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

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

A Year in Our Gardens: Letters by Nancy Goodwin and Allen Lacy
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Book Summary Information

Author: Nancy Goodwin
Illustrator: Martha Blake-Adams
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2001-03-12
ISBN: 0807826030
Number of pages: 232
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press

Book Reviews of A Year in Our Gardens: Letters by Nancy Goodwin and Allen Lacy

Book Review: Chatty exchange of letters....
Summary: 4 Stars

A YEAR IN OUR GARDENS by Nancy Goodwin and Allen Lacy is a chatty exchange of letters and faxes between two old friends, both of whom have many years of gardening experience to their credit. Ms Goodwin ran Montrose Nursery for many years and is very informed and informing about plants -- native, cultivated, imported, and home-grown.

Dr. Lacy has written many books about gardening and garden design -- centered on his garden in New Jersey and other gardens futher afield. My personal favorite of Lacy's books is THE GARDEN IN AUTUMN, although THE INVITING GARDEN is probably his best selling book. I wouldn't recommend A YEAR IN OUR GARDENS to the novice gardener since it has no colorful photographs and a plethora of Latin named flowers and plants. Even the intermediate gardener searching for tips might find THE INVITING GARDEN a better read.

If you've been gardening awhile and like to read about green adventures from the comfort of your easy chair or need a good book for bedtime reading, you'll probably enjoy A YEAR IN OUR GARDENS. To me it's something of a cross between the books by Elizabeth Lawrence and Beverly Nichols. In fact, if Lawrence and Nichols had written to each other their conversations might have been a bit like the conversations of Goodwin and Lacey.

Goodwin and Lacey both had an affilitation with Duke University as did Elizabeth Lawrence though neither Goodwin nor Lacey is a botonist like Lawrence. Lacey wrote garden columns for the Wall Street Journal and New York Times and until recently taught philosopy and horitculture at Richard Stockton College in New Jersey where he lives and gardens. Lawrence's father was Lacey's professor of English at Duke University, and Lawrence lives and gardens near Hillsborough NC.

Both Goodwin and Lacey have gardens in growing zone 7. As they relate their experiences over the course of the year, it becomes obvious this counts for little. Lacey lives near the Atlantic, has sandy soil he must amend with humus, and experiences milder summers and colder winters. Goodwin lives in the NC piedmont, gardens in clay, and has hot-hot summers. Both have green houses that allow them to cultivate a variety of plants more suited to tropical climates. Lacey tends to grow many plants in pots on a large extended deck, while Goodwin has a much larger property with room for numerous shubs and trees and a woodland garden. Lacey says he prefers summer months for gardening, and Goodwin says she prefers anything but summer.

In addition to the exchange about plants, garden design and the various wildlife sightings, both correspondents share the ups and downs of daily living. Over the course of a year, Lacey undergoes major surgery and Goodwin's husband has eye surgery and her father dies. Both Godwin and Lacey travel to various locations to give lectures and undergo interviews on television and radio. Martha Stewart drops by for a fifteen minute tour of Montrose, and Lacey goes to Disneyland.

All in all this book is mildly entertaining, and a peek into the lives of two relatively well educated gardeners.

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

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.

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