Inner Gardening: Four Seasons of Cultivating the Soil and the Spirit

by Diane Dreher

Cultivation of the soil meets cultivation of the soul in this refreshing approach to personal growth by the author of The Tao of Inner Peace. By combining practical gardening advice, personal narrative, and lessons in spiritual practice, Diane Dreher offers anyone who wants a more serene, balanced life a nurturing volume of the gentle, perceptive self-help that has endeared her books to thousands. Inner Gardening was written for the gardener in all of us and unites inspiration with gardening advice and wisdom, insights from medieval and Renaissance poets and philosophers, as well as the author's own gardening experiences. Divided into four seasons, the book takes readers on a journey of renewal throughout the year. New gardeners will find a monthly set of gardening tasks, including useful information about soil, mulching, composting, planning, pest control, and plant care. More experienced gardeners will gain new knowledge of garden history and learn how seasonal cycles and garden tasks echo centuries of tradition. Each chapter then segues into "Gardening as Spiritual Practice," offering personal exercises for planting seeds of ideas and dreams, weeding out bad habits and unfulfilling tasks, designing new challenges one step at a time, and more. Brimming with life-enhancing strategies for garden and gardener alike, Inner Gardening affirms what everyone who has ever planted a seed and watched it grow what we cultivate around us, we also cultivate within.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Diane Dreher, Ph.D., is the author of the best-selling The Tao of Inner Peace and her newest book, Pathways to Inner Peace. She has a doctorate in Renaissance literature from UCLA and a Master's degree in Counseling from Santa Clara University. She is professor emeritus at Santa Clara University and lecturer in the Positive Psychology Academy in the UK. A positive psychology and creativity coach, researcher, teacher and writer, Diane lives in the San Francisco Bay area."

Reviews

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has two major components: basic "how to manage a garden" advice and not quite so basic "how to balance your life" advice. I found the garden advice to be simplistic and too specific for the author's garden in its particular ecological zone. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the life advice, including the numerous quotes. For me, the best part was how Dreher related her life advice to gardening in general. This is going to be a good book to dip back into periodically when I'm feeling a little stagnant in life.

[Juliette Morris Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book that is more of a 'flip open and read this page for insight' type of book than a cover-to-cover read. Although it's meant to be read that way. Mainly because it provides insights and ideas on the light of the seasons, the soil of the seasons, etc. and how they reflect on our inner selves. I bought this for my Mother for Mother's Day. It's the kind of book to read in a hammock on a slow summer afternoon.