Great garden read: “The Ecology of Enchantment” by Des Kennedy

One of the distinct pleasures of editing GardenWise magazine is receiving, with every issue, what can only be described as “garden literature” from the ever-eloquent Des Kennedy. Sitting down with one of his books is an even greater treat, and the 10th anniversary edition of An Ecology of Enchantment: A Year in the Life of a Garden takes us to his hand-hewn home for a blissful and sometimes blundering 12 months of magic and mishaps as he embraces “simple living” on Denman Island. For more “Adventures of an Ardent Green Thumb,” pick up a copy of The Passionate Gardener, full of ravings and riotous rantings like the “Seven Deadly Sins” and “Ten Commandments” of gardening, including “Neither shalt thou commit adultery”:

… while we may all suppose that a bit of adultery every now and then would be fun enough in its own way, really, I ask you: Who’s got the time? Plus, you’d have to change out of your gardening gear into sexy clothes. Is your hair right, or are there still twigs and leaves caught in it? Certainly, you’d have to pick up on the personal hygiene end of things; please! get the soil out from under those fingernails. And after all that, there you’d be, thrashing away in sweaty sheets in a dreary motel room somewhere, the whole time worrying over whether your meconopsis are dying out…