Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2301845 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-21
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .94 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
An accomplished horticulturist who has written prolifically for Elle D‚cor and gardening publications, the author communicates his passion for his profession in this appealing memoir. It is not necessary to have an extensive knowledge of gardening to appreciate the practical advice Riddle offers. He draws on his own practice to demonstrate all aspects of garden making, from initial design to choice of plants, deployment of water and fertilizer and the use of containers. Raised in South Carolina, Riddle studied horticulture in England before eventually settling in upstate New York. For the last 10 years, he has been renting a simple bungalow with spectacular mountain views. Here he's designed a fenced kitchen garden, enclosed by sticks and filled with vegetables and flowers, a creation that has given him "more pleasure and taught me more than I ever would have imagined." Riddle effectively conveys the joys of a relatively modest lifestyle lived in the midst of great natural beauty. Interspersed are reminiscences of his beloved parents and descriptions of the gardens that impressed him as a child. He also reflects on his life as a gay man and recalls the death of a friend from complications of AIDS. Although he never came out to his parents, now deceased, Riddle is certain his mother understood and accepted his identity. Stylishly written with gentle humor, Riddle's reminiscence is, in its quiet way, inspiring. B&w illus.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Riddle, who writes the monthly column "Dean's Dirt" for Elle D‚cor magazine, offers an engaging and humorous memoir about his lifelong love of gardening, his appreciation for the simple things in life, and growing up gay in the rural South. Born in Mauldin, SC, Riddle was enamored of plants and nature at an early age. After a brief job at a local nursery, he studied horticulture at a small community college in North Carolina and eventually won an internship at the prestigious Hillier Nursery in England. When Riddle got the chance to create his own garden in Woodstock, NY, he filled it with the vegetables and old-fashioned annuals that had so influenced him during childhood. Though filled with useful tips on plants and design, Riddle's book is about much more than gardening. It's about discovering pleasure and beauty in life's simple things and the value of family and friends. Whether describing the hijinks of a video shoot in his garden by the B52s or extolling the virtues of a cherished vase that belonged to his mother, Riddle's prose is compulsively readable, funny, and entertaining. Recommended for public libraries. Phillip Oliver, Univ. of North Alabama Lib., Florence
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
It's always a joy to discover someone who approaches his life's work with such exuberance as to make it seem more like play than a profession. So it is with Riddle, whose passion for plants and gardening was engendered as a boy in his small-town South Carolina neighborhood, trained in a technical college horticulture program, and honed to a fine art at England's renowned Hillier Arboretum. Although he has created gardens for the rich and famous, those he designed for his own rustic rental cabin in the Catskill Mountains foothills have brought him the most satisfaction. Forthright and revealing, this horticultural memoir divulges as much about Riddle's personal life as it does about his gardens, for it's truly impossible to separate the two. Practical information abounds, for Riddle is a veritable fount of knowledge (and opinion) about astounding annuals, perennial performers, dazzling designs, all of which are recounted in his delightfully conversational commentary, as he mixes piquant observations with homespun philosophies about everything from manners to marigolds. Carol Haggas
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