Uprooted: A Gardener Reflects on Beginning Again

by Page Dickey

When Page Dickey moved away from her celebrated garden at Duck Hill, she left a landscape she had spent thirty-four years making, nurturing, and loving. She found her next chapter in southern Connecticut, on 17 acres of rolling fields and woodland around a former Methodist church. In Uprooted, celebrated garden writer Page Dickey reflects on this transition and on what it means for a gardener to start again.

In these pages, fol­low her journey: searching for a new home, discovering the ins and outs of the landscape surround­ing her new garden, establishing the garden, and learning how to be a different kind of gardener. The sur­prise at the heart of the book? Although Dickey was sad to leave her beloved garden, she found herself thrilled to begin a new garden in a wilder, larger landscape.

Written with humour and elegance, Uprooted is an endearing story about transitions - and the satisfaction and joy that new horizons can bring.

• ISBN13: 9781604699579
• Publish Date: 22 September 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Timber Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 244
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Uprooted is a compassionate and intelligent look at the process of leaving behind one home and garden built up over 34 years and moving to another place and making it home. Due out 29th Sept 2020 from Workman Publishing on their Timber Press imprint, it's 244 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is a plainly and honestly told account of the author and her husband deciding in their 7th and 8th decades to downsize their house and gardens and start over in a new place. She briefly describes their search for a house and the language she used really resonated with me. She spoke of wanting to find a new place so badly "It is amazing how sometimes you try to talk yourself into a house because you desperately want to latch onto a home.". I can definitely relate to that sentiment, having gone through a similar process in the recent past.

She relates their subsequent discovery and purchase of "Church House", their renovations, their relocation, and takover and regeneration of their new gardens. The rest of the book is given over to a discussion of the different areas of their new property, woodland, fen, and meadow, planting an orchard, and siting and building a "small" greenhouse attached to their garage. It's ultimately a story of faith and hope in the future despite setbacks, and as such, it struck me as a powerfully apt metaphor to our current situation with the unrest and pandemic.

Throughout the book are gorgeous, clear, abundant, and well annotated photos of the gardens, features, and varieties they have acquired. It's a warm and engaging story, well told, and I enjoyed it very much. This would make a superlative selection for gardeners, library, makers groups, garden clubs, and the like.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.