This is one of the most beautiful and inspiring books about the creation and restoration a garden that I have ever seen. The Greater Perfection shows what someone with great taste, imagination, skill and yes, resources can accomplish. What is especially impressive for me as a gardening professional is that all this has been accomplished in a zone 3/4 garden in the Canadian Maritimes. A great book for browsing and reading. Absolutely stunning - the garden we wish we all had.

Join Mr. Cabot in a personal tour of his garden, as he brings the reader from place to place, stopping to admire his favorite things in each of his gardens. If you listen, he'll share some advice on how he solved some of his gardening problems, and introduce you to some friends that stop by. The book is quite pricey (I'll admit, I borrowed it), but the photos are so outstanding, and the writing so entertaining, it is definately worth the money. By the end, you'll feel as if you've made a new friend.

This is a man's true odyssey, making Ulysses look short on imagination. Mr. Cabot along with some of the most talented and imaginative landscapers around turned his place into a true dream of beautiful garden after garden. But his personality and what he loves really comes through. Lots of imagination went into different alles and infinite dream-like entries and exits. He worked with all the best people. Hobhouse is one of my favorites not to mention a few others. I could be very jealous but I am simply thrilled to be able to read it. It is long and full of superb photos and good writing. Makes other books that I love seem not quite as fabulous. Some of Cabot's friends look as though they would be a lot of fun at a cocktail party. Makes me want to buy a lot more land and keep going with determination to create a real series of outdoor Valhalas from France, Italy and England. Bravo, Mr. Cabot and all who helped!

This book was my favorite for years as a child. I have yet to find a copy, even the copy I read growing up. Every child should read or have it read to them. Good luck finding it!

I read this book to our youngest son as often as we could check it out of the library. It is very fun to read and good for interaction with your child. I too am looking for a copy of this book. My son who is graduating this spring has asked about it. Would make a great graduation gift!

I read this book to my kids when they were little, and they thought it was such a gas! The Green Machine is this little car with no visible driver, that tears around a vegetable garden, and all the veggies talk to each other in rhymes about the car. It's silly, it's green, and it was loads of fun. My oldest is off to college this Fall, and he still thinks it was one of the best kids books he remembers reading. We look it out from the local library so many times it got to be pathetic. I would love to have a copy, if anyone ever finds it.

Herbalist Shatoiya de la Tour, her husband, Richard, along with a very talented photographer, Saxon Holt, have produced a treasure of a book! This book takes us on a journey to visit ten exceptional herb gardens in the United States. First stop - Richard and Shatoiya's own garden which she describes as "a garden to serve the community". She shares her story of how her garden, Dry Creek Herb Farm came into being and has evolved over the years to become a refuge for herb lovers and learners across the country. Next stop is Sage Mountain, the Vermont garden of the highly respected herbalist, Rosemary Gladstar. Also spend time at Deer Run Herb Sancuary, Plimoth Plantation, Evergreen Herb Garden, the city garden of Brian Fikes and Greg Howes, Dr. Dukes "Farmette", Ravenhill Farm, Caprilands, and Saso Herb gardens.
The photographs are exquisite, probably the best gardening photography I have ever seen. You will also get to meet these very interesting gardeners, get a glimpse into their own life stories to learn what first attracted them to herb gardening and how herbs have become the focus of thier lives. I LOVE this book and have turned to it for inspiration over and over again. I feel you will be very pleased with it. Buy it!

THE HERBALIST'S GARDEN is subtitled a "guided tour of 10 exceptional herb gardens" and it is just that. I don't think you could get much closer to the real thing unless you made the actual physical trip to each of these gardens. Perhaps the only drawback for me is that so many of them are on the West Coast because seeing them makes me want to SEE them.

The photographs by Saxon Holt are some of the best. In each picture, I can clearly distinguish one plant from another--no small feat since to capture one plant clearly often causes others to be distorted. For example in one shot the viewer can raise her eyes from lettuce in the first row to cabbage in the second row to onions in the third row. I guess this is "trick" photography, but it's great. Although the photos are not three dimensional, they remind me of old 3-D viewer I had when I was a kid or the holograms of today where you can hold the picture to your eye and feel as if you are "inside" the frame.

The de la Tours have done a fabulous job of compiling, writing, and editing their book. They are down to earth and friendly and the text is newsy and informative. The de la Tours own Dry Creek Farm and Learning Center in Auburn California--the first garden on the guided tour which features the gardens of several other herbalist/gardeners and writers. Each section shows a ground plan for the featured garden. There are plenty of shots of the gardens including entrances and paths, and unique features found at the various sites.

Dry Creek Farm features a children's garden, a medicine-wheel garden, and a moon garden. The medicine-wheel garden is festooned with multi-colored prayer ribbons--hung out by the de la Tour's students at the Spring Equinox--that will be burned at the Winter Solstice. Along the edge of the medicine-wheel garden are plants representing the Zodiac Signs--Lavender for the Gemini, Mint for Virgo, and Lemon Balm for Cancer.

