Embroidered Ground: Revisiting the Garden

by Page Dickey, William Atherton (Illustrator)

A memorable book about making a renowned garden work

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-nineyear-long 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, Hardcover

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