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A Patchwork Garden: Unexpected Pleasures from a Country Garden
Octavo, 1992, Pp.224, Unexpected Pleasures from a Country Garden
- GenresGardeningNonfiction
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
21 people want to read
About the author
Sydney Eddison
16 books12 followersSydney Eddison has written seven books on gardening. She has been honored by National Garden Clubs Inc. with their Award of Excellence for 2010. For her work as a writer, gardener, and lecturer, she has also received the Connecticut Horticultural Society’s Gustav A. L. Melquist Award in 2002; the New England Wild Flower Society’s Kathryn S. Taylor Award in 2005; and in 2006, The Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut’s Bronze Medal. Her garden has been featured in magazines and on television. A former scene designer and drama teacher, Eddison lectures widely and is a frequent contributor to Fine Gardening magazine and other publications.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 15, 2016
A patchwork garden, unexpected pleasures from a country garden by Eddison_ Sydney
Like how she starts out with a quilt and how the pieces are from a lot of different people and it tells a story and her garden starts out just like that.
Bearded iris is one flower we have here that grows and I'm not sure where it came from as I don't recall ever planting the bulb. So velvety and rich in color.
Loved hearing of the wild flowers, many of which my mom always grew and gave me either cuttings or seeds to start my own flowers.
Lots of ideas and tips as they move to a new location and gather the plants, some given some bought.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
Like how she starts out with a quilt and how the pieces are from a lot of different people and it tells a story and her garden starts out just like that.
Bearded iris is one flower we have here that grows and I'm not sure where it came from as I don't recall ever planting the bulb. So velvety and rich in color.
Loved hearing of the wild flowers, many of which my mom always grew and gave me either cuttings or seeds to start my own flowers.
Lots of ideas and tips as they move to a new location and gather the plants, some given some bought.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
May 24, 2016
Ah, to discover a new gardening book – learn to love the author, and her garden, and her gardening friends – and then to find that she is also the author of other books, more gardening books! Sydney Eddison’s book about her garden of almost 30 years ends this way:
“If you had asked me twenty-eight years ago what it means to be a gardener, I wouldn’t have understood the question, let alone attempted an answer. The allied subjects of plants and garden-making are enormous in scope. What I know – even now- is painfully limited, but I do know what it means to be a gardener. It means caring as much as Lou, and knowing as much as the Gills and the Fosters. It means working as hard as Ann and being as generous as Mary. It means being careful, optimistic, patient, and observant. It means learning what plants like, want, and need.
Being a gardener means being part scientist and part artist. It means being as strong as an ox and as tough as old boots. It means being impervious to insect bites, rain, sleet, snow, heat, sunburn, and sunstroke. It means reading and learning, lifting and digging. It means knowing what you want to achieve and shy. It means being nimble-fingered enough to prick out seedling and heavy-handed enough to break rocks with a sledgehammer. It means blood, sweat, and tears. And it means ecstasy.”
I loved the title, A Patchwork Garden, used to describe how the author’s garden is a mingling of both the plants, generously given, and the knowledge, frequently shared, of her friends, old and new. Starting as a novice gardener with the purchase of a home in the early 1960s, Sydney Eddison meets other gardeners, who introduce her in turn to their friends, and from all these many gardens and gardeners, her own land begins to take shape.
Like Laurie Lisle, author of the first gardening book I read (Four-Tenths of an Acre), Sydney Eddison lives and gardens in Connecticut. And both authors read and recommended a book called The Country Garden by Josephine Neuse. Sydney Eddison calls it her favorite gardening book, and shares a story of giving it as a gift to her friends the Gills, who begin a correspondence with the author. I really want to read this one. It isn’t in the library system, and it is out of print, so I will begin hunting for a used copy.
And there are five more Sydney Eddison books to read. Oh! And I’ve just found an article that she wrote on how to build a sapling trellis. And a video of her using leaves to mulch around her plants! Wow, an actual glimpse of the garden I was just reading about! I love this treasure hunt.
And now, this, from a New York Times book review of A Patchwork Garden:
“This attractive and very lively book also brought home to me a point that few other readers will notice: to garden is to be connected in unsuspected ways with people one does not know at all. Sydney Eddison and I both have an uncommonly fine strain of Lenten roses, or Helleborus orientalis, in our gardens. I got mine from my friend Hannah Withers in Charlotte, who got them from Elizabeth Lawrence. Lawrence in her turn got them from her friend Carl Krippendorf. Ms. Eddison got them from her friend Mary Ley, whose grandfather provided plants. Mary Ley's grandfather, it turns out, was Carl Krippendorf. This pattern of sharing plants may go back to the earliest garden of all - Eden.”
That gives me chills!
“If you had asked me twenty-eight years ago what it means to be a gardener, I wouldn’t have understood the question, let alone attempted an answer. The allied subjects of plants and garden-making are enormous in scope. What I know – even now- is painfully limited, but I do know what it means to be a gardener. It means caring as much as Lou, and knowing as much as the Gills and the Fosters. It means working as hard as Ann and being as generous as Mary. It means being careful, optimistic, patient, and observant. It means learning what plants like, want, and need.
Being a gardener means being part scientist and part artist. It means being as strong as an ox and as tough as old boots. It means being impervious to insect bites, rain, sleet, snow, heat, sunburn, and sunstroke. It means reading and learning, lifting and digging. It means knowing what you want to achieve and shy. It means being nimble-fingered enough to prick out seedling and heavy-handed enough to break rocks with a sledgehammer. It means blood, sweat, and tears. And it means ecstasy.”
I loved the title, A Patchwork Garden, used to describe how the author’s garden is a mingling of both the plants, generously given, and the knowledge, frequently shared, of her friends, old and new. Starting as a novice gardener with the purchase of a home in the early 1960s, Sydney Eddison meets other gardeners, who introduce her in turn to their friends, and from all these many gardens and gardeners, her own land begins to take shape.
Like Laurie Lisle, author of the first gardening book I read (Four-Tenths of an Acre), Sydney Eddison lives and gardens in Connecticut. And both authors read and recommended a book called The Country Garden by Josephine Neuse. Sydney Eddison calls it her favorite gardening book, and shares a story of giving it as a gift to her friends the Gills, who begin a correspondence with the author. I really want to read this one. It isn’t in the library system, and it is out of print, so I will begin hunting for a used copy.
And there are five more Sydney Eddison books to read. Oh! And I’ve just found an article that she wrote on how to build a sapling trellis. And a video of her using leaves to mulch around her plants! Wow, an actual glimpse of the garden I was just reading about! I love this treasure hunt.
And now, this, from a New York Times book review of A Patchwork Garden:
“This attractive and very lively book also brought home to me a point that few other readers will notice: to garden is to be connected in unsuspected ways with people one does not know at all. Sydney Eddison and I both have an uncommonly fine strain of Lenten roses, or Helleborus orientalis, in our gardens. I got mine from my friend Hannah Withers in Charlotte, who got them from Elizabeth Lawrence. Lawrence in her turn got them from her friend Carl Krippendorf. Ms. Eddison got them from her friend Mary Ley, whose grandfather provided plants. Mary Ley's grandfather, it turns out, was Carl Krippendorf. This pattern of sharing plants may go back to the earliest garden of all - Eden.”
That gives me chills!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews