In the Eye of the Garden

Mirabel Osler, author of "A Gentle Plea for Chaos," here offers a brief but intense selection of essays on various aspects of the garden. She draws upon her own experiences as a traveler and/or gardener in Corfu, Thailand, Provence, New York City, and rural England, and as an insightful reader of literary garden classics. This is not a how-to book, but a collection of meditations, illustrated with lovely black-and-white images from Osler's library of old gardening books. Some topics touched upon are: the Violet family; the admirable rigor of French gardens; the mysterious spiritual alchemy of gardening; and order versus romantic abandon in garden design. I think Rosemary Very said it well in her praise of the book, printed on the back jacket: "There is no other writer with quite the same approach to gardening as Mirabel Osler.... It is whimsical yet down to earth, imaginative yet full of facts, both historical and horticultural. Old-time gardeners will be refreshed and new gardeners will be inspired."