In a Green Shade: Writings from Homeground [Hardcover]

Allen Lacy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 2000

Since 1993, truly fortunate gardeners have been those who have subscribed to Allen Lacy's HOMEGROUND, a quarterly newsletter. Now over a hundred pieces of writing taken from this lively periodical appear as IN A GREEN SHADE. Many of them grow from the author's thirty years of experience transforming a small suburban lot into a private Eden, with its woodland garden, its cottage garden, and its extensive deck and container gardens. Readers will find thoughtful discussions of perennials, annuals, and woody plants, as well as the tropical and subtropical plants that are of such keen interest today. After taking in Lacy's spirited recommendations, they will find themselves unable to do without the daffodil called 'Hawera', the hosta 'Sum and Substance', fragrant-leaved geraniums, or the Roughneck Stool from Rubbermaid (a weeder's helper). IN A GREEN SHADE also travels farther afield, commenting on botanical history and such matters as the perennial conflict between gardeners and television weather reporters, or between proponents of native plants and their more cosmopolitan colleagues. As Henry Mitchell wrote of Lacy's THE GARDEN IN AUTUMN, "Among other virtues, it is based on firsthand experience by a gardener who happens to be an admirable writer."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Allen Lacy is a philosophy professor who loves plants--what a perfect combination for a garden essayist. Collected in this volume are selections from his quarterly newsletter, Homeground, which has delighted gardeners around the world for the last seven years. The newsletter is a rich tapestry of experience and opinion, of plants, weather, and musings on digging in the dirt. It is a joy to have in In a Green Shade a distillation of Lacy's knowledgeable prose, honed during his five years as garden columnist for The Wall Street Journal and seven years for The New York Times.

"Can there be a scintilla of doubt that the most mysteriously neglected plants in North America at the moment are the cape fuchsias?" asks Lacy, who then goes on to explain why we should all be growing at least several Phygelius cultivars. He describes how he planted an arbor to drip gourds through its crosspieces, and how the Aztecs domesticated dahlias from wildlings growing in the mountains of central Mexico. His interests are far-ranging, and he takes his readers along with him on an exploration of all things horticultural.

What makes this book especially useful is that it comes from Lacy's own firsthand gardening experience working in his small, suburban New Jersey garden. He is faced, like the rest of us, with unexpected storms, late freezes, and not enough space to indulge all his plant enthusiasms. The difference is that he is a fine writer who is able to transform his experiences into literature to amuse us when we brush the dirt off our hands and come in from the garden. --Valerie Easton

From Publishers Weekly

Culled from Lacy's quarterly gardening newsletter, Homeground, the writings in this eloquent and informative book combine horticultural advice, plant lore and hybridizing history with descriptions of the plants that bloom in the small plot surrounding the author's house in suburban New Jersey. Lacy (a former gardening columnist for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and author of The Inviting Garden) has very individualistic plant preferences--the "species tulips that have evolved in nature instead of being gussied up by humankind," for example, or the old roses, which shouldn't be snubbed because their blooms are short-lived (after all, as he opines, "No one despises the dogwood for not being in perpetual flower"). Lacy turns up his nose at a few popular garden favorites, such as the Japanese pink cherry Kwanzan and overbred marigolds that "look as if they were made in a factory," but he relishes some common plants: gourds, which he grows on a pergola, alliums of all kinds and certain species of goldenrod. The pieces, which include trenchant commentaries on light-fingered visitors on garden tours and deceptive catalogue descriptions, are imbued with his passion for collecting unordinary plants, such as cat's whiskers (Orthosiphon stamineus). Readers will be inspired to acquire for themselves some of the delights Lacy discusses so felicitously, and to help them do just that, he includes an annotated list of mail-order nurseries, many of which specialize in hard-to-find plants. Line drawings by Martha Blake-Adams and a bibliography add to the book's appeal.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; First Edition edition (April 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618003789
• ISBN-13: 978-0618003785
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,697,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The gardening life..., May 29, 2000

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Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: In a Green Shade: Writings from Homeground (Hardcover)

Allen Lacy has been writing about gardening for a number of years in books, newspaper columns and letters to friends. I've purchased mostly paperback copies, but bought this one in hardcover because I kept the others and wish now I had bought hardcover versions. I reread them from time to time, and lend them to really good friends who will return them. Lacy gardens in New Jersey in Zone 7 so I find his writing helpful since I live in the same climate. He was a philosophy professor for a number of years, and his writing is reflective. This book is filled with practical wisdom. Think of your old uncle Horace who can get anything to grow sharing some of advice. Lacy's books fall some where between an essay on "How gardening changed my life" and "Why your Bee Balm got Mildew."

"In a Green Shade" is a collection of articles covering the seasons of the year. In spring he writes about bulbs and other familiar plants, including Fritillaries which are not so well known or grown because some find them frustrating. Lacy implies there is hope for those who fancy these lovely flowers, though I refuse to waste any more money on 'Imperialis.' He says if one can figure out how to treat them properly, the fritillery are faithful flowers that return year after year. I love Meleagris (Snake's Head lily, and have had some luck here). Lacy digresses on Thomas Jefferson's love of the Imperialis and it's origins in Turkey.

In other sections, he covers lillies, roses, Bee Balm, tobacco plants, gourds, dahlias, begonias, mums, trees (Hazel)and other plants he has grown in his New Jersey garden. He discusses their nature as well as nurture, and their history, geography and interesting anecdotes. I particularly found his bits on creating a garden on a deck interesting. His pots, and trellises and other deck paraphanalia must be beautiful, and I wish a photo or two had been included. I have mirrored his approach to gardening--completely fill the yard with plants, shrubs and trees, and removed the grass--so if you like grass, don't look here.

If you've read many gardening books, some of the anecdotal material may seem recycled. For example, seasoned readers know Nasturtiums are nose-twisters. If you're starting out, the book will seem fresh, and funny in places. If you need lots of basic "how-to" information, the book will prove less useful. There are no photos of how to prepare the soil or long discussions of which tools to buy. From time to time, Mr.Lacy interjects technical details, but this is not the strength of this book, although there is a short list of extant nurseries in the back of the book.