Cultivating Delight: A Natural History Of My Garden

Diane Ackerman

Editions

Review

I read a lot of gardening books throughout the year.  All sorts, believe me.  “How To” manuals, “Where To” finders, “If Only I Could” glossies, snooty “I Did It My Way” memoirs,  “Capability Brown Was A Mass Murderer” shockers and “This Is One I Made Earlier ” rip-offs from the TV, and it’s truly rare to rare to find a work like Diane Ackerman’s which having just finished, I would happily read again.

Her format is not unusual, and devoting a chapter to each week throughout the year, she has assembled lore and legend, facts and feelings, hints and hunches, fragments of poetry from antiquity to Auden, to produce a joyful celebration of living in the country.  Observing deer, frogs and above all birds at her garden in the Hamptons seems to occupy her as much as the interesting plants she mentions.  The resulting commonplace book is a beautifully written paean to the pleasures of nature, at times sentimental but never mawkish,and poetic without being twee.

Perfect holiday reading for gardeners who get the fidgets sitting on a beach. - review by Stewart Grimshaw