The Carefree Garden: Letting Nature Play Her Part
By (Author) Bill Terry
TouchWood Editions
TouchWood Editions
9th June 2015
Canada
General
Non Fiction
635.9676
Paperback
192
Width 152mm, Height 228mm
368g
What happens when a lifelong gardener finally realizes he must collaborate with Mother Nature, rather than work against her, to achieve his dream of creating the perfect garden In this delightful and thoughtful narrative journey of horticultural discovery, Bill Terry asks how and even why we garden, and to what end.
These are personal stories, thoughts, and ideas about the perfect garden interspersed with humorous imagined conversations with Mother Nature herself. As he works in his West Coast garden, choosing wild roses over fancy hybrid teas, and discarding man-made cultivars in favour of the charm and simplicity of peonies, hellebores, and tulips, Terry learns to welcome and encourage happy accidents, greatly reducing the work and effort required to maintain order (as most gardeners seek to do), and embrace a substantial measure of disorder.
The perfect garden, he discovers, respects both Mother Natures demandsby integrating endemic plants, and choosing natural species and varietiesand the gardeners personalityexpressing their own taste and creativity, and embodying private memories. This is a witty collection of reflections that will appeal to gardeners everywhere.
Bill Terry is a retired CBC executive, and the author of Blue Heaven, Beyond Beauty, and co-author of Beauty by Design. He lives on BC's Sunshine Coast with his wife Rosemary.