Synopsis:
Now for the first time in English, one of the world's best-loved garden writers explores the connections between the life of the garden and the life of the mind. In this omnibus volume that ranges from discussing why gardeners should grow bad-smelling plants to how readers should eat their flowers, Jürgen Dahl identifies curiosity and patience as the gardener's chief virtues. What matters most to Jürgen Dahl is that a garden is not a sterile copy of a picture in a book, or a beautiful "triumph" that lacks all experimentation and wonder. In Jürgen Dahl's garden, things do not "work," but instead they happen --- or maybe they do not. Many things that please, surprise, or disappoint a gardener do so because the garden's living creatures can only rarely be tricked into obeying the gardener's will; in their own quiet but unyielding way, they follow their own laws. Jürgen Dahl's stories are wise and cheerful, and full of opinions and premonitions, all told with the insatiable curiosity of the true explorer.
From the Publisher:
We hereby invite you to be infected with the curiosity of the gardener, to follow him on less-well-trodden paths, to ponder with him, to experiment, to enjoy, to worry, and to rejoice with him.
With more clarity and depth than most people, Jürgen Dahl viewed gardens as mirror images of the world at large. His insights and interpretations often are like parables, leading his reader into a universe governed by continuous change and infinite variation. This universe obeys its own laws, which we, in turn, are obliged to respect.
The present volume contains the last three gardening books that Jürgen Dahl wrote: The Curious Gardener (1998), The Stinking Garden (1997), and How to Eat a Lily (1995). Some of the text originated in his beloved weekly gardening column; some of it has been shortened and adapted, and botanical names have been added, as have photographs, which previously appeared only in The Stinking Garden.
Jürgen Dahl was able to participate in the editorial preparation of this book for only a short time. He died on 6 October 2001. Mrs. Hella Dahl has been very helpful in continuing his work as he would have wished, particularly in selecting pictures and picture captions to be included in this book. For this we are very grateful to her.
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