A Full Life in a Small Place and Other Essays from a Desert Garden [Hardcover]

Janice Emily Bowers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1992

The frustrations and pleasures of gardening are evident; its implications for life are more subtle, lurking under a leaf or buried in a compost pile. Janice Emily Bowers senses these implications, and communicates them as only a fine writer can. In A Full Life in a Small Place, she shows how backyard gardening opens up a broader appreciation of both life and living. Her observations on organic gardening inspire further meditations on nature and wildlife, and demonstrate how gardens both complicate and enrich our lives. In their entirety, these sixteen essays ask how we shall live, and recognize that "before we can determine how, we need to find out why."

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Bowers is a botanist--that is, someone who studies plants. She did not consider herself a gardener until recently. Now, however, her passions are compost; the birds, butterflies, and lizards that inhabit her garden; and the food webs they represent. Bowers's essays evoke the fascination of gardens yet accept the contradictions involved in creating a natural world that is, in fact, unnatural, for her vegetables and riotous flowers are unsuited to life in her desert home. Nonetheless, this is a delightful garden journal that all gardeners, especially those in the Southwest, will appreciate. Bowers is also the author of The Mountains Next Door ( LJ 9/1/91).
- Katharine Galloway Garstka, Intergraph Corp., Huntsville, Ala.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Bowers's essays evoke the wonder and fascination of gardens. . . . a delightful garden journal that all gardeners, especially those in the Southwest, will appreciate." —Library Journal "She cogently demystifies some of the organic farmer's seemingly irrational methods. . . . reflective and informed nature writing." —Kirkus Reviews "The inspiration to be out in the garden is overwhelming, and the book must be set down to be returned to later. Again and again." —Seedhead News "She writes with the same vigor and grace she brings to the ordering of her garden and to her keen observation and recording of the life, both vegetable and animal, that teems within its suburban Tucson borders....Although there are facts amusing, useful or stimulating aplenty in these essays, there's not one that needs to be dusted before tasting. Each one is as fresh as a sun-warmed tomato straight from the vine." —Arizona Daily Star "Bowers's 16 essays remind us that paradise can be found in our own back yards and that a lifetime can be spent learning all about it. . . . Enjoyable and thought-provoking." —Audubon Naturalist News

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press (November 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816513457
• ISBN-13: 978-0816513451
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,654,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all-time favorite books, July 3, 2000

By 

plantgirl "JenniferK" (Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Full Life in a Small Place and Other Essays from a Desert Garden (Hardcover)

A wonderful tome by Janice Emily Bowers. These essays combine gardening, ecology and self reflection with a wonderful use of vocabulary. Thoroughly enjoyable; definitely not a one-read book!