The Moon Garden is composed of a Catalpa tree surrounded by a circle shaped garden. The garden surface is composed of white gravel chips and outlined with smooth river stones. Both the full moon and the cresent are delineated. The full moon is white pebbles sans plants, the crescent is set off by Artemesia, the ghostly white plant that bears the "other" name of Diana, queen of the Fairies, Queen of the Witches and Queen of the Moon. A statue of a coyote (Diana's hund?) sits below the mobile moons hanging from the Catalpa tree.

There are photos of garden layouts, photos of specific beds, photos of smiling owners/gardeners and plenty of close-ups of the herbs recommended by the 10 herbalists. The text is extremely informative and inspiring.

Enhanced with the color photography of Saxon Holt, Shatoiya and Richard de la Tour's The Herbalist's Garden provides the reader with an exception, fascinating, and informative guided tour through ten unique herb gardens, introducing the people who grew them and the plants that inspired those master gardeners. After an informative introduction (The Path of the Herb Gardener), we are treated to the Dry Creek Herb Farm & Learning Center (Auburn, CA); Rosemary Gladstar's Sage Mountain (East Barre, VT); Deer Run Herb Sanctuary (Napa, CA); Plimoth Plantation (Plymouth, MA); EverGreen Herb Garden (Placerville, CA); The City Garden (Sacramento, CA); Dr. Duke's "Farmette" (Fulton, MD); Ravenhill Farm (Vancouver Island, British Columbia); Caprilands (Coventry, CT); and Saso Herb Gardens (Saratoga, CA). A very highly recommended, inspiring, beautifully presented work, The Herbalist's Garden is enhanced with a concluding commentary (Manifesting Your Own Vision), a resources section, and an index.

I absolutely adore herbs. Rosemary, thyme, and lavender are my favorites, but all the others are delectable as well. Emilie Tolley and Chris Mead are the best partnership in the gardening world. Emilie really knows the cultivation of these wonderful growing things, and I adore Chris for his breathtaking photography. Together they created a volume for herb gardeners that is instructive, inspiring, and incredible. A remarkable team, this talented duo illustrate how to create an herb garden that will add to your personal happiness. They introduce us to forty herbs that will saturate your senses but will not try your patience. Follow their lead and you may end up doing what I do, reaching into your rosemary or thyme and succumbing to the most exquisite natural smells in existence. Our gardening friends show us everything we need to do to prepare the soil, care for the herbs we select, design a simple or detailed herb landscape, and grow our herbs indoors. They know we need inspiration, so Emelie and Chris provide us with some of the most gorgeous herb gardens in the world. They take us to England's Cotswolds to a reigning authority, Rosemary Verey. Her gardens are profuse and lush. Mrs. Verey's home, like many gardeners is evolutionary; she has an abundant cottage garden, a kitchen garden, and an exquisite knot garden, always maximizing the use of herbs in her landscape. The path to the kitchen garden, or potager, is laden with stones that lies between two inviting rows of lavender. There is a large section devoted to herb gardeners around the world each with their own designs and interpretations of showing off herbs in all their romantic and aromatic splendor. There is more! Turning the pages, we find methods for drying and preserving, creating beautiful crafts such as wreaths,sachets, potpourri, topiary, miniatures, decorating for holidays, and, oh my goodness, the most tempting recipes! My, oh, my! I'm diving right back into my Herbs book!

This is the most inspiring and beautiful herb book I have ever read. This is the book that got me "into"herbs and the herbal lifestyle. It truly changed my life. The pictures are beautiful, and the content is intriguing. Beginning with basic information on growing 40 common herbs, it takes you through beautiful gardens in the U.S. and Europe, Shows gorgeous herbal crafts, and has great herbal recipes. Really a great introduction to the wonders of herbs, but the experienced herbalist would love it too. A definitive herb book!

If you are new to herbs, this is THE book to really turn you on to this vast subject.If you are experienced, the book is an invaluable resource. If you just like great books with incredible photography, you will be proud to diplay this book on your coffee table. Buy it and enjoy!

