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The Roots of My Obsession: Thirty Great Gardeners Reveal Why They Garden
Why do you garden? For fun? Work? Food? The reasons to garden are as unique as the gardener.
"The Roots of My Obsession" features thirty essays from the most vital voices in gardening. They show that gardening is a passion and obsession that cannot be conquered or abandoned, only indulged. Each gardener tells a compelling story. Whether their muse is the quest to achieve a personal vision of ultimate beauty, a mission to heal the earth, or the attempt to grow a perfect heirloom tomato, the writing is direct, engaging, and from the heart.
For Doug Tallamy, a love of plants is rooted first in a love of animals: "animals with two legs (birds), four legs (box turtles, salamanders, and foxes), six legs (butterflies and beetles), eight legs (spiders), dozens of legs (centipedes), hundreds of legs (millipedes), and even animals with no legs (snakes and pollywogs)." For Rosalind Creasy, it's "not the plant itself; it's how you use it in the garden." And for Sydney Eddison, the reason has changed throughout the years. Now, she "gardens for the moment."
As you read, you may find yourself nodding your head in agreement, or gasping in disbelief. What you're sure to encounter is some of the best writing about the gardener's soul ever to appear. For anyone who cherishes the miracle of bringing forth life from the soil, "The Roots of My Obsession" is essential inspiration.
"The Roots of My Obsession" features thirty essays from the most vital voices in gardening. They show that gardening is a passion and obsession that cannot be conquered or abandoned, only indulged. Each gardener tells a compelling story. Whether their muse is the quest to achieve a personal vision of ultimate beauty, a mission to heal the earth, or the attempt to grow a perfect heirloom tomato, the writing is direct, engaging, and from the heart.
For Doug Tallamy, a love of plants is rooted first in a love of animals: "animals with two legs (birds), four legs (box turtles, salamanders, and foxes), six legs (butterflies and beetles), eight legs (spiders), dozens of legs (centipedes), hundreds of legs (millipedes), and even animals with no legs (snakes and pollywogs)." For Rosalind Creasy, it's "not the plant itself; it's how you use it in the garden." And for Sydney Eddison, the reason has changed throughout the years. Now, she "gardens for the moment."
As you read, you may find yourself nodding your head in agreement, or gasping in disbelief. What you're sure to encounter is some of the best writing about the gardener's soul ever to appear. For anyone who cherishes the miracle of bringing forth life from the soil, "The Roots of My Obsession" is essential inspiration.
164 pages, Paperback
First published October 2, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
December 8, 2012
I would like to give this book more than 5 stars - all the essays are good but some of them are so beautifully written that I had to order it before I had finished my copy from the library. It's amazing to me that there are people who can both write like this and garden well enough to be featured in a book about writing. Will make your see your own garden and the outdoor space you frequent in a different manner, and may even help you feel somehow more connected to the human race thru the love of plants. Very highly recommended.
*... His marigold bloomed in our garden and set seed, spawning a race of flowers that endured several years. They are vanished now, as is he.* - Thomas Christopher
*What a luxury it is to fill the bird feeders and pat the lily pads in the sun, give the beans an encouraging hand up their poles, and pinch a stem or two of parsley for the kitchen counter.* - Marty Ross
*Just being in a garden gives me incredible peace, like being in a foreign cathedral on a hot afternoon, when there's nobody around, only the sun beaming from high above, lighting up motes of dust. Somewhere I can gather all my thoughts and deal with them, slowly and quietly, one at a time.* - Helen Dillon
*... His marigold bloomed in our garden and set seed, spawning a race of flowers that endured several years. They are vanished now, as is he.* - Thomas Christopher
*What a luxury it is to fill the bird feeders and pat the lily pads in the sun, give the beans an encouraging hand up their poles, and pinch a stem or two of parsley for the kitchen counter.* - Marty Ross
*Just being in a garden gives me incredible peace, like being in a foreign cathedral on a hot afternoon, when there's nobody around, only the sun beaming from high above, lighting up motes of dust. Somewhere I can gather all my thoughts and deal with them, slowly and quietly, one at a time.* - Helen Dillon
June 29, 2020
Though I hate when they start out “Why do I garden?” .. uh, that’s what you’re supposed to be telling us.... there were several that actually went beyond “I started gardening at 3/4/etc” into the actual Why!
The best was told by Margaret Roach in her essay “Saving Grace” bringing in the spiritual aspect. Mindfully “When weeding, I was really weeding. I was in it as if it were the motions of a vinyasa-deepening my connection to the place.” Yes! Maybe it was just that I felt a kindred spirit with her that hers resonated so much deeper than any of the others.
