Orchard House: How a Neglected Garden Taught One Family to Grow Hardcover – Deckle Edge, March 31, 2015

Orchard House: How a Neglected Garden Taught. One Family To Grow. by Tara Austen Weaver There is an old saying, "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Well, in this sweet little memoir the author gets her garden and gives the reader another book to add to the library. Loved the background information on the Pacific Northwest and gardening. I think most gardeners will love this book.

If you like an emotional mother-daughter story, this will satisfy. If you are an avid gardener, this read will also satisfy. If you are like me and compare gardening to tending long-term on a garden like on a marriage or growing family, this will delight. Tara Weaver is adept as a Master Gardener and as a storyteller,

Weaver tells her story of moving around with a back-to-lander mom (who denies being such) of the 1960s. She's lived in exotic palces like Japan and California. But now her mother is in her 70s and buys a run-down two-story home in Seattle. Weaver and her kids, and the kids of her brother, now come to share this home on and off.

This story starts off with much allegory. The overgrown vines hide the beauty underneath. Abandoned garden plots turn out impressive yields of all kinds of vegetables, and fruits like raspberries and apples. Weaver and her mother truly have a knack for this.

The writing is very lyrical in parts, emotive in others, and there's always a sense of either fear of rejection or loneliness. In the course of life, though, what are our true choices?

I was drawn to this book as I enjoy reading memoir and twenty years ago I began to do self-taught organic backyard gardening of herbs, vegetables, flowers and my latest pursuit is learning to grow fruit trees in my new tropical climate. Regarding memoir I enjoy soul searching and healing, personal growth and transformation, both of which were promised in the title and subtitle. However here the author was pretty guarded and not too forthcoming with details to fully understand where she is coming from. In describing her childhood she reveals herself but in her present situation she is more closed. For example it was not until quite far in that she said she was in her 30s, Up to that point I had trouble figuring out some basics about her life just to be able to connect and empathize with where in her life journey she was. She also said she is a writer but never mentioned the type of books she writes and she would mention going away but she never said to where or why. (I researched it on the internet out of curiosity.) There is nothing to hide so I don't know why she just didn't say she is a travel and food writer.

I found this an enjoyable light read mostly about gardening. Despite the subtitle being about family relationships, I feel the book is mostly about a new gardener discovering the joys of backyard gardening and orcharding on a half acre in Seattle who is trying to get closer to her mother.

The book begins with the author having been dumped by her boyfriend and her mother moving from California to Seattle, so she also moves from California to Seattle too. The book spans about three years and is centered on de-weeding and gardening with permaculture practices. It is told in chronological order mostly with the exception of the fruit tree chapter. I enjoyed the book as a fellow gardener and I connected with what she was saying about enjoying time in nature and the excitement over a sweet freshly picked raspberry or strawberry. As she is not in a relationship and childless, her time is spent working or putting in a lot of hours on gardening (almost obsessively it seemed) and she is trying to sort out emotions and hurt that began in her childhood having been raised fatherless by nannies with a tired single mother. In a nutshell she explains that her mother is not of the emotional type to fulfill what she needs emotionally. She also longs for a closer relationship with her brother who is busy working and tending to his wife and children (which all seemed reasonable to me). She grows close with her young nieces and nephew over these years. She struggles as she tries to force them to give her more emotional attention, using the garden as a bridge to try to bring them physically together more so that emotional connections might deepen.

For gardeners I'll share that she references having taken a permaculture class. She never mentions the word organic and does not tell of doing the common organic things to the garden (i.e. using fish emulsion and telling funny stories of dealing with the stink or some other such stories) but she used lasagne gardening. She learns to start seeds and uses a sterile potting mix instead of organic natural soil blocks with compost which surprised me. There is no talk of composting. They installed a large rainwater collection unit which is sign of an expensive attempt to do natural practices though. She therefore does not preach one right way of gardening, but I wondered if she actually does garden organically and if so why was it never discussed? Early in the book she gardened in a community plot for one season. She mentions various community efforts to grow more food and share it with the needy. She makes connections in the community regarding food bartering and creates a new network of friends that nourish her soul. She is pro-urban farming and it is written about in a light way (not pushing an agenda in an aggressive manner).

I found the book enjoyable for the gardening mostly and I rate it 4 stars = I Like It. The very thing she is upset with her mother for being: disconnected emotionally, came through in her writing about her own self which is ironic, so I can't grant it 5 stars.

This book is all about growing - and not just a garden - but people trying to sort out their lives, form attachments, relate to each other and reconnect as a family...however, if you love gardening, you will love this book!

Beautifully written, and as that German proverb in the beginning of the book states: "To bury grief, plant a seed."

As someone who grew up on a family farm, this book really spoke to me. Even though her geographical locations varied, we shared many common experiences, from raising chickens to unglamorous garden tasks such as pruning tomatoes and being overwhelmed by apples. Like my own grandmother, her grandfather married a cruel woman. Tara has a lovely way of weaving a tale, and the ability to say a lot in few words - a real gift. Her story shows that not only farms need nurturing, but people do as well. A lovely treat of a read.

- Kathleen Flinn, author of The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry and Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good

Thoughtful story of a family brought together by an abandoned house and garden. It's a long journey. Throughout we wonder if "Tea-Tea" as the niecelets call her, will ever make peace with her mother and brother. Coming from a single-parent home where her mom had to struggle to make ends meet, she wonders if the damage may not be able to be repaired. Her mother's friend comes into the picture offering insight about how people of different personalities give and receive love. There is no easy fix, but the journey is a story worth reading. I learned a little about gardening along the way.