Life feels so full and continuous each day," she writes, "and then without any warning, despite all the relationships, appointments, investments of time and emotion, it can vanish, leaving only a lull where a life was." She ends the chapter in a hopeful vein, noting that "a vital part of gardening is learning to trust change."

Ackerman is as intimate with the wildlife that visits her garden as with the sumptuous palette of plants she uses. Her description is often completely fresh: Roses, for example, "mumble scent." She characterizes the ambiguous color of her favorite rose, 'Abraham Darby', as variously "orangey-cream tinged with pink," "a lightly stirred mix of apricot, pink and yellow" and "sunrise colored." Her memory of this particular rose's "sense-drenched smell" in winter leads to a brilliant sketch of famed gardener and author Gertrude Jekyll. She writes that Jekyll "had a breathtaking gift for sensuality." The same can be said of Ackerman.

There are also wonderful cameos of Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Muir, as well as Johnny Appleseed. Ackerman displays a genius for using her experiences in her garden as well as her tenacious, omnivorous intellect to get to the heart of delight.

I plan to begin rereading Cultivating Delight in January, savoring a chapter a week over the year. But I will cheat a little and start my New Year with the brilliant last page, which begins, "I want time to pool, not race, but tonight I'm madly impatient for the growing season to begin." It ends with the words "...and the air tastes green at last."


Unoriginal and uninspiring...   December 8, 2001
 18 out of 21 found this review helpful

Diane Ackerman says, "I must confess, I am not a master gardener by a long shot, nor even a particularly expert one." In CULTIVATING DELIGHT, Ackerman proves this by sharing the contents of a journal she kept following an accident in which she was struck by a motorist while riding her bicycle. DELIGHT is not a gardening book, it is a synopsis of a journal kept by a convalesing writer who happens to have a garden.

Ackerman lives and gardens in Ithaca New York, home of Cornell University and one of the most beautiful and idyllic college towns in the United States. In her book, Ackerman describes her life of privilage: swimming in her backyard pool with friends; riding her bike around town, along the lake, or into the countryside; collecting roses from her many and various garden beds (1,500 roses over the summer); resting in the bay window of her study to watch wrens house hunt and breed or hummingbirds whom she has named Ruby and Gizmo stop by for a snack from one of the various feeders she has hung; shopping at craft fairs; stopping by the garden center; and myriad other tasks.

Ackerman uses the four seasons to stucture her book--an overworked device that fails (A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SENSES was much better organized). A few passages are good--she's somewhat eloquent when it comes to describing birds--but mostly I found her writing irritating and repetitive. She too frequently makes use of cliched phrases and/or awkward metaphors. As an avid reader of books on gardening and nature, I found her thoughts unoriginal and uninspiring.

I recommend one consider resisting the beautiful cover of this book (which is relatively original and apparently matches the colors in the wall paper in Ms. Ackerman's study), and read THE INVITING GARDEN by Allen Lacy. Or if you are looking for book on gardening that is truly profound, try Jim Nollman's book, WHY WE GARDEN.


An inspiring book, a sheer delight.   November 8, 2001
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Ackerman's rich prose is a bridge to a world of discovery. Her insatiable interests travel in so many directions, combining the lyrical language of the poet with the precision of the scientist. Her ruminations on life and nature are especially charming. She's a wonderful combination of poet, naturalist and gardener. An inspiring book, a sheer delight on every page.


A total delight.   November 7, 2001
 6 out of 9 found this review helpful

I'd never read anything by this author before, but I read several appreciative reviews in magazines and thought I'd give her latest a try, hoping it might make a nice gift book for gardener friends. I'm so glad I did. It surpassed my expectations and is a total delight.