A Year in Our Gardens - by Nancy Goodwin & Allen Lacy (Paperback)

About the Book

Year in Our Gardens: Letters by Nancy Goodwin and Allen Lacy

Book Synopsis

This engaging collection of letters follows the course of a year in the gardens of two passionate gardeners, Nancy Goodwin and Allen Lacy. They share a climate zone (7A), but their gardens differ enormously. Lacy gardens on a 100-by-155-foot plot of former farmland in southern New Jersey, on soil so sandy that he must water frequently if he is to garden at all. Goodwin gardens on rich clay loam at her historic piedmont North Carolina home--which comprises more than sixty acres of woodland, meadow, and established plantings--and she refuses to irrigate, because she believes in growing only those plants that are naturally adapted to the conditions of her land.

Through their letters, Lacy and Goodwin provide a charming and revealing chronicle of their lives and the lives of their gardens. They exchange stories of their horticultural successes and failures; trade information about a great many plants; discuss their hopes, fears, and inspirations; and muse on the connections between gardening and music, family, and friendship.

Review Quotes

A delightful little book. . . . So real are the voices as the two friends discuss their gardens--and life and living--that you'll struggle mightily to keep from joining in and talking about your garden and life, too. ("Our State")

An excellent gift book. It's entertainingly distracting, and can be read in bits and pieces or in one go and Martha Blake-Adams's charming line drawings of scenes from both authors' gardens are additional delights. ("American Gardener")

There is no limit to what thoughtful writers find revealed in minute events in even the smallest of places. (")Brooklyn Botanic Garden")

This book is one of the riches in an unusually rich season for literary gardening. ("New York Times Book Review")

This exchange of letters between [the authors] is the story of their passionate dedication to gardening and to life. ("Fine Gardening")