Customer Reviews

The Sanctuary Garden: Creating a Place of Refuge in Your Yard or Garden

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Almost a "garden as metaphor," book, you won't find concrete advide about how to plant, or what to do about pests, etc. You will find an inspired pathway to spirit via the garden. The authors write with a clear, poetic voice about earth, wind, water and sunlight as manifestations of the soul. As an avid gardener, this is one of my all time favorites! It would make a terrific gift for anyone interested in the natural/spiritual worlds.

I bought this book from a different web retailer because of the online description; I did not see it in the store first. If I had, I wouldn't have bought it, because it is a philosophy book about gardening. I tend to buy gardening books that have lots of photos or diagrams of examples. This book has no photos and only a few drawings. It is all text. If you are a "show me" kind of person like I am, then don't buy this book.

This is a wonderful book! It is very inspiring, and the ideas are easy to follow, understand, and adapt to your own space and needs. I loved the descriptions of their garden/sanctuary at their home, and am inspired to try to create some sacred space in my own life. Thank you for a truly fantastic book!

I LOVE this book. It's about so MUCH more than just digging in the dirt! I especially love the watercolor illustrations. We have always called our own backyard a sanctuary. Now, we are incorporating some of the bountiful ideas found in this cornucopia of garden delights.

As I have far too often discovered, gardening books from climatic zones outside of my own, have a tendency to raise my expectations far above what I can logically expect to achieve. However, the ideas shared by the writers do give me some thoughts to consider as I think about creating something to satisfy my soul. I sort of suspected that there would be some good philosophy behind why people create sanctuary gardens in the first place and this book is an excellent seed planter in that regard. Anyone looking for a treatise above just planting and watching things grow will find some inspiration in this tome, especially when it comes to "water". I recommend this specialty book to anyone who's creative juices are longing for something to do with that bare side of the house or the sterile back yard.

While this book may not have glossy photos, it is none-the-less a dreamer's guide to gardening and solved my biggest garden problem: how to make visitors stop and abide awhile in my garden.

On home garden tours, I often watch people fall prey to a mindset of "strolling on a mission" as they move from one composed vista to the next, mentally recording pretty combinations or successful "scenes." I was saddened recently to see a beautiful pergola draped in exotic jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) with people flocking to see the flowers, but not one person felt genuinely invited to sit inside. In my mind, a garden fails if it does not: A.) stop you in your tracks and B.) invite you to sit awhile, quietly and comfortably.

One of my goals is to open my garden to such a home tour and discover people lingering, feeling transcendently at peace and at home. This book helped me find a way to transform the garden experience from people saying "pretty" to people having conversations in outdoor salons.

I share the other reviewer's experience. I am a visual person and gravitate towards books with landscape plans and photos. I have a library shelf full of garden design books; Feng Shui, modern, Balinese, etc. and binders of ideas from magazine clippings. Yet this book did more to shape the garden experience I want visitors to have than any other.

Each garden "room" should function the same way as the vibrant passages the authors use to open each section in the book: creating layers of engagement that invite you to reflect.

I found myself evaluating designs with more than just an eye for cleverness or cohesiveness. This book is an invitation to center yourself before setting out to create a peaceful space outdoors.