Eartheasy Book Review:

The Zen of Gardening
       in the High and Arid West 
       by David Wann

Traditional links between North Americans and the soil have been significantly diminished in a single generation. In Colorado alone, ten acres of farmland is lost every hour to housing, shopping malls, roads and other development.

As we lose touch with the earth, much is lost within ourselves. Our natural instinct to protect the environment and conserve our natural resources becomes uprooted and forgotten in the rush to lifestyles of modern convenience. Gardening can help restore this connection to the earth, and offer us health, wholeness and a source of delight.

“What gardens do best is help gardeners grow.”

Author Dave Wann understands the value of gardening in this broad perspective, and devotes a third of his new book, The Zen of Gardening in the High and Arid West, to the reasons why we should explore and celebrate the simple joy of gardening. Gardening offers adventure, challenge, mental stimulation, physical exercise, and tangible, edible rewards. It is an exercise in being connected to the rhythms and vibrations of daily life, as well as the inner self.

“In the garden, life and death dance before my eyes every day, and I come to a better understanding of my own health and mortality. The garden literally brings me back to my senses.”

Subtitled In the High and Arid West, the book is written for the large region extending from eastern Kansas and Nebraska, west to central Oregon and northern California. North to south, it ranges from southern Canada to central Arizona and New Mexico. Extremes in weather, often in the same day, make this region one of the most challenging for the gardener. Wann approaches this challenge with true gardener’s optimism and a natural curiosity for the garden’s many details.

“Beneficial soil bacteria double in population within one hour if conditions permit.”

“In a single bucket of humus, there are more living organisms than people on earth.”

Much of The Zen of Gardening is given over to specific crops, such as garlic, onions, peas, rhubarb, asparagus, salad greens, potatoes, artichokes and herbs, and methods for starting, growing and companion planting. Ornamentals, flowers, trees and shrubs for landscaping, windbreaks and habitat restoration are also presented. A final section of the book takes the reader on visits with local “Zen Masters of Gardening”, who offer up a garden salad of advice on community gardening, commercial growing, biointensive gardening, xeriscaping and small family truck farming.

Although the book is packed with information for gardeners, it’s written in the easy-going style of a chat with a neighbor across the garden fence. Stories, humor and folksy wisdom are intertwined with a studied gardener’s knowledge, born of many years’ experience.

The most difficult part of writing this review was getting the book back from my wife long enough to re-read a few sections. “Honey, there’s a gardening gem of information on every page!” Whether you live in the high and arid West, or the low and soggy Northwest as we do, you’ll find information and inspiration enough to get you out preparing the garden beds for winter and already looking forward to the spring planting.

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David Wann is co-author of Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic and author of The Zen of Gardening. He lives and gardens in a cohousing community in Golden, CO that he helped design. Contact him at wanndavejr@cs.com.

reviewed by:
Greg Seaman
Publisher, Eartheasy.com

The Zen of Gardening in the High and Arid West

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