Bloom & Blossom: The Reader's Guide to Gardening

by Mary Swander (Editor)

Contains a diverse collection of fiction, poetry, and essays treating the social, political, and practical aspects of gardening. Contributors range from Henry David Thoreau to Allen Lacy, Katha Pollitt, and Wendell Berry. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

275 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1997

Reviews

[Kathy]

My partner snabbed this book for me from a bargain rack, knowing that the combination of reading and gardening might be right up my alley. And it is a quick, pleasant, thought provoking read, with snippets of this and that. I read it straight through, rather than jumping about, cautioned by the editor's preface that she had constructed her book with care. So it moves from memories of childhood to how to eat. Curiously, for a book with this sort of title and flowers on the cover, all the essays are focused on food plants. Well, there are feminist rifts about why women were delegated to the frivolous floral, herbal edges (and the dull labor) of gardening, but otherwise it is all about what fills the belly. And of course the soul.

[David Ward]

Bloom & Blossom: The Reader's Guide to Gardening by Mary Swander (Ecco Press 1997)(635+/-) is a collection of writings about gardening from Thoreau to Perenyi. My rating: 7/10, finished 7/8/14.