Embroidered Ground: Revisiting the Garden

by Page Dickey, William Atherton (Illustrator)

In Embroidered Revisiting the Garden , the acclaimed author and garden designer Page Dickey writes of the pitfalls, challenges, successes, and myriad pleasures of the twenty-nine year process of creating her own remarkable garden, Duck Hill, in upstate New York. This winning book details the evolution of one especially loved and cared-for its failed schemes and realized dreams, and the wisdom gained in contending with an ever-evolving work of art. The author shares her very personal views on what contributes to a garden's success―structure, fragrance, the play of light and shadow, patterns and textures, multiseasonal plants. She writes of gardening with a husband, with wildlife, with dogs and chickens. And she grapples with how to adapt her garden―as we can adapt ours―to change in the years ahead.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2011

Reviews

[Sarah Sattin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really lovely description of Page Dickey's garden at her home, Duck Hill. I just need to remind myself that gardening memoirs don't speak to me because I don't know all the plants and I don't have a visual imagination. I did pick up some good tips here and there and overall, I'm glad that i read this.

[Alivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I certainly don't review every book I read on here. But I do try to review those that have too few reviews, and it's a shame that this has only one (at the time of writing). In this garden memoir, Dickey reflects on thirty years of gardening at Duck Hill, her spacious property; there are chapters on the creation and evolution of her flower gardens, herb and vegetable gardens, woodland garden, swimming pool, greenhouse, chicken run, and deliberately-planted meadow. She opines on how to create a garden that is aesthetically pleasing, giving recommendations on pathway materials, hedge plants, design principles, and variegated plants (she finds them less naturalistic than solid-colored leaves). Then there are chapters focusing on groups of plants one might use to good effect on any size of property: dogwoods, viburnums, witch hazels, lilacs, roses. Dickey pleads with the reader to use natives to frame one's property and to eschew invasive and noxious plants; to establish a compost pile; to create pleasing contrasts with dark and light, sun and shade. She tells us how to force bulbs and branches indoors for winter bloom and how to adapt a garden as one ages, to make it easier to care for.
Her tone throughout is conversational, easy, pleasant to read as a bedtime book or after coming in from a chilly hour of weeding. There are a handful of attractive black and white watercolor illustrations and the book design is appealing, with nice clear fonts in a relatively large size.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our 84th Retirement Read Aloud book. Very enjoyable