Gardening by Heart

Book excerpt: A collection of evocative personal essays about the practical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of gardening, including gardening tips, recipes, and ideas. With warmth, wit, and wisdom, author Joyce McGreevy looks to gardening as a source of creativity, spirituality, and inspiration, and she offers practical ideas for gardening--and living life--to the fullest. Her essays include "Gardening Without a Clue," which asserts that one's sense of wonder coupled with nature's own revelations are the greatest gardening teachers; "It's All Rented," which begins as a humorous account of a gardening experience in Ireland and becomes a gentle call for stewardship, rather than ownership, of the Earth; and "Eating, Sleeping, and Living in the Garden," which invites readers to rediscover the traditional rituals of leisure. With so many of us longing to slow our frantic pace and live more authentically, this timely book shows us how gardening "by Heart" can help us do just that and thereby enrich all aspects of our lives.