Unlike most garden books that focus on individual design elements of gardening, this one focuses on how to identify the atmosphere and mood of the garden you want to create. The author tells readers to think back to those places that have given them the greatest joy and ease, either as children or as adults, and to use the memory of these places in creating a retreat or garden of the mind in one's own yard. You should read this book before all others

Messervy has found a way to codify something that seemed vague to me: the "feel" of a landscape, or how a person reacts to a space. She breaks landscape forms down into 7 "archetypes," lists the features of each, then suggests ways to use this new understanding in designing your own yard or garden. I suddenly realized, for example, that the narrow, paved alleys coming off my tiny city backyard weren't necessarily the problem and disappointment I had always considered them, but were features I could play up and turn to advantage. (They had always tempted me to walk to the end -- now I just have to make that journey worthwhile.) I was just bursting with ideas after reading this book, able to look at my tiny space with new eyes. The archetypal business isn't just pleasantly mystical but is also practical, backed up with sophisticated but down-to-earth ideas. It's a different kind of garden design book that gets you to think of the overall "f! eel" (not look) you want first (the step missing from most gardening books), and then figure out how to actually construct it -- a satisfying blend of mythic/artistic with practical and well-organized. (And as a bonus, the photos are drop-dead gorgeous!)

Julie Moir Messervy has written what undoubtedly will become a classic of garden writing and design. Deeply literate and beautifully written, The Inward Garden gives the reader a process for designing one's "dream garden". Based on garden archtypes: the sea, the cave, the harbor, the promitory, the island, the mountain, and the sky, this book provides a structure for imagining the garden of one's desires and a practical process for designing this deeply felt garden. The author describes in detail each of these archytical gardens. Each archtype is illustrated with outstanding garden photographs. The Inner Garden gently asks the reader to think and feel deeply about the garden of his or her dreams and to have the couage to begin creating that garden.

This book is outstanding! Far from being for just the pre-school/younger elementary set, it has a wealth of information which even older kids can benefit from. In addition to the text based on the House That Jack Built, it has labeled drawings of garden tools, insects in the soil, seeds, clouds,parts of plants, plants, butterflies, birds, and other insects. We (my kids ages 4 thru 10 and I) had fun pointing out the things we know and learning the ones we didn't. The illustrations are excellent- colorful and detailed. This book is a wonderful addition to homeschool unit studies on plants.

Whoever coined the proverb, "a picture is worth a thousand words" could have been talking about Jack's Garden by Henry Cole.
This book is an excellent illustration of how, step by step, a garden is planted and what the seeds and living creatures do from that point on. We get to see above and below the soil as the garden progresses throughout the season. There are all the names of the plants and creatures labelled neatly next to each, on the main page and in the margins. Best of all, the classic children's poem about the house that Jack built is modified into a catchy text for each picture that makes understanding the magic of a little garden ecosystem effortless for kids as young as three years.

Top notch illustrations and a unique format set this picture book apart and earned it a permanent place in my collection. I only wish I had it in hardback!

I wish this book had been available for me when I was a young child. I'm delighted to be able to give it to my son, age 3. This book shows so many things to be found in a garden - from the first scene where Jack stands shovel in hand in an empty garden through the final page where Jack is surrounded by the beautiful outcome of his work to grow a beautiful garden. Along the way we learn the names of so many creatures and gardening items and see how a garden grows. Buy this book. It's a jewel.

Wonderful stories & insight. Clever & funny! A must for anyone with kids or any adult with a difficult parent.

I read Annie Spegelman's first book, "Annie's Garden Journal" and have been anxiously awaiting any further literary gifts from her.
It was well worth the wait.
I loved this new book, "Growing Seasons..."- was so moved by her wit and immense sensitivity. I felt very connected to her as I read the book. Now I will reread both of her books and wait for the next. I feel as if I have found a good friend in this writer.

Truly, what a gift.

I read Annie's book and I loved it. I found it hard to put down and found myself either laughing or crying all the way through it. I am married and have two small children and my own business. I enjoyed her comments and sense of humor regarding juggling children, an aging and ill parent, marriage, and the workplace. The book is fun and easy to read especilly for those of us who barely have a moment to themselves.

Allan Armitage knows his plants. That's what I've always heard, and this book amply demonstrates it. This book covers just about every garden perennial grown in North America, including many that most of us would consider annuals or at best tender perennials (e.g., cannas). Armitage isn't afraid to tell his opinion of any plant, straightforwardly telling the reader that that's exactly what he's doing--something I especially appreciate as gardening is such an individual and idiosyncratic activity. Anybody who feigns objectivity with regard to gardening is being disingenuous at best.

There are two major drawbacks with this book. The first, and most forgivable, is the dearth of color photos. There are just a few tucked in the middle of the book, illustrating a small minority of the plants discussed in the text. Color photos are expensive, and given a choice between pretty pictures and informative text, I'm at a point in my gardening life where I'll go with the text. I can always look up the pictures in the other gardening books I have, which often have precious little information to go with them. Unfortunately, this will probably discourage many a casual book browser from buying this book--people want to see the pretty pictures, darn it! But that's not the author's fault, and it's a shame, since this book has so much good information. Unfortunately, the line drawings that stand in for photos of many of the plants are very uneven in quality, and some are worse than no picture at all.

