Essential Earthman

by Henry Mitchell

This first collection of Henry Mitchell's garden columns was one of those instant classics, a book which quickly earned a permanent place on thousands of bedside tables. Though written for the Washington Post, these tales of the city garden travel well. This book, often dog-eared and battered, is found in gardeners' homes all across the U.S.--not just in the South, but in Minnesota, Alaska, and the other Washington. After reading a single page--any page--you'll realize why. Many gardeners quote Mitchell's line, "It is a great joy the day we discover that we can learn things without actually having to make the mistakes ourselves." He regales us with his mistakes, recording the frustration caused by stubbornly planting where his beloved dogs insisted on sleeping or by thoughtless activity ("I speared a superb lily bulb today"), hoping we will profit from his own gardening mishaps. We can and do, but we profit just as much by his company as his advice, which is so clearly the fruit of long and direct experience.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Plants, Memoir, Humor

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name

Reviews

[Sasha]

This sounds lovely and I want it immediately

[Oldroses · Rating 5 out of 5]

(This review was originally written for The Garden Bloggers' Book club)

Okay, I'm late posting my thoughts on Henry Mitchell's "The Essential Earthman". I'm juggling a few projects right now plus (eek!) I haven't even finished reading it. I'm almost done, so I can safely post a few comments.

I was prepared to not like this book. It's just not my style. Come on, a collection of newspaper columns? We've all read the garden column in our local paper. It's horrible. Poorly written, pushing a lot of chemicals and all the newest plants. I'm an heirloom gardener. My interest is history. What were old gardens like? How did gardeners back then do things? What did they grow? Why? What worked for them and what didn't?

My favorite garden books are books about historical gardens and historical gardeners. I don't care for "modern" gardening and I absolutely loathe "how-to" books. They're a lot like those TV shows about home renovation. They make it look so easy, but when I actually try doing it myself, it's a heck of a lot more difficult. Or needs specialized tools. Or involves a lot of expensive materials. So I was prepared to dislike Mr. Mitchell and his book(s). Instead, I fell in love.

I was hooked from the first sentence: "As I write this, on June 29, it's about time for another summer storm to smash the garden to pieces, though it may hold off until the phlox, tomatoes, daylilies, and zinnias are in full sway". A real gardener! With a sense of humor! And perspective! And he grows heirlooms! In fact, in many cases, he prefers the heirlooms to newer varieties. No perfect garden here. Instead, he willingly admits to mistakes and how he corrected them.

Much to my chagrin, this is the perfect "how-to" book. He gives complete instructions on many issues and even admits when the process is difficult. He names and describes both new and old plant varieties. And provides the kind of useful information that you won't find in catalogs or nurseries: how a plant performs (or doesn't perform) in the home garden. All with a wonderful sense of humor.

Like most of the other garden bloggers who have read this book, I have issues with some of his opinions, especially when it comes to invasives, but I think it's reasonable to say that any time you get two or more gardeners together, you will get differences of opinions. It's just that kind of a hobby. There is no "right way" or "wrong way". What works for one gardener may not work for another.

This book is perfect. It can be read and enjoyed by both experienced and novice gardeners. I'm so glad I bought it instead of just borrowing it from the library. I'm looking forward to buying and reading his other books. If you haven't already done so, drop everything and READ THIS BOOK!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite garden writer. I reread his witty essays each winter to revisit the pleasures of the garden while waiting for spring.

[Audrey Driscoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of my favourites when it comes to garden writing. Mitchell's prose is so approachable, so idiosyncratic and full of whimsical phrases, that I would enjoy it almost as much if he were writing about fly fishing or golf, subjects in which my interest is very limited. Mitchell (who gardened in Washington D.C.) had strong opinions about plants and expressed them unequivocally. He liked big plants (Gunnera, for example) but disliked disproportionally big flowers, had no use for lawns and was ambivalent about trees (desirable in large gardens but not in small ones -- like mine, something I totally agree with). I have read and re-read these books so many times that I suspect the rhythm of Mitchell's prose, the way he put words together, has crept into my own writing. I admit that I have borrowed some of his phrases -- for example, describing elaborate and labour-intensive soil preparation as "zub zub zub." I now refer to any laborious task -- sanding woodwork in preparation for painting, say -- as "zubbing." Mitchell gardened on a clay soil in a place with wet summers; I work with a sandy soil in a summer-dry Mediterranean climate, but his thoughts on plants and gardening have coloured my choices. Because of him, I have mulleins in my garden, although not the Verbascum bombyciferum he describes as "the bomb-carrying mullein," but Verbascum olympicum. When I read his essay on plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides) and its irresistible blueness, I decided I had to have it, and now I do.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still miss Henry Mitchell's wise garden columns after all these years. (He wrote the popular "Earthman" column in the Washington Post until his death in 1993.) This book is a collection of these articles, along with an appreciation written by a colleague. Mitchell's voice is so engaging and gentle that it's still hard to believe he's no longer with us.

