To Stand And Stare: How to Garden While Doing Next to Nothing

by Andrew Timothy O'Brien

Narrative books on nature have been successful in recent years, for example, Simon Barnes' Rewild Yourself, Chris Packham's Back to Nature , and Monty Don's Down to Earth but there is a gap in the market for a narrative approach to gardening

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Nature, Audiobook

288 pages, Hardcover

Published February 2, 2023

Reviews

[Jo Wheeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deep meditation of the life of the garden and the role of the gardener. It required full focus on the text as it's very wordy with extremely long sentences that at times needed rereading two or three times to fully understand. Even so, I persevered, reading it mainly in my own garden. The idea that gardening is as much watching and enjoying as it is tending the plants is a good reminder that standing and staring is never time wasted.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the books I like to keep by my bed to return to again and again.

[Stuart Halford · Rating 5 out of 5]

It will fundamentally change your approach to gardening, if you let it, make you and your garden much better acquaintances. Almost a Tao of Garden.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My enjoyment and the charm, relatability, and subtle humor of this book is directly tied to the author’s narration of the audiobook version.

[Tara Blais Davison · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75/5 There is much to learn from this book, especially for the novice gardener, but the info gained requires a near superhuman level of filtering and patience due to the author’s sense of suffisance.

The title which clearly appeals to a reader seeking to avoid physically gardening whilst convincing themselves that they might actually achieve a verdant area worth enjoying by just standing and staring rather than the usual toil of trial and error through exercise and experiment then he or she is truly deluded. The author seems to expound on this very idea in Chapter five of the audiobook however the necessary salient point is unfortunately missing. Due to this editorial oversight, Mr O’Brien appears to be pandering to the dreamers who believe a mere five minutes per day of checking and pinching out of spent petunias is all you need to do to create a garden. However the opposite is true.

Evidenced by how he next lays out a complete set of instructions on: how to sow a seed; how to plant a bulb; how to dig a hole; how to raise a plant; how to compost; how to embrace a looser look (in other words, how to appreciate bare stems and leafless trees); etc, despite that which his chosen title suggests.

Halfway through his work, he suggests the struggle between leaving the overgrowth and deadwood for the insects and soil is keenly matched by his perfectionist tendencies of clearing the beds of all its detritus only to surmise that an halfway effort between the two philosophies is the ideal. Argh!

He then suggests you only become a gardener once you learn how to prune. Of all the ways we seek to understand a plant, he states: nothing teaches us more than how a plant’s symptoms of disease guides us toward pruning and the light: requiring the gardener to trim a third of most plants and thus promoting fresh growth.

O’Brien further addresses the ability to understand companion planting and the promotion of passive gardening practices like the UK’s “ no mow May.”

He addresses the average gardeners search for balance between the native, invasive, interesting and exotic plant dilemma.

Within the increasingly politicised plant arena, he stresses that we thrust aside the notions of originating environs and exercise an educated attitude of “what can you do for me and what will it take for you to thrive” before we choose which plants we adopt as our preferred species. He says we should Never shop for plants before first working out what exactly we want/survives/need in our garden.

Minding the long term survival strategies and expansion of our desired plants versus weeds. O’Brien suggests we should consider incorporating native wild flowers, read: weeds. I THINK NOT! Sorry Andrew but this is not something I wish to concede. Despite how well weeds grow in my surrounding lands, I wish to determine my surroundings despite how much work this involves, including the maintenance of my lawn. So if you believe we can have our garden and our spare time too, I think you would have been more honest had you adopted a title more akin to: Nevermind what type of garden you desire, if you learn to tolerate weeds and all the scruffy, scratchy leaves and cleavers, thistles and lambs lettuce, then you can live more lazily and happily.

Meh.

[Maggie Meehan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thoughtful book compelling me to think about our relationship to Nature, which is thankfully impressively resilient. While I have an urban garden it does not, I am sure compare to the author’s which sounds delightful. Still I appreciate many of his observations and bought the book for its title. I know I need to stand and stare more; my garden helps me to do that. Like O’Brien I realize the best of the garden is due to nature and I am just a soul chef. I am thinking that next spring I would like to plant our window boxes with some sort of meadow grass, in urban antidote to manicured lawns and the dreaded golf course.

One complaint I had was that the author’s lush, descriptive writing sometimes became so involuted with overly lengthy sentences it became had to follow.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting - but perhaps that's on me. I was hoping for a more relaxing read with perhaps some tips on letting go of and/or streamlining garden tasks so that I can spend more time enjoying the garden instead of working within it (at present, I'm doing pretty much 100% of the latter).

In the end, I didn't end up finding anything overly useful within these pages, which I wouldn't have minded had I enjoyed the read. Unfortunately, this book was a slog to get through. It was incredibly wordy & long-winded - so much so that I often found myself losing track of what was being talked about by the time I was at the end of a sentence. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some good insights hidden amongst all of the verbiage that I simply missed.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not an instructional manual but rather a meditation on the relationship between gardener and garden. The book is a series of essays arranged by season and I read it the same way, picking it up to read an essay now and then along with the seasons.

This was a contemplative and relaxing read. I enjoyed it very much.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gave up a couple of chapters in, this is a really poorly written book. Astounded it wasn’t edited into something more readable. The underlying message is sound enough but the execution not good enough for me.

[Easton Morton · Rating 4 out of 5]

First-year starting a garden, and I think I needed this. Something to root me to the garden without tethering me down, a very well-rounded read.

[Sam L · Rating 1 out of 5]

So pretentious and dense in its language that it was hard to get through, surprisingly

[Ellie Smith]

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was great.
Really insightful.

[Josie · Rating 3 out of 5]

BOOK: Save time by not digging over your garden!
ME: I have... never dug over a garden in my life.

As an Occasional Potterer rather than a Serious Gardener, a lot of the advice wasn't applicable, but there were some absolutely beautiful lines and observances about nature. I struggle with insomnia, and listening to this before bed was the perfect way to slow my racing thoughts.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely a book for beginner gardeners. Even slightly more experienced gardeners will learn little. It is very well written but I fear, a bit too precious. Like many gardeners---and people!---these days, he views himself negatively and nature positively. He lacks the understanding that he is a part of nature, and that the natural world is fundamentally hostile to humans. The aesthetic appreciation of nature is a delusion. Gardening is the expression of a fantasy of control, an egotistical display of our temporary domination. His attitude toward himself, other humans, and gardening evinces a denial of these truths, camouflaged both by pride and guilt. Thus, he lacks the perspective that would render him capable of teaching us anything, or anyway, of teaching me anything. His inability or reluctance to properly assess reality results in many pointless passages. He reiterates several of the most basic misunderstandings of our time. For example, he eschews pesticides, but seems to think this and other let-live practices will change the taxing effect of eight billion people on the planet. I ended up feeling sorry for him: he winces when he disturbs a spider web. Who wants to live their life this way? Ultimately, the entire premise of the book is a misdirection, away from himself and toward a projection of himself, away from basic facts toward a fantasy of non-intervention: He encourages readers to stand and stare, to do nothing, but gardening is not and will never be doing nothing, or even doing little. In his psychological world, everything about gardening is already doing too much; but he does not take his own advice. He does plenty in his garden, with hoses, shovels, and hands, and while standing and staring, he is planning. Like every other gardener.