Tony Avent’s “Genetically Engineered” was entertaining and also more in line with what I hoped to read. His segues from early love to his own nursery business.
Each contributor gave their take on their passion, most leading to writing of, working in, teaching and/or showing horticultural splendor. At least one tidbit to glean from each, which raised the bar a bit... but I hoped for more.
September 16, 2022
If you like to garden, then I’m sure you’d love this book…..
February 27, 2013
As soon as I finished this book I wanted to start it over again. So validating to know that others are just as crazily yearning to get their hands dirty in the spring, or push the snow off their tulip bed so they can poke their beautiful faces into the sun.
Inspirational, and sweet. Some of the essays made me want to cry. Instead I will go find my trowel.
Inspirational, and sweet. Some of the essays made me want to cry. Instead I will go find my trowel.
April 27, 2014
I love this little book. It speaks to my soul and to my own obsession.
Yes, I admit it - I, too, am obsessed with gardening, sometimes to the point of nuttiness, but reading this book with its short essays by thirty great gardeners (thirty-one including the introduction by the editor Thomas Cooper), some that I knew about and some I had never heard of, made me realize that this particular obsession of mine is a holy gift from the universe and from all my gardening ancestors who, somewhere, must be laughing up their angelic sleeves to see that I have finally joined their band after so much whining and complaining.
You see, I learned the basics of gardening at my mother's knee, but I didn't do it willingly. I hated every moment of my childhood gardening experiences. At least, I thought I did. Now I look back on those days with fondness and with regret that I was not a better listener.
The reasons for gardening and the paths that one takes to becoming a gardener are as myriad and unique as the gardeners themselves - in this case thirty of them. Some people are born to gardening, some have it thrust upon them, and some come to it later in life in a roundabout fashion, but however we get there, all gardeners share the impulse to achieve their own personal vision of beauty through the creation of their gardens. It was fascinating and instructive for me to read how that impulse found expression in the lives of these thirty gardeners.
Although I enjoyed each one of the essays presented here and I found something to identify with in each of them, there are a few of them that particularly stand out in my mind and that had special meaning for me.
One of those was "The Web" by Douglas W. Tallamy. The first two sentences of his essay explains it all for me: "Most people garden because they love plants, but I garden because I love animals - all kinds of animals. Animals with two legs (birds), four legs (box turtles, salamanders, and foxes), six legs (butterflies and beetles), eight legs (spiders), dozens of legs (centipedes), hundreds of legs (millipedes, and even animals with no legs (snakes and pollywogs)." I found myself nodding as I read that. As a habitat gardener myself, I knew exactly what he meant.
Another favorite was "Chaos Theory" by Page Dickey who expounds upon the pleasures of weeding. You see, weeding is all about bringing order out of chaos and achieving that personal vision of beauty, but each gardener knows in his or her heart that this is a battle that can never be won. The aphorism that "Nature abhors a vacuum" is too true. She will continue to fill that vacuum with weeds and, in the end, we will be defeated. Any victory is only temporary. But that's all right, and knowing that and accepting it is the beginning of wisdom. Acceptance is learning to be at peace with what Nature brings us and seeing that imperfection can be beautiful, too.
It is Thomas Christopher, though, who sums up my feelings about gardening and about the wisdom contained in this book in his essay, "The Apprenticeship." He writes:
Yes. Transcendence. That's what the gardening experience is all about. In the end, that is what each of the essayists here is saying.
(Note: A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in return for my honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.)
Yes, I admit it - I, too, am obsessed with gardening, sometimes to the point of nuttiness, but reading this book with its short essays by thirty great gardeners (thirty-one including the introduction by the editor Thomas Cooper), some that I knew about and some I had never heard of, made me realize that this particular obsession of mine is a holy gift from the universe and from all my gardening ancestors who, somewhere, must be laughing up their angelic sleeves to see that I have finally joined their band after so much whining and complaining.
You see, I learned the basics of gardening at my mother's knee, but I didn't do it willingly. I hated every moment of my childhood gardening experiences. At least, I thought I did. Now I look back on those days with fondness and with regret that I was not a better listener.
The reasons for gardening and the paths that one takes to becoming a gardener are as myriad and unique as the gardeners themselves - in this case thirty of them. Some people are born to gardening, some have it thrust upon them, and some come to it later in life in a roundabout fashion, but however we get there, all gardeners share the impulse to achieve their own personal vision of beauty through the creation of their gardens. It was fascinating and instructive for me to read how that impulse found expression in the lives of these thirty gardeners.
Although I enjoyed each one of the essays presented here and I found something to identify with in each of them, there are a few of them that particularly stand out in my mind and that had special meaning for me.
One of those was "The Web" by Douglas W. Tallamy. The first two sentences of his essay explains it all for me: "Most people garden because they love plants, but I garden because I love animals - all kinds of animals. Animals with two legs (birds), four legs (box turtles, salamanders, and foxes), six legs (butterflies and beetles), eight legs (spiders), dozens of legs (centipedes), hundreds of legs (millipedes, and even animals with no legs (snakes and pollywogs)." I found myself nodding as I read that. As a habitat gardener myself, I knew exactly what he meant.
Another favorite was "Chaos Theory" by Page Dickey who expounds upon the pleasures of weeding. You see, weeding is all about bringing order out of chaos and achieving that personal vision of beauty, but each gardener knows in his or her heart that this is a battle that can never be won. The aphorism that "Nature abhors a vacuum" is too true. She will continue to fill that vacuum with weeds and, in the end, we will be defeated. Any victory is only temporary. But that's all right, and knowing that and accepting it is the beginning of wisdom. Acceptance is learning to be at peace with what Nature brings us and seeing that imperfection can be beautiful, too.
It is Thomas Christopher, though, who sums up my feelings about gardening and about the wisdom contained in this book in his essay, "The Apprenticeship." He writes:
This is for me the greatest power and attraction of gardening, the transcendence it yields at unexpected moments. Occasionally, when I excise a dandelion from the lawn with one of the patented weed-pullers I inherited from my mother, who, late in life, developed an insatiable appetite for gardening gadgets, I hear her telling me how the task should be done. When I plant a tree, I may see my father, still young, punching holes in the hard earth of a pasture with a digging bar, sweat dripping from his nose, his glasses slipping off, a bucket full of saplings resting in the shade nearby.
A physicist has told me that time is a dimension that extends as readily backward as forward, and that our inability to see what we think of as the past is just a peculiarity of our limited powers of perception.
It's only in the garden that I have ever felt myself escaping this perceptual constraint. Sometimes the experience takes the form of an instant so beautiful and rich as to move me, for a moment, outside of time. In others, usually while planting, the sensation is of jumping forward to glimpse the seedling grown large, the landscape as it will be. What I continue to prize most, though are the reconnections with people, places and times otherwise lost to me.
Yes. Transcendence. That's what the gardening experience is all about. In the end, that is what each of the essayists here is saying.
(Note: A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in return for my honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.)
January 20, 2013
Next to thumbing through seed catologs, reading about gardening is one of my favorite winter past times. When I discovered this new volume of essays written by well known gardeners reflecting on why they garden, I snatched it up. I was not disappointed. What I found was a well-written collection that is as diverse and as personal as their own individual gardens. Each essay is short and easily digestible and was a nice way to while away a winter afternoon encouraging me to reflect upon my own obsession. Susan Heeger pretty much summed it up when she said, "You plant the seed, you nurture it, it nurtures you. That's it. That's everything. The deepest mystery, the most irrisistible thrill, just there, outside your door."
September 15, 2018
An excellent collection of essays from gardeners that now feel like friends.
Best quote: "You plant the seed, you nurture it, it nurtures you. That’s it. That’s everything. The deepest mystery, the most irresistible thrill, just there, outside your door." --Susan Heeger
Best quote: "You plant the seed, you nurture it, it nurtures you. That’s it. That’s everything. The deepest mystery, the most irresistible thrill, just there, outside your door." --Susan Heeger
January 15, 2023
A perfect book to read in January while I'm ordering from seed catalogs.
December 30, 2020
Famous gardeners and horticulturists chime in on why they dig in the dirt. It’s definitely worth buying if you can’t find it in your local library.
February 26, 2013
Why do you garden?
This may seem like a simple question to ask someone who has dedicated a large amount of their life to the cause, but in The Roots of My Obsession the answers are often complex and several authors appeared to struggle to fit the answer into their two page limit. Gardening is much more than a hobby to many, it is a way of life and a passion that many carry with them throughout their lifetimes. In this book edited by Thomas C. Cooper, thirty famous gardeners reveal a snippet of what gardening means to them and the impact it has had on their lives. By answering this single question gardeners reveal a need to connect to the earth despite the risks and the heartaches that come from this never-ending activity. Not-so-famous gardeners will discover a connection to these stories and will find themselves motivated to journey on through the snow, disease, bugs, and natural disasters which affect a garden’s life and therefore a gardener’s life.
