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.

Nancy Goodwin founded, owned, and managed the well-known Montrose Nursery from 1984 until its closing in 1993. She has written for Fine Gardening, American Gardener, and other periodicals.

Allen Lacy, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and formerly garden columnist for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, now writes and publishes the gardening newsletter Homeground. His many books include The Garden in Autumn and The Inviting Garden.