Spiritual Gardening: Creating Sacred Space Outdoors [Paperback]

Peg Streep (Author), John Glover (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 2003

Creating a garden that is a spiritual sanctuary — a calm refuge from the stresses of everyday life, a soothing balm for heart and soul — is within every gardener's reach. This book looks at the garden as a place to engage the senses and connect the spirit to nature. Gardens, whether small urban plots or larger country spaces, can become places to foster personal growth and spiritual awareness. Spiritual Gardening in resplendent with illustrations and color photos throughout, illuminating how to create your own special outdoor retreat.

Editorial Reviews

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

On Creating Sacred Space

We transform our gardens and yards into sacred space when we understand them as places of growth not only for plants and trees but for our inner selves. What is "sacred" space? It is a place of dedication, where the miracles of life and growth are acknowledged as evidence of something larger than ourselves. That "something larger" can be called by many different names, and may refer to the presence of a specific deity, a unifying or supernatural pattern, or simply our membership in the great community of living organisms—the discovered 1,413,000 separate species—that populate the planet Earth. With understanding and acknowledgment, we can turn our own gardens into places of sanctuary. The Latin word for "sacred" gives us the word "sanctuary," denoting not only a sacred space but also a place of refuge and protection. The garden can become a place where we can restore our emotional and spiritual balance and nourish our sense and souls, away from the noise of everyday life.

Gardening is a vehicle for spiritual and emotional connection. It is, when you think about it, nothing short of miraculous: You kneel, dig a bit, drop in a seed, add waters, and wait. In time the miracle unveils itself, beginning with an ever-so-tentative shoot of green: Life! It is, perhaps, not as dramatic as being witness to the creation of the universe or event that moment when a single sperm pierces the shell of the human ovum, but for most of us it is as close as we will ever get to witnessing a miracle firsthand.

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: New World Library; 2 Sub edition (September 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930722249
• ISBN-13: 978-1930722248
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,137,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Form over substance, August 30, 2000

By 

"bookdesigner" (OKC, OK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spiritual Gardening: Creating Sacred Space Outdoors (Hardcover)

The design of the book is lovely. The photographs are enticing. The table of contents suggests a valuable and interesting book. But focus of the text, the information content, is excessively historical. If you want to know the spiritual significance attached to certain plants by various spiritual groups, you might like this. If you wish to create a sacred space and seek design help, there are better choices.

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Did anyone even look at the galley proofs?!?, May 23, 2004

By 

G. R. Fleischaker (Shutesbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spiritual Gardening: Creating Sacred Space Outdoors (Paperback)

It must be said that this is a beautiful book! Photographs, paper, color, layout -- and the text could/would have been, too. But starting on pages 46/47, the text is totally dismembered -- big chunks missing [go from one page to the next mid-sentence and find an entirely different sentence being continued], and big chunks repeated. It made no sense to stumble through the next handful of pages, or try to read beyond: love the photos, but can't keep the book.
None of the other reviewers here mention finding this mess. Are there different printings out there?

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At Your Own Risk, June 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Spiritual Gardening: Creating Sacred Space Outdoors (Paperback)

Read SPIRITUAL GARDENING by Peg Streep at your own risk. After seeing an excerpt in Oprah's magazine, I purchased and read this exceptional book. It truly changed my life. I will never be the same. It took me outside, introduced me to the place of gardens in history, the value of gardens, the many kinds of gardens, and the love and care of gardens. It inspired me to read magazines on gardening, buy hundreds of dollars worth of gardening books--which I cherish, "delve" into the philosophy of feng shui, evaluate my backyard, enhance my backyard into a garden creation--perennials, benches, statues, chimes, birdfeeders, a gazing ball, and enjoyable dreams of more beauty to come therein. It's a passionate and fun obsesssion! SPIRITUAL GARDENING is my favorite gift to give to those I care about. The book is beautiful. It is full of color photographs of varied gardens. The writing is inspirational and full of memorable garden quotations. It's one of my most valued possessions!