This may seem like a simple question to ask someone who has dedicated a large amount of their life to the cause, but in The Roots of My Obsession the answers are often complex and several authors appeared to struggle to fit the answer into their two page limit. Gardening is much more than a hobby to many, it is a way of life and a passion that many carry with them throughout their lifetimes. In this book edited by Thomas C. Cooper, thirty famous gardeners reveal a snippet of what gardening means to them and the impact it has had on their lives. By answering this single question gardeners reveal a need to connect to the earth despite the risks and the heartaches that come from this never-ending activity. Not-so-famous gardeners will discover a connection to these stories and will find themselves motivated to journey on through the snow, disease, bugs, and natural disasters which affect a garden’s life and therefore a gardener’s life.
July 15, 2013
This is a delightful book for those that are obsessed, even if just a little, with gardening. 30 short stories written by well-known gardening journalist and horticulturist, many stories are heart-warming and funny and give words to the mystery of the why we must plant and grow and get dirt in our fingernails and toes. I certainly recommend it for light, summer reading, or even winter reading as we dream of the coming spring!
February 24, 2016
My next book for my Master Gardener Book Club. I wouldn't recommend it even to other gardeners.
July 17, 2022
This book contains stories from thirty famous gardeners, each explaining their reason for gardening; their obsession. Some of their reasoning is easy to relate to, but oftentimes I found them describing large acre gardens with unbelievble landscapes full of foliage with names that only a professional gardener would know. I guess I was hoping for more light-hearted and humorous anecdotes about gardening. However I did find these takeaways:
"I have no interest in getting the garden 'done in no time.' This is something I plan to do for the rest of my life. " ~ Ken Druse
"Whatever else might be happening in my day, or in the world, the garden is always there, carrying on its unhurried, miraculous business in the bee-humming, earth-splitting Now. Being in it connects me to that vital present - listening, smelling, belonging to it absolutely, complete. I'm amazed how utterly it has changed my world, that I ever lived without it." ~ Susan Heeger
"I think that is why I garden. I need to create beauty. The transformation from tiny seedling, to extravagant first blossom is what propels me onward." ~ Thomas Hobbs
"My garden not only gives me pleasure, it also instils calm, grafts patience into my soul. Gardening slows me down and puts worries in proportion. My garden teaches me to be observant and how to look at things. ... A garden hones my senses. .... In a garden, I never feel lonely." ~ Anna Pavord
" ... gardening was my first moving meditation, my yoga. When I was raking, I raked - .... Being truly at attention and one with the task ..." ~ Margaret Roach
"The really interesting question is not 'Why do I garden?' but rather, 'Why doesn't everyone garden?'" ~ Claire Sawyers
"'Garden' is a verb, not a noun. A garden is not a thing you can buy or own or ever possibly finish. No 'garden' is something you do." ~ Amy Stewart
"I have no interest in getting the garden 'done in no time.' This is something I plan to do for the rest of my life. " ~ Ken Druse
"Whatever else might be happening in my day, or in the world, the garden is always there, carrying on its unhurried, miraculous business in the bee-humming, earth-splitting Now. Being in it connects me to that vital present - listening, smelling, belonging to it absolutely, complete. I'm amazed how utterly it has changed my world, that I ever lived without it." ~ Susan Heeger
"I think that is why I garden. I need to create beauty. The transformation from tiny seedling, to extravagant first blossom is what propels me onward." ~ Thomas Hobbs
"My garden not only gives me pleasure, it also instils calm, grafts patience into my soul. Gardening slows me down and puts worries in proportion. My garden teaches me to be observant and how to look at things. ... A garden hones my senses. .... In a garden, I never feel lonely." ~ Anna Pavord
" ... gardening was my first moving meditation, my yoga. When I was raking, I raked - .... Being truly at attention and one with the task ..." ~ Margaret Roach
"The really interesting question is not 'Why do I garden?' but rather, 'Why doesn't everyone garden?'" ~ Claire Sawyers
"'Garden' is a verb, not a noun. A garden is not a thing you can buy or own or ever possibly finish. No 'garden' is something you do." ~ Amy Stewart
July 1, 2020
Not my favorite, but I don't think I was the target audience. I only recently got into outdoor gardening, and have been expanding my houseplant collection this past year.
As a first reaction, it's great hearing why all 30 gardeners took up their spades, most of them making a career out of their favorite pastime. Unfortunately a lot of their reasons were so similar it was like I was reading some of the essays multiple times. And while I don't think it was the intent some of the authors came off as condescending; if you didn't have an interest in gardening you weren't worth knowing.
But I'm not mad I read it and I do intend to keep up my own gardening!