[Elizabeth Licata · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe it took me this long to read Mitchell. These are superb, sharply opinionated essays on his personal gardening experience. I cannot imagine that most of this would go over too well in a newspaper gardening column today! But that is what makes it so wonderful.

[NancyL Luckey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know why it took so long for me to read this. I've had it forever - along with his other two. The saying "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need" is proved with his books. Along with being amusing reading, they have a load of information on gardening.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It is not enough to grow the most beautiful things. It is even better to explore them, to identify with them, and to grow into a rather new consciousness of them." (Preface)

"... it is not to be believed how otherwise civilized people will step on wild cyclamen even as you very tactfully suggest avoiding them" (8).

Alongside Eleanor Perenyi and Michael Pollan, Mitchell now ranks as one of my favorite garden writers. His attitude toward gardens ("disaster... is the normal state of any garden") and gardeners (stubborn, foolish, and terrified of planting "vulgar" marigolds) is delightfully sardonic. Somehow, I found reading his heated opinions about the best kinds of peonies quite calming and amusing in these very troubled times.

[Abby]

Oh Henry Mitchell, grumpiest of gardeners, with a superb sense of humor ("Some have accused me of being anti-tree merely because I have well-founded and correct hatred of Norway maples, hemlocks, wild cherries, and silver maples") and a deep, delicate, perceptive appreciation of plants ("Our wild dogwood is the most generally valuable garden plant of the continent. It is utterly without fault and has so many startling virtues that I assume it was the last tree created, once Providence really got the knack of things"). Written from Washington, D.C., the gardening advice wasn't super relevant to my area, but I thoroughly enjoy the sass. The first essay in the book, "On the Defiance of Gardeners", is still my favorite.

[Teri-K · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there's a better book of essays on gardening out there, I'd love for someone to tell me so I can read it. This is an old favorite of mine, and when the urge hit to reread it and I realized it was in storage in another state I had to turn to ILL, which didn't let me down. I'll hold on tho this as long as the system will let me, and reread many of the essays several times before I return it. I especially love On the Defiance of Gardeners, but the entire book is a treat.

[Trina · Rating 4 out of 5]

When l was growing up in Alexandria, Henry Mitchell had a column in the Washington Post, which l always read. Gardeners will enjoy his list of favorite flowers. His humor shines through in every chapter.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic. Henry Mitchell died too soon.

[Heidi Bakk-Hansen · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're into traditional gardening and design then this probably is your jam. I'm not, and so this book wasn't for me.

[Nancy Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Witty and well written book about gardening. Many excellent observations

[Lanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really loved his style and humor!

[Betsy Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mitchell writes like a man who came of age in the 50s, possibly because he was a man who came of age in the 50s. Just fair warning. Some of his jokes are less funny by modern standards than they probably were at the time.

That caveat aside, I love this book. Mitchell writes so beautifully and he writes about gardening in a way that makes you feel like trying and failing and trying again is a great way to spend a life. And he is hilarious. This isn't a how-to book, but it is very inspirational.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this one would assume you're at the shallow end of the pool but it seems to me Michell has us in very deep waters, a tannin rich current likely to sweep one away. That is not to say the simple-minded can not enjoy this book strictly as a primer on gardening. Nor do I use simple-minded as a pejorative. As a witness to natural cycles in the garden one hears a reflexive comprehension in Mitchell's voice completely striped of artifice or enthusiasm. A sober sharing of observations tailored to the interested regardless of their stripe.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Essential Earthman by Henry Mitchell (Houghton Miflin 1981)(635.9) is a wonderfully entertaining series of collected columns by the longtime gardening editor of the Washington Post. His writing is informative and thoughtful and never fails to teach. He was regarded as a crusty but lovable old curmudgeon. This is just a great book! My rating: 7.5/10, finished 2011.

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of articles by Mitchell brims with insight, humor, and plenty of wit. I am not a gardener by any measure, but Mitchell's descriptions of plants and experiences were moving and hilarious. His prose is intelligent and varied without being dense. I'd recommend this book to anyone.

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very relaxing read, written by someone with the appropriate sense of humor and levity about gardening. He's internalized the basic idea that nothing really ever goes according to plan. Encyclopedic knowledge of flowers, and so intereting to hear about flowers I'd never even heard of.

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

The collections of Henry Mitchell's columns and essays are the best garden books of our time. He covers gardening and so much more and in a completely accessible, entertaining style. Highly recommended.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent

[Karen Floyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opinionated and entertaining. Feels like one has just stopped in for a drink and a garden tour with the author.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the original edition published 1981.

[Nancy Pants · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one to read and re-read innumerable times.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these essays. There were times I laughed out loud. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in gardening.

[Carlotta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry Mitchell books are entertaining, if you are into gardening and flowers.

[Robert Paul Olsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most entertaining garden books I've read.

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, I actually love to read excellent gardening books, and this is one of the best. Mitchell was the gardening columnist for the Washington Post.

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread Spring/Summer 2024. Even better the second time. You could do much worse as a guide to life.

Full of good advice but mostly just fun because so well-written and opinionated.