Connecting with Nature Through Plants
First thought, best thought, right? The minute I started reading The Gardener’s Mindset I felt a connection with Stephen Orr. It was like having a garden bestie talking in my head.
Orr’s gentle way of telling his gardening story is peaceful as well as informative, not uppity or in-your-face or stringent. He shares what he knows from a storied career in the design and gardening world, and takes you along for the ride. It’s a great ride through the bulbs, wearing rose-colored glasses, crazy bits about Devonian soils, salad boxes, ghosts and herbs. Also, owls, rabbits, coyotes, turkeys and bees. I can so relate. Except I knew nothing about Devonian, soils but I do now. Then we get to the whacky but oh-so-cool parts about the color spectrum and certain times of the day. “Colors fade in the order they appear in the spectrum . . . what???” And “magenta does not exist in the linear color spectrum because it would fall between red, the longest wavelength, and purple, the shortest.” I love nerdy stuff like this.
Speaking of photographs, the ones in this book are totally inspirational. They were contributed by Orr’s partner, Chad Jacobs. I flipped over the exquisite presentation of dark tulips, and nodded in agreement over larkspur, poppies, Sissinghurst and Great Dixter. I am going to try again with the hyancinth varieties they shared in the photo in the book – ice blue, white, and lavender. That particular arrangement was compelling.
Maybe I connect with Orr’s writing because he, too, parks his butt in the garden and becomes one with the soil, content, awestruck, at ease. I park mine on an old towel, face to face with the iris, and go to town. It’s kind of like a private consult. Dear Iris: “I’ve become my grandmother, and I hope you know how happy that makes me. Up close and personal like this, I can see all of your glitter and iridescence . . . not to mention your grape bubblegum fragrance is making me swoon.” She collected the tall German bearded types, and had more iris than I will probably ever have. “Ah yes, dear reader, I may have ordered up some more ‘Beverly Sills’ and ‘Coffee Trader’ varieties after reading about Stephen’s.
Having read Orr’s other books, The New American Herbal and Tomorrow’s Garden: Design and Inspiration for a New Age of Sustainable Gardening, I was also enamored with back-stories that gave rise to Stephen and Chad’s herb garden. I concur with the reasoning: If you can have but one small garden it would be an herb garden. If all you have is a half whiskey barrel, you can grow enough herbs to cook with for a year.
Orr’s love of gardening shines through the pages of The Gardener’s Mindset in a compelling way . . . I am keeping it close at hand for encouragement and smiles. I recommend you get a copy and do the same.
THE GARDENER’S MINDSET by Stephen Orr | Clarkson Potter
ISBN: 9798217033690 | $29.99 | Hard Cover