As a first reaction, it's great hearing why all 30 gardeners took up their spades, most of them making a career out of their favorite pastime. Unfortunately a lot of their reasons were so similar it was like I was reading some of the essays multiple times. And while I don't think it was the intent some of the authors came off as condescending; if you didn't have an interest in gardening you weren't worth knowing.
But I'm not mad I read it and I do intend to keep up my own gardening!
March 22, 2019
I love reading about gardening, especially in the spring when I want so badly to BE gardening and the weather doesn't necessarily cooperate. This is a great book to pick up and read a couple of chapters at a time and savor what others love about gardening.
I thought the gardeners that contributed to this book were awesome.
I thought the gardeners that contributed to this book were awesome.
March 29, 2018
I am familiar with most of the gardeners in this book and so was particularly interested in how they got started and why they garden. The essays are short and it was a nice break between two more serious books.
May 16, 2018
Delightful book for avid gardeners (don't think a non-gardener would like this book, but I could be wrong). Really enjoyed reading every single essay--all of which were quite well written.
May 28, 2018
Fun to read why others garden. Enjoyed
September 14, 2018
Made me want to camp out in my backyard and amp up my own outdoor spaces. Lovely, personal accounts of that innate sense of satisfaction after helping something flourish.
December 28, 2021
A lovely read - reminded me why I love gardeners. Jake will enjoy it!
February 4, 2022
Loved these personal essays about why we garden. Made me want to rush out and garden!
February 28, 2023
If you are a gardener, you will love this book! Highly recommended.
December 19, 2023
Inspiring. I would recommend this as a light, loving read for those who love to garden, or may be thinking about starting.
February 19, 2024
Enjoyed this a lot. Makes me long for Spring when I can get my raised beds ready for planting. I appreciated the mentions of gardening books by these authors.
November 21, 2025
Absolutely love this book so much. I read a chapter a day in the mornings, when my head was already so full of gardening designs for my own little plot of land. It was a true delight.
July 17, 2013
This book was recommended by the president of my mastergardener group and I love a garden book....I am listing the people covered in the book because I would like to check them out further.
Tony Avent Panayoti Kelaidis***
thomas Christopher Roy Lancaster
Rosalind Creasy Tovah Martin
William Cullina** Julie Moir Messervy
Rick Darke Stephen Orr
Page Dickey Anna Pavord***
Helen Dillon Anne Raver***
Ken Druse Margaret Roach
Sydney Eddison Marty Ross
Fergus Garrett Claire Sawyers
Nancy Goodwin** Amy Stewart
Susan Heeger Roger B. Swain**
Daniel J. Hinkley Douglas W. Tallamy***
Thomas Hobbs Richard G. Turner Jr
Penelope Hobhouse David Wheeler
John Sedding***
Tony Avent Panayoti Kelaidis***
thomas Christopher Roy Lancaster
Rosalind Creasy Tovah Martin
William Cullina** Julie Moir Messervy
Rick Darke Stephen Orr
Page Dickey Anna Pavord***
Helen Dillon Anne Raver***
Ken Druse Margaret Roach
Sydney Eddison Marty Ross
Fergus Garrett Claire Sawyers
Nancy Goodwin** Amy Stewart
Susan Heeger Roger B. Swain**
Daniel J. Hinkley Douglas W. Tallamy***
Thomas Hobbs Richard G. Turner Jr
Penelope Hobhouse David Wheeler
John Sedding***
March 6, 2013
great winter reading, i love the use of latin names and the fact that I know these plants also and consider the plants friends! Good to know there are others like myself who knew from a young age they were into the flora and fauna around there homes! I love to garden cause it provides beauty, interest, and passion from the soul, the earth, the flowers and the weeds all have a special place in my heart!trees also give me great pleasure, winter spring summer and fall.......come on spring!!!!!!
February 3, 2013
Many of the stories were very similar, but the book itself ushered in a feeling of intense desire to learn and grow, as these gardeners have done in their nurturing of their hobby and their gardens. While I have different interests and reasons for the hobby, the book, to me, was an inspiriation to keep growing.
December 28, 2013
"The point of my garden is to increase the value of my life"--Anna Pavord. Very hard to produce a good book in the genre of garden narrative--maybe one a year is published. This was one for 2012. I've also had the pleasure of seeing 8 of the people who contributed essays for this book give lectures--hope to see a few more of them in the next couple years.
December 18, 2012
A quick, enjoyable read that offered insight into the diverse approaches and motivations that fall within the label of gardener. As someone who has always focused on the practical, edible side of gardening I found the essays by primarily ornamental gardeners especially enlightening.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews