Gardens of Use & Delight: Uniting the Practical and Beautiful in an Integrated Landscape

It would be hard to overpraise this exceptional book. Written by two people who are master practitioners of our grandparents' ways of living as well as master gardeners, this book is a gem! It is at once a book on gardening (flowers, herbs, fruits & vegetables) and independent living, a book of recipes and remedies, and an arresting narrative of thirty years of work creating a self-sufficient life (and all manner of wonderful gardens) on the bare bones of an old, abandoned farm on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. It is also a book of considerable visual beauty, being generously illustrated in vibrant watercolors by Champlain Valley artist Elayne Sears. I found Gardens of Use and Delight not only meaningful and enjoyable reading, but also a very useful reference for many aspects of flower, herb, fruit and vegetable gardening, and for all manner of things "homemade." The recipes in the chapters, "The Kitchen Garden," "The Contained Garden," and "An Old-Fashioned Fruit Garden" are mouth-watering gems often rescued from the cookbooks of yesteryear (the Herb Salt and Apple Ginger recipes to name two favorites!) And the wisdom and humanity distilled from the lives of these two people who decided to truly live their beliefs is instructive and inspiring. Perhaps more importantly, though, the book is a reminder of the elements of a rich and healthy life that have been forgotten, if not lost, in these times. I recommend it highly!