Customer Reviews

The Essential Earthman

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first read Henry Mitchell in the Washington Post when my husband was receiving cancer treatment at NIH in 1982, and when I realized that his columns were collected in The Essential Earthman I immediately bought a copy. I have subsequently owned (and loaned out and thus lost) two or three more copies. As each planting season arrives I remember how much I've missed reading Henry's wisdom, and I berate myself for having loaned out (and lost) those books. So for the sake of upcoming generations of gardeners (and the old hands among us), would someone please reprint this valuable book? It's a book to read in the depth of winter and the heat of summer, in a spacious country garden or a tiny city yard, for beginning gardeners and old timers with permanently-stained hands. There never has been anyone quite like Henry Mitchell on gardening, or on life, for that matter. Grouchy, opinionated, funny, informative, brutally honest--his words will never go out of style.

As a gardener sufficiently serious about it to prefer catalogs without pictures, I commend Mr. Mitchell's essays to anyone -- seedling or mighty oak -- who loves to put their hands in dirt, and needs someone to lyrically explain why. My favorite essays include: dogs in the garden, why $ spent on garden plants are toted up differently than other money spent, and why, no matter how long you garden, you are never done until you are dead

I bought this book a few years ago based on the reviews. When I got it I tore into it and was sorely disappointed. That's the reason for 4 instead of 5 stars.

Why even 4 stars you ask? Well, about a month ago, for whatever reason, I picked it up again and now I LOVE IT!

Henry Mitchell is dry - like the soil under an oak. But he's terribly warm and fuzzy once you get to know him. I write a newsletter for my local garden club and have found quote after quote that I want to use for future issues. They're not la-dee-dah quotes that speak vaguely about the lovely joys of gardening. BLAH! Rather, they're jewels that point fingers at snobby gardeners and kill-joys who scold children for picking crocuses.

This is not a "pretty picture" book. It's sort of a how-to in an essay form. But more than that, it's great writing by a wonderful author on a topic I am crazy for.

My original copy of "The Earthman" is in shreds. Why?

I have read (and re-read) The Earthman for more than 20 years. Every time I returned to The Earthman, I had a patient, passionate teacher by my side.

With Henry's guidance, I matured. I learned to accept the rains that turned my garden into a sea of mud. I learned to accept the dogs who had a deep need to explore and "investigate" my treasured plants.

Henry is my friend and mentor. I cannot imagine life in the garden without him.

The two books I have read cover to cover as gardening advice and as literature are this book and Christopher Lloyd's Adventurous Gardener. I have shelves of gardening and horticultural books.
It gives you more each time you read it.

Dear Publisher...please reprint this book. I love Henry Mitchell. I was one of the 'blessed' because I actually read Mr. Mitchell's columns (both of them) for years. I live in the Washington DC area, and subscribed to the Post. Those of us who gardened locally were twice blessed because he was not only one of the best garden writers ever, he struggled with the heat, humidity, and high winds that attack us from all sides. Whenever I am in my garden I think of him. When I look at my Japanese Anemones I remember he said "Once you have them you'll always have them." There have been times when I thought for sure they were goners, but they always survived. When I see a little plant struggling under a bush, I remember him saying, "One of these days I'll have to crawl under there and pull it out." When I see a fish tank, I think of him and his horse trough. I miss him.

I was prepared to not like this book. It's just not my style. Come on, a collection of newspaper columns? We've all read the garden column in our local paper. It's horrible. Poorly written, pushing a lot of chemicals and all the newest plants. I'm an heirloom gardener. My interest is history. What were old gardens like? How did gardeners back then do things? What did they grow? Why? What worked for them and what didn't?

My favorite garden books are books about historical gardens and historical gardeners. I don't care for "modern" gardening and I absolutely loathe "how-to" books. They're a lot like those TV shows about home renovation. They make it look so easy, but when I actually try doing it myself, it's a heck of a lot more difficult. Or needs specialized tools. Or involves a lot of expensive materials. So I was prepared to dislike Mr. Mitchell and his book(s). Instead, I fell in love.

I was hooked from the first sentence: "As I write this, on June 29, it's about time for another summer storm to smash the garden to pieces, though it may hold off until the phlox, tomatoes, daylilies, and zinnias are in full sway". A real gardener! With a sense of humor! And perspective! And he grows heirlooms! In fact, in many cases, he prefers the heirlooms to newer varieties. No perfect garden here. Instead, he willingly admits to mistakes and how he corrected them.

Much to my chagrin, this is the perfect "how-to" book. He gives complete instructions on many issues and even admits when the process is difficult. He names and describes both new and old plant varieties. And provides the kind of useful information that you won't find in catalogs or nurseries: how a plant performs (or doesn't perform) in the home garden. All with a wonderful sense of humor.

Like most of the other gardeners who have read this book, I have issues with some of his opinions, especially when it comes to invasives, but I think it's reasonable to say that any time you get two or more gardeners together, you will get differences of opinions. It's just that kind of a hobby. There is no "right way" or "wrong way". What works for one gardener may not work for another.

This book is perfect. It can be read and enjoyed by both experienced and novice gardeners. I'm so glad I bought it instead of just borrowing it from the library. I'm looking forward to buying and reading his other books.

This collection of articles from his long term newspaper garden writing column in the Washington Post was published in 1981, and is sorely in need of a reissue as my copy is broken spined and tattered.

This is not a typical gardening book. Rather it is a collection of his commentaries on gardening - the joys, the trials and tribulations, what grows, what doesn't, and how gardeners in general need to buck up, stop whining and dig those holes really deep, filling them with leaf mold and good soil if they want their plants to grow rather than entombing roses in shallow graves of raw clay after having brought them home from the garden center and let them sit bare root in the garage for a few weeks).

Mitchell is not for everyone in these oh so politically appropriate times. I recently read a garden writer disparaging him for his loving the invasive honeysuckle, his advocating cutting down of certain forest trees in city gardens, and for spending too much time chorusing about the delights of iris and peony. In his stead, Mitchell also used to write amusing disparagements of typical garden books with their useless charts for what a rose is (perennial, color: white, yellow,pink, red; hardiness:variable, etc etc) or their monthly lists of things to do (November is the time to chase field mice out of the barberry bushes). Also it is to be remembered he wrote for a regional audience - east coast city gardeners mostly, and not for those in Arizona or Minnesota.

However, Mitchell is for every gardener who also also loves the written word. He does not have his equal in writing with irony and wit. When I was in college and moved to an apartment in upper New York state, I used to have my mother cut out and save his gardening columns from the Post to save for me when I came home from school. I was delighted when his wife collected them into a book (he sold the rights to her for a dollar after telling her and publishers that no one would want to read his old columns). I was devastated when he died.

There is no equal for Henry Mitchell. The best we can do is reread his excellent words. So please reissue his books.