christian romances by four very talented writers. The four novellas are set in or around a garden theme and span from medieval time to modern day. Great reading for a lazy spring afternoon as you relax in the warm sun.
DiAnn Mills, in her marvelous easy-to-read style, weaves a tender romance between Margaret Walker and Lieutenant Andrew Stuart. Set in the midst of Germany's air raids on London during World War II, A FLOWER AMIDST THE ASHES blends an engaging story of two people caught in the realities of war with authentic historical and cultural accuracy.
In ROBYN'S GARDEN, Kathleen Y'Barbo tells of the struggles of Robyn Locksley and Travis Gentry to understand each other and blend their American and English cultures. Memorable supporting characters make their journey through an English garden to each other one you won't soon forget.
Gail Gaymer Martin offers a delightful glimpse of Victorian English society in her APPLE OF HIS EYE. You'll love Sarah Hampton as she wins the love of her life, "Big John" Banning, in spite of the fact that he's not of her social class.
Jill Stengl's A WOMAN OF VALOR portrays Helen Walker's journey through trying circumstances and personal phobias to Oliver. Set in medieval times, Helen's courage and unfaltering faith is inspiring.
All four of these novellas, though set in four different eras, provide wholesome romantic stories to affirm God's perfect plan for each of us in His garden that we call life. I'll certainly be watching for other titles by these talented writers.
Average customer rating:
- Classic Gardens This Side of the Pond
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The American Woman's Garden
Rosemary Verey , and
Ellen Samuels
Manufacturer: New York Graphic Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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The American Man's Garden
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The Art of Planting
ASIN: 0821215809 |
Customer Reviews:
Classic Gardens This Side of the Pond.......2007-05-21
Gardens?! In America?! Documented by an Englishwoman?! Rosemary Verey has American women tell how their gardens got the way they did. Some enlarging inherited ones, some starting with bare dirt, some restarting with dismay after a disaster with weather, or life events. Good photos as well. Ms Verey's other books are well worth reading, both as how-to-do-it, and gee-whiz photos.
Book Description
The bestselling author of the Medicine Woman series taps into the mystical powers of Japan's sacred captured gardens and offers its secrets to all women who seek its magical wisdom and power.
Customer Reviews:
Unexpected and interesting........2006-02-07
This was my favorite of Lynn Andrews autobiographical books, besides her book Dark Sister. In this book Shakkai, she explores a future lifetime in terms of what she learned, so that she can apply it to her present situation as Lynn. The book steps into a completely different culture, with totally different values and beliefs. For those who have read the books in succession, the man who becomes the lover of the main character (Lynn in the future) is actually her spirit guide Windhorse, who we met in Windhorse Woman, and he is also the young wizard she fell in love with in the past in The Women of Wyrrd. He is a samurai, and the two have a profound connection. Life and death are thoroughly explored here, as is being in the present moment, through the energetic teachings of the mentor Shakkai, who teaches a method of creating the inner life in miniature, as a personal power object. The teachings Shakkai gives Lynn in the future in terms of respect of the earth, Nature as a living organism that has it's own message and a power that can be cooperated with are truly interesting, and worth reading this book solely for that understanding, or grasp of creating a garden with a distinct purpose.
Star Trek in Japan.......2005-03-29
Lynn's future progression reads a bit like a Japanese inspired Star Trek episode. The more Andrews goes on these shamanic journey ... the less credible it seems that this is non-fiction.
What next.......2001-07-18
As I tried keeping up with the images and story line, I felt it effecting me like a bad LSD trip. I am not sure what I was supposed to learn from these latest adventures into Wonderland but I will say this was the least entertaining of the series. I think that this type of Shamanism may be running out of gas.
An amazing glimpse into relationships and gardening.......1999-07-06
I first read this book several years ago, and was so intrigued by some of the ideas within it that I kept it on my shelf. I just moved into a new home that has a garden, and I'm rereading Shakkai to get some insights on how to go about planning a garden that would be a true spiritual haven for me.
What I totally missed in the first reading was the correspondence between human relationships and the human/natural world relationship. I was approaching my garden with a sense of respect, but now I have an even deeper understanding that the garden is about the relationships between the plants (and amongst them) and myself. I have only read a couple of Andrews books, but the parallels between this future life story and what I know of her current life experiences is shocking and yet comforting.
I now see myself as the center of my universe, surrounding by relationships with people that cross the bounds of time, and by relationships with all of the physical objects around me. My vision for my garden now is to create a place that reflects my inner peace and self understanding, more than it is about gardening books and landscape architecture.
Thank you, Lynn, for an outstanding new experience of my own life.
Product Description
Periodical. Article titles from front cover read: The Magic of Silver and Turquoise Jewelry: How to Buy, Wear & Make It; Magnificent Beadwork to Weave or Embroider; Three Ways to Weave Without a Loom; Cherokee Designs You Can Crochet and Needlepoint; Sandpainting - The Fun New Art; Making Authentic Moccasins, Baskets, Belts, Button Blankets.
Average customer rating:
- An excellent book, and a wonderful resource
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A Woman's Hardy Garden (American Gardening Classics)
Helena Rutherford Ely
Manufacturer: Collier Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0020318405 |
Book Description
Love of flowers and all things green and growing is with many men and women a passion so strong that it often seems to be a sort of primal instinct. So writes Helena Rutherford Ely in this engaging book on hardy flowers that is both instructional and charming to read. Chapters include instruction on how to prepare the soil, design a garden, and plant a small plot. The middle section of the book includes detailed information on annuals and perennials and other flowers, all of which are lovingly and thoroughly described. And the final part includes accents that can further enhance the beauty of the garden--water, walks, sundials, and others.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent book, and a wonderful resource.......2002-06-25
This wonderful book is rightly considered a classic among gardening books. Though it was originally published in 1903, it is still a marvelous resource for the modern gardener. The book starts out with gardening basics, such as soil preparation (the beginning of any garden), laying out the garden, seeds-beds, and planting. Then, the author begins her examination of the flowers that were popular in her time, covering annuals and perennials, and the moving into biennials, roses, lilies, and bulbs. At the end, she turns back to the practical, with a discussion about water for the garden, walkways and other decorations, and finally insecticides (OK, this is rather out-of-date) and tools. The conclusion is also worth reading, containing Ms. Ely's thoughts and several interesting garden diagrams.
This is an excellent book, and a wonderful resource. It puts so much knowledge together is a readable and interesting format. I highly recommend this book to you. [As a companion to this book, please let me recommend An Island Garden by Celia Thaxter.]
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The American Woman's Garden
Manufacturer: New York Graphic Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0316043699 |
Average customer rating:
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Carpets and Floor Coverings for Your Home
Stanley Lyons , and
Renate Beigel
Manufacturer: Cimino Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1899163093 |
Books:
- EARTHLY DELIGHTS
- El Mantenimiento Aplicado a Las Instalaciones Deportivas/ Applied Mantenance to Sport Installations (Biblioteca Gestor Deportivo / Sport Manager Library)
- Fanciful Paper Flowers: Creative Techniques for Crafting an Enchanted Garden
- Faux Florals for Your Wedding: Fifty Easy and Original Projects
- Flores De Bach Para Principiantes: 38 esencias con remedios practicos y naturales (Para Principiantes)
- Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long
- Fragrant Orchids: A Guide to Selecting, Growing, and Enjoying
- Gardening in Sandy Soil: Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin A-169 (Storey Publishing Bulletin, a-169)
- Gardening in the Lower Midwest: A Practical Guide to the New Zones 5 and 6
- Golden Gate Gardening: Year-Round Food Gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area and Coastal California
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