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Four Tenths of an Acre: Reflections on a Gardening Life

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These essays are a meditation on the changing seasons in Lisle's New England town yet they also reveal the seasons of the author's inner life. "Four Tenths of an Acre" tells the story of a woman coming to her maturity in the same way that a garden reaches its height after many years of culling and with the spontaneous addition of new colors and shapes. As I finished this memoir, I felt I had witnessed not just the transformation of the land but the transformation of the gardener.

Lisle is the M.F.K. Fisher of the outdoor palette, describing local personalities and gardens with wit and affection, showing us how people reveal themselves as they get their hands into the earth.

For Lisle, gardening is not just a weekend hobby but a dialogue with life. It is a universal endeavor that asks us to reflect on our own periods of growth and quiescence, on the things that we choose to keep in our sphere of influence (as we keep the livelier and more robust plants in a flower bed), and what we must prune away in order to create a sense of harmony and peace. Lisle's description of an early marriage, and its ending, is part of this sometimes painful but necessary process.

The garden is also a bridge between generations. It has deepened Lisle's relationship with her mother, allowing the two women to share their fundamental respect for life, despite their different roles and values.

This wonderful book is at bottom, about the way Time shapes us as it shapes the land. It is about the mistakes we make, the choices we can't undo -- and the interplay between human will and some Grand Design.

Lisle's memoir is a lovely companion to the classic "Gift from the Sea" which explores the undercurrents of relationship in the context of a sojourn at the beach. "Four Tenths of an Acre" offers a gentle philosophy of growth and change as it discusses planting trees, building fences and the best way to discourage garden pests.

I shall never look at my miniature rose garden in the same way after reading Lisle's description: Even the tiniest piece of earth stretches downward for four thousand miles. I have learned not to be so ashamed of my "stragglers" but to view them as part of an ongoing process. A garden is never quite finished and that is one of its most important attributes--it serves to remind us of a larger pattern of existence and of all the things in life that are beyond our control. Whether we maintain a large property or cultivate a single flower bed, we discover that there is something beyond clock time and the "to do" list. The historical treatises on gardening, quoted here, are good affirmations for those of us too penned in by "busyness" to contemplate the progress of the natural world. Caring for the earth, Lisle shows, is a time-honored way of caring for ourselves.

Laurie Lisle is a former journalist and budding author who fled life in New York City for a place of her own in Sharon, CT. She didn't know anyone in Sharon, but her family is from New England. She gives us a crisp run through of her life in Connecticut, where to her gardening seems next to godliness. She meets the local gardening expert, joins the garden club, and begins swapping perennials with friends and neighbors. She researched the history of her house, of writers who were gardeners, and numerous old diaries. Along the way we get an array of gardening stories. A few examples follow.

LaFontan's Black Gold was discovered when a landowner followed an old German proverb and threw a pocketbook over a rainbow. The pocketbook revealed a deposit of decayed matter that grew prize winning dahlias. They decided to package it for sale.

A Revolutionary War tale tells of raising the first "sellery", grown from seeds ordered from England but originally grown in Turkey. It was uprooted in autumn and buried in root cellars to be eaten raw in winter. Oranges were a holiday rarity.

We get the complete story of the elm tree. They were native trees found by early settlers and selected as shade trees because of their tall, statuesque beauty and their resistance to summer drought. Then came Dutch elm disease in the `30s. Early efforts to stop the fungus introduced by imported elm veneer slowed its progress, but by the 1950s, most elms had died or been cut down. Only a few resistant varieties remain.

Gardens not tended by owners lack heart. Gardeners have to be wary of gifts from other gardeners. Often the plants offered are prolific and will take over if not contained.

Pressing questions-Is it rude to pull a weed spotted in a neighbor's garden, or should it be ignored? What stories would your houseplants tell if they could speak?

Following the long tradition of New England, she is known as the lady who lives in the Mow house-even after she has lived there 20 years. From research she learns why residents recall the Mows with fondness-even though they were not the original or most recent owners. She notes the importance of a commanding house on the green, which had been allowed to deteriorate. "A single building on main street can affect an entire community."

Her wildlife tales include the usual. A groundhog was trapped and relocated. A rabbit that squeezed under the fence was chased to exhaustion by her cocker spaniel. Later there were battles with deer. The usual deterrents-human hair, repellant scents, wind chimes, and scarecrows-were ineffective, until finally proper fencing and hedges provided some protection.

She tells of early iron works in Connecticut, which made iron from local ores using charcoal from local hardwoods. Forests were depleted. By error she mentions the smell of dynamite in 1806, but it was not invented until late in the 19th century. She does not tell of the agricultural revolution when after completion of the Erie Canal in 1823, Midwestern grain production was so prolific that Eastern states were not competitive and had to rejigger their economies. Manufacturing, and farm specialization such as dairy, potatoes, truck farming, and chicken farms resulted.

After 10 years of gardening, she made the typical gardener's decision. She had learned what grew well for her. She grew more of what pleased her and enjoyed it even more.

The book reveals the complex tale of Yankee determination to control one's destiny, the things her mother taught her about gardening, the relationship between gardening and writing, both creative, very personal endeavors, and the story of a failed marriage. The book is nicely written and highly readable. Gardeners will enjoy it. Others may enjoy one woman's story of her determination to succeed against mother nature.