The Echoing Green: The Garden in Myth and Memory - Softcover

Heath, Jennifer

3.75

12 ratings by Goodreads

9780452281660: The Echoing Green: The Garden in Myth and Memory

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452281660 ISBN 13: 9780452281660

Publisher: Plume, 2000

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An imaginative assemblage of gardening literature and history for the avid gardener and literary reader alike

The Echoing Green is a lively examination of all things that make a garden a divine and interesting place. It is a tapestry rich with sumptuous imagery, unusual information, and exacting prose about gardening history, lore, rituals, and the personal experiences and reflections of author Jennifer Heath, herself a passionate gardener for more than thirty years. Including factual information as well as the mythology and folklore surrounding individual flowers, plants, and herbs, this book is beautifully written, creatively researched, and lovingly collected. From the history of the rose (which evolved in Central Asia sixty million years ago) to the significance of basil in different cultures (sacred to the Hindus, but a sign of poverty and misfortune to the ancient Greeks) to Heath's own spirited approach to weeding, The Echoing Green is a wide-ranging and delightful volume that belongs in the hearts and on the bookshelves of gardeners everywhere.

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About the Author:

Jennifer Heath was born in Australia, raised in Latin America, and has lived and gardened the world over. A person of wide-ranging talents and interests, Heath is a novelist, a student of Celtic literature, and the author of On the Edge of Dream: The Women of Celtic Myth and Legend (available from Plume). She lives in Boulder, Colorado.

From Booklist:

Heath's richly resonant work commingles a wealth of mythological material with enchanting revelations depicting the author's personal adventures of the horticultural persuasion. The child of a diplomat, Heath possesses a memory bank encompassing images from Kabul, Afghanistan; Tokyo; and Bogota, Colombia. Heath gardens these days in Colorado, but the cultural heritage of her family's Irish and Danish background provides a colorful bounty that appears in all sorts of recollections. The act of gardening with all its wondrous benefits is brightly illuminated in seasonal segments in which Heath presents a potpourri of mind-expanding observations enmeshed in monthly garden activities. Rather than illustrating gardening techniques, Heath conveys the profound recognition of how simple garden tasks can infuse one's daily life with spiritual experiences. Alice Joyce

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