The second major fault, and one that I found very frustrating and far less forgivable given that Armitage is an expert in his field as well as a professional, is the large number of typographical errors, misspellings, and other errors in the book. Did anybody bother to proofread this thing??? Both plant names and other words are misspelled. In more than one case, a word or name is misspelled the same way more than once (e.g., "Hildago" for "Hidalgo", Yucca "filimentosa" for "filamentosa"), suggesting that they are not simple goofs or typos. Gardeners have a hard enough time spelling plant names without being misled by the pros! These errors mar what is otherwise an excellent and informative book.

This perennial encyclopedia is written in a wonderfully engaging conversational tell it like it is style that is very entertaining to read. For example, of the Meconopsis poppy he writes "...the Himalayan Blue poppy elicits classic garden emotions of beauty, grandeur, awe and most of all, frustration and failure." But beyond his wicked wit is an absolute wealth of valuable information. My primary interest is in starting perennial flowers from seeds and I have found more good information here in this one book than in all my propagation books combined--I can see it is going to be my perennial "Seed Bible" for years to come. I always feel a little nervous when pulling the trigger (and purchasing) any book at this price--but this one is a gem that is bursting with information, wit and wisdom and I consider it an extraordinary value.

This is one of my absolute favorite references on perennial garden plants. Alan Armitage really gives you a "feel" for each plant, giving you the sense that you know its likes and dislikes before you've even seen one. He includes all the information you need: cultural information including cold and heat hardiness, identification information, and propagation. Much of this is provided in a descriptive format which is very useful because the minor quirks of each plant can be included. I have found his information right on target nearly 100% of the time. Of great value is his experience in a variety of climates. This makes it possible for you to judge accurately how a plant will perform for you. I have the first edition of this book as well. If you are familiar with that edition, this is nearly identical in style and format, but with expanded species and cultivar listings. A few species, such as ironweed, are new. Others, such as trillium, appear to be greatly expanded, with more information on identifying the species and varieties within the genus. Cultivar listings are greatly expanded and have been brought up-to-date. If you already have the first edition, I believe buying the second is well worth it if you are a dedicated gardener or gardening professional--but certainly not a necessity. The sections on lilies and peonies and iris, and other such plants that have their own societies and numerous books all their own, appear to be unexpanded (which is probably wise).

As a result of many questions of our Pastor, in Weatherford Texas,Does God still speak to us? He prepared a series of sermons entitled "Listening to God", and the numerous ways He speaks. The reference Book he recomended was HIPPO IN THE GARDEN.
I would recomend to anyone searching for a closer walk with the diety of your choosing. listen for God and be blessed.

I read this book when I found a copy in the library of our campus ministry "LifeHouse" here at East Central University in Ada. I was all but blown away by the fact that Ryle, rather than being a dispensationalist (i. e. "Miracles and anything supernatural from God passed away when the apostles died"), not only affirms the fact that God, as the all-powerful Creator, can speak to us any way He wants--but he also presents a hope so wildly powerful it made me temporarily short of breath to think about: GOD _WANTS_ TO SPEAK TO _US!_ That realization ignited a hunger in me that has only intensified as the weeks have passed. To make a long review short--get this book and read it. You won't regret what lies beyond its back cover!

What a unique an excellent book "Hippo" is! If you have ever heard James Ryle in person, he speaks like he writes, in an amusing, simple yet profound manner. That is exactly how he comes across in this book. He tackles a very, very difficult subject with story, witt, and lots of scripture (that is very appreciated). Most of the contents of this book came as a fresh breeze of new insight. How very much we as Christians need to allow God to be God in our lives and speak to us how He sees fit! This is what this book addresses and succeeds at relaying. That's why I highly recommend this book to you if you are looking for fresh insight to having a one-on-one relationhip with God. For, God does speak today, in a variety of ways! What is He saying to you?

A good book with lots of information and some history. Some very interesting recipes and information on how to grow and use herbs and spices and malt and roast your own grain. Unfortunately this book unnecessarily errs on the side of caution regarding some of the more potent and historically used brewing herbs that make great additions to a brewers herbal repertoire. This book also unfortunately has few recipes without the addition of hops which can make for an even more unique brewing experience. If your looking to grow and use herbs and hops, and to malt and use unusual grains this book can definitely point you in the right direction.

The Fisher brothers have done home brewer's a great service with this book. As a life long brewer and author of The Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible I give them my highest compliments and thanks for their research into ancient herbal brewing and their presentation of their material without a lot of technical jargon.

Wether you're a complete novice or a veteran brewer there's a lot to learn here from almost forgotten techniques and ingredients to growing and malting your own grains.

Well done

Great book for the beginner. Even if you have never planted a simple garden, you cannot go wrong with this book. Very timely and explanatory - covers a range of subjects, including where to order hops, trelis construction, diseases, soil nutrients, and drying/using. Also includes techniques to grow herbs to use in brewing. A must read.