A Garden's Purpose

Book excerpt: Essays and stories to inspire us to nurture diverse, meaningful relationships with gardens and landscapes. "A garden, as Félix de Rosen suggests in this book, is not a place separate to the world but a tether to it. At a time of increasing ecological and cultural fragmentation and loss, de Rosen reminds us of the importance of the garden as a place of gentle activism and abundance, and gardening as a framework for being with the more-than-human world—engaging with care, reciprocity, and creativity. A Garden's Purpose is an important, timely book." — Georgina Reid, editor of Wonderground Journal and author of The Planthunter: Truth, Beauty, Chaos, and Plants The garden provides a powerful, generous way of looking at the world. Through stories and essays, this gracious volume, written in a highly accessible tone, invites readers on a journey to understand gardens as places where we build mutually beneficial relationships with the living world around us. As beautiful spaces, gardens fill us with hope and wonder. As gathering places, they nurture friendships and communities. Thoughtfully crafted, they make us pause and appreciate our surroundings. Full of edible plants, they nourish us. Full of diversity—human and non-human—they connect us with the polychromatic world in which we live. They make us feel at home in our own bodies, in our cities, and on our planet. Each chapter in this book is dedicated to a specific idea or element of the garden, from places where gardens grow (i.e., a driveway in San Francisco, a bathtub as a planter) to garden management (why some lawns need watering every few days, and some gardens can go almost a full year without irrigation) to color and texture (i.e., how fine-textured plants like grasses can be used to unify a space), and everything in between. Hundreds of gardens from all corners of the globe are included, photographed in glorious full color. Perfect for home gardeners, landscape designers, or as a gift for the gardener in your life, this is an ode to the wonder, design, and habitat of gardens, and an inspiration to nurture meaningful relationships with the natural world around us.