My Mother's Garden--A collection of Essays

Title: My Mother's Garden--A Collection about Love, Flowers and Family
Introduction by Penelope Hobhouse
ISBN: 1596091479
Publisher: Chamberlain Bros./2005
Pages: 179


I had won this book in a draw from Sioux and glad I did.

This is a beautiful collection of essays, penned by an inspiring group of writers who have a love for gardens. Most have reminiscences about their mothers and grandmothers. This book is a great tribute to mothers/grandmothers everywhere. One just cannot stop with the first essay. I found myself totally immersed until the whole book was finished. I laughed with joy at some, was a little sad with few and wondered at the pleasant memories of mothers and grandmothers. The essays are very lucid and well-worded. There are two poems too in this collection. "To Any Reader" from A Child's Garden of Verses by R L Stevenson and "Mother in the Garden" by Sarah Gorham.

The love pours forth for the gardens as well as mother to daughter or granddaughter. Most essays are about the bonding but a few do tear apart. Creating a garden is like raising a baby with all the birthing pangs and the worry one goes through for a baby. The result is very fulfilling if the Garden sustains just like a child.

The essays are very inspiring and make one long for a garden. As I live in an apartment and have a terrace garden, I longed for open fields and big trees. This is one book one can read again and again.