Product Description

Henry Mitchell was to gardening what Izaak Walton was to fishing. "The Essential Earthman" is a collection of the best of his long-running column for the "Washington Post". Although he offered invaluable tips for novice as well as seasoned gardeners, at the heart of his essays were piquant observations: on keeping records; the role of trees in gardens (they don't belong there); how a gardener should weather the winter; on shrubs, bulbs, and fragrant flowers and about observation itself. Here's one example: Marigolds gain enormously in impact when used as sparingly as ultimatums. Henry Mitchell came to his subject with reverence, passion, humor, and a contagious enthusiasm tempered only by his sober knowledge of human frailty. "The Essential Earthman" is for all who love gardening even those who only dream of doing it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #853167 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .89 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 244 pages

From Amazon.com
This first collection of Henry Mitchell's garden columns was one of those instant classics, a book which quickly earned a permanent place on thousands of bedside tables. Though written for the Washington Post, these tales of the city garden travel well. This book, often dog-eared and battered, is found in gardeners' homes all across the U.S.--not just in the South, but in Minnesota, Alaska, and the other Washington. After reading a single page--any page--you'll realize why. Many gardeners quote Mitchell's line, "It is a great joy the day we discover that we can learn things without actually having to make the mistakes ourselves." He regales us with his mistakes, recording the frustration caused by stubbornly planting where his beloved dogs insisted on sleeping or by thoughtless activity ("I speared a superb lily bulb today"), hoping we will profit from his own gardening mishaps. We can and do, but we profit just as much by his company as his advice, which is so clearly the fruit of long and direct experience.

From Booklist
With Henry Mitchell's recent death, gardeners lost one of the most erudite yet entertaining voices of horticultural wisdom. This agreeable iconoclast will no longer be around to tease and provoke his fans--those readers devoted to Mitchell's splendid gardening essays in the Washington Post. So his prevailing legacy will be books like this one, a new, slightly expanded edition of Mitchell's first collection of columns. In reading over these delectable gardening vignettes, the reader finds reasons for Mitchell's popularity unmistakable. Not only does he instruct readers with his expert advice, but in his own rather cantankerous way, he consistently provides a gentle, philosophical assist; a balm for the bumps and blows of daily life. Alice Joyce

Review

.".. an idiosyncratic, down-to-earth journal of the travails and rewardsof gardening for one's own pleasure, not for status or competition. It's funny andreal; a classic for the gardener's library." -- Austin American Statesman