The Bottom Line
Pros
- Beautiful illustrations
- Interesting information about urban gardening
- Quirky
- Clear voice
- Great gift for a gardener
Cons
- A little rambling
- No paragraphs
Description
- A quirky and idiosyncratic, but lovely little book
- Beautifully illustrated diary, by author of "The Potted Herb," Abbie Zabar
- Great gift book
Guide Review - Book Review for Container Gardeners - "A Growing Gardener," By Abbie Zabar
"A Growing Gardener," by Abbie Zabar
Published by Universe Publishing, 1996
I spent a year in Abbie Zabar’s city garden, this morning, reading her book, "A Growing Gardener." This slight idiosyncratic diary is in equal measures totally delightful and totally irritating. Her rambling passages go from poignant and memorable to a little obtuse. That said, her illustrations are quite lovely and the book has a kind of magic and special quality that make it worth reading and owning or giving as a gift to your favorite container gardener.
Organized by season, we travel with her through the exaltation and frustration of gardening 21 floors above the city. This is container gardening on a grand scale. When talking about pruning, the writing is at its most wonderful. She writes, “… water sprouts are like relatives from the side of the family no one talks to. Not only do they look like losers, they have no social manners.”
The most frustrating thing about the book is her lack of paragraphs. Instead of separating paragraphs she uses a small illustration of a green sprig, which is both distracting and a bit precious.
That said, this is a book I am very happy to have read and to own. Like an imperfect garden, its flaws are easily overcome by its beauty.
