What does a garden mean? Or perhaps I should say “What does it mean to you?”
In The Green Fuse (Reaktion Books, 2025), author Peter Dale takes you on an ethereal journey through British gardens in an effort to look at what’s “taken for granted in gardens, and in finding meaning in these places where conventionally it is commerce, fashion or leisure pursuits that generally hold sway.”
There are 18 essays in all, from “Mazes and Labyrinths” to “The Garden as Theatre,” “Garden Follies,” “Gardens and Music,” “The Garden Party,” and many more. And of course he finishes with “Peter and Pan.”
It’s a book to take your time with, a book to savor, and a book to keep on your shelf forever.
You don’t have to have a separate book for trees, shrubs, fungi, wildlife or birds that you might encounter in the garden.
In The Everyday Naturalist (Ten Speed Press, 2025), naturalist Rebecca Lexa has written a book that’s really a toolkit for identifying animals, plants, and fungi, no matter where you go.
She explains how to record key traits, characteristics such as shape, color, texture and more that will teach you how to classify nature or identify specimens wherever you happen to be.
Small Amazon commissions earned for book sales.
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