No subject


Tue Mar 4 16:45:48 EST 2008


A level and elegant introduction to (and history of) natural
gardening from Marinelli. Not just the rainforest is in
trouble,
Marinelli reminds readers. The flora of East Hampton, NY, is
in
equal peril, as are fully one-third of this country's native
plants. Is
it possible that gardenersyour everyday, garden-variety
gardenerscan have a role shepherding these waifs and
wastrels
from the brink, perhaps even rescue and restore ancient
natural
communities? Marinelli thinks so. Her gardens, one in New
York
City and another on nearby Shelter Island, are organic
forms,
part of the local ecosystem, evolving from the site and
climate,
taking their cues from native plants (but not hog-tied to
them).
In
the city she seeks to re-create an echo of the primeval oak
forest setting, while on the island it's a meadow/wetland.
Her
ideal garden would have room for a diversity of species
within a
variety of habitats: productive and fertile, subtle and
refined,
celebrating the connection between humans and nature.
Marinelli's garden ethic is the product of many sources,
which
she details in her narrative: a well-rounded discussion of
the
natives vs. exotics; garden design from ancient Greece to
the
present; the possibilities and limitations of biodynamic
agriculture, French intensive gardening, permaculture, and
restoration; aspects of gardens within gardens: Gustav
Stickley's pergolas, Frank Lloyd Wright's glass rooms, Zen
dry
gardens, kitchen and water gardens; as well as the many
personalities who have shaped the ever-shifting aesthetic of
garden design. She also takes readers on a sweet tour of,
and
offers an ode to, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, where she
works as the director of publishing. Marinelli is too
adventurous
to be a strict nativist, but she also knows where help is
needed:
``I'm all for planting natives unless there's a good reason
not
to,
since indigenous species have lostand continue to loseso
much
ground.'' (22 line drawings) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus
Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Horticulture Online, April 1998
There's a staggering number of new gardening books hitting
the
marketplace these days. If your interests lie in heirloom
vegetables, Texas natives, or tender perennials, you'll have
no
trouble finding a tightly focused tome (or two) to satisfy
your
curiosity. Likewise, if you want advice on how to make your
garden attract birds, repel slugs, or discourage deer, it
lies
just
pages away at the local bookstore. On occasion, however, you
may find yourself hungry for another sort of "bigger
picture"
reading, one that tackles questions such as What has man
done
to the plants on the planet? Where is gardening headed? Are
we happy with this direction? As heady as all this can be,
it's
this sort of reading that challenges us to take a more
global
view
of our daily activities, from fertilizing the lawn to
spinning
donuts
on the sand dunes in the family's four-wheel drive.

If it's this type of insight that you are after, head to the
bookstore
for a copy of Stalking the Wild Amaranth: Gardening in the
Age of Extinction by Janet Marinelli (Henry Holt, 1998).
With a
nod to natural writer Euell Gibbons' classic narrative,
Stalking
the Wild Asparagus, the director of publishing at Brooklyn
Botanic Garden and editor of the BBG's highly praised series
of
handbooks embarks on a tale of the planet's plant life
that's
sure
to provide you with thought-provoking reading. The goal of
the
book is to explore what the gardener can do in a
"biologically
homogenizing time" to bring back the species teetering on
the
brink of extinction.

Writing in the tradition of essayists such as Roger B. Swain
in
Field Days: Journal of an Itinerant Biologist, Marinelli
deftly
weaves elements of personal experience with scientific fact,
natural history, and ecological vision. It opens with
Marinelli's
search for the highly endangered seabeach amaranth
(Amaranthus pumilus) on the beaches of the Hamptons, which
makes her realize the threatened nature of many plants in
her
own backyard. Subsequent chapters, which read more like
essays, are so chock full of ideas, that they are admittedly
a
bit
densely packed at times. But Marinelli's discussions are
lively,
articulate, and extremely engaging. She takes a nostalgic
but
honest look at the effects of the ever-growing suburbia of
her
childhood on the plant life of Long Island and juxtaposes it
with a
more scholarly debate over championing natives and
controlling
invasives. Her attempt (and ultimate failure) to emulate
Sissinghurst in her shady Brooklyn lot exemplifies how
gardening trends, with their nod toward fancy hybrids,
monocultured lawns, and attempts to grow cannas in Zone 5,
run
counter to nature's landscaping practices of open
pollination
that provide regionally specific diversity...

Book Description
An important horticultural memoir articulating a new
landscape
art that's both environmentally sensitive and rich in
creativity.

Janet Marinelli left her comfortable city garden to join a
botanist
colleague in search of the rare Seabeach Amaranth--one of
our
many native species that is in danger of extinction. The
result
of
the ensuing seven-year odyssey, Stalking the Wild Amaranth
is
a work of science and a work of art. Marinelli tells the
story
of
her discovery that contemporary gardening is out of sync
with
theories evolving on the frontiers of science and
philosophy.
She also tells of her quest for a new garden art that
nurtures a
greater richness and variety of earthly life.

Inspired by the legacy of Henry David Thoreau, Marinelli
blends
history, horticulture, erudition, and personal insight into
a
narrative that ponders the relationship between humankind
and
nature. She fleshes out a vision for a new, ecologically
wise
landscape art, disagreeing ultimately with those who insist
that
growing native plants is the only way to recover our
environmental equilibrium. "Gardeners," she writes, "should
be
free to experiment, to let our imaginations run wild, to
learn
how
to be the creators of biodiversity as well as the preservers
and
restorers."



More information about the Market-farming mailing list