Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening - Hardcover

Sorin, Fran

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446531669 ISBN 13: 9780446531665

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2004

Synopsis

Explains how to use horticulture as both a metaphor and a useful tool for putting oneself in touch with the processes of the natural world and for assessing and enhancing creativity in every aspect of one's life.

About this title

About the Author

Fran Sorin designs gardens throughout the United States. She has been a regular contributor on NBC's Weekend Today and appeared on LIVE with Regis and Kelly, HGTV, The Discovery Channel, Lifetime, and NBC 10 in Philadelphia. The host of a weekly gardening radio show for Infinity Broadcasting, she also writes for USA Weekend and is the gardening expert for iVillage.com. She lives in Bryn Mawr, Pa.

Reviews

Garden designer Sorin invites readers to "unearth" their "creative roots" in a book long on platitudes and cheerful encouragement but unfortunately lacking in advice that would-be gardeners can put to real use. In the introduction ("what does it mean to be creative?"), Sorin sets the book’s tone by explaining that her "mission is not to have everyone create world-class gardens, but…to show new and experienced gardeners alike how they can use their gardens…as tools for their creative awakening." Accordingly, she organizes her book into "seven stages of creative unfolding": Imagining, Envisioning, Planning, Planting, Tending, Enjoying and Completing. These are sensible divisions, certainly, but the exercises that Sorin provides offers within are not always inspiring (e.g., "Ask yourself: What would I do in my garden if there were no limits on time or money?"; "Spend some time writing about times in your life when you followed your instincts, both in and outside your garden"). Even in sections like "Tips for Container Gardening," which offer numerous opportunities to introduce hands-on advice, Sorin’s recommendations ("add water-retaining gel crystals") are familiar. Sorin does provide some useful bits, listing, for example, "The Six Must-Have Gardening Tools" and giving suggestions for controlling pests without using toxic chemicals. But the bulk of her book takes gardening as a metaphor for emotional and spiritual growth-which means that readers heading for the self-help aisles might like this volume better than those wandering through the gardening section.
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For an artist, it's an empty canvas; for a writer, a blank page; but for a homeowner, a barren landscape can be an equally daunting proposition. As with any creative endeavor, filling a space with beauty is a task few approach with any degree of self-confidence, but Sorin maintains such intimidation is unnecessary once we learn how to open ourselves up to sensory and imaginative experiences. Espousing principles that can and, she hopes, will be applied to other aspects of life, Sorin views gardening as the perfect place to begin one's creative reawakening and offers a thought-provoking series of exercises and practices that will help readers produce their perfect garden setting while developing philosophies and habits that will allow them to enjoy the fruits of their labors. From wishing and hoping to weeding and hoeing, Sorin enthusiastically guides gardeners every step of the way, helping them learn how to make choices and sharpen skills, celebrate successes, and embrace changes from a more creative perspective. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446531669
• ISBN 13: 9780446531665
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224