Henry Mitchell on Gardening (ISBN 0395878217)

Amazon.com Review:
This posthumous offering from one of America's great garden writers is a gem of a book--not a polished one, for polish was never Mitchell's goal, but brilliant nonetheless. His writing is earthy, rich, and sometimes dark, like good compost. His topics are occasionally raw (as in onions and manure) and always lively. It's hard to write about anything for some 25 years and remain fresh, but Mitchell managed to do it. One especially wonderful piece addresses the amazing mystery of plant loss in a small garden. Where could they possibly go? Mitchell decides that neither neglect nor forgetfulness is the culprit, instead attributing the loss to theft: "I have known cases in which somebody stole something like 'Desdemona' and then, in a cowardly way and probably in the dead of night, sneaked back in the garden and put it back in some strange place." This is one of the best collections of short garden pieces around, a fine introduction to Mitchell's work for those who haven't yet discovered his work and a necessary addition to the collections of those who already love it.

An excellent read:
This book, the third collection of gardening essays from the late Henry Mitchell, again demonstrates why he was so respected. If there were ever a garden author you would expect to find holding forth over a beer at a neighborhood bar, daring anyone to start an argument with him, it would be Henry Mitchell. A man of strong opinions on almost everything to do with gardening and life in general, his commentary is always trenchant and pithy. Although it is still an excellent read, this collection does not reach the heights of the first two from the same author. Mitchell's first collection (`The Essential Earthman') was long out of print but is now available again. His second collection (`One Man's Garden') is also available. I'd recommend anyone not familiar with Mitchell's writing to read one of those before diving into this book, but only because they are so good, not because this one is bad. As with his other books, there is a lot of practical advice crammed into these pages, especially for city gardeners. Non-city dwellers may sometimes find the urbanocentric view disconcerting, but never uninteresting. If you are looking for a "how-to" book or a step-by-step guide, this isn't it. But if you want a book that gives you the "feel' of gardening, this one's for you.

The last great collection...:
Well I wish it weren't so, but this book is probably the last collection of essays by Henry Mitchell. It was compiled posthumously by his wife and contains the essays he did not include in his two books THE ESSENTIAL EARTHMAN and ONE MAN'S GARDEN. Although one might assume these essays are inferior, they are not, they are simply the ones he wrote after he published his two books which were collections of his essays to that point. As Allen Lacy says in the introduction, "For a couple of decades, the luckiest gardeners in the nation were those who subscribed to the Washington Post and ...on Thursday...could turn to Henry Mitchell's "Earthman" column. I can remember a rival column at the time, written by Jack Eden, and while Eden would be spraying for insects and dumping tons of fertilizer on his lawn, Mitchell dug up his lawn and turned it into garden. The essays are arranged by season--a collection of random writings that appeared in monthly columns in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His writing is warm, witty, and a joy to read on a cold winter day or in the middle of summer sitting on the patio with a tall glass of lemonade. He covers a variety of plants, grown in his own yard from those solid citizens--roses, peonies and irises--to the esoteric banana trees in pots and lilies in his horse trough pond. In one essay on plants that make their own elbow room, he writes of Agaves in pots that simply crack the sides when the pots become too small, the lotus that eventually sends tubers far beyond the tub, and the water lily that ran a hole in the side of the tank and escaped. The book is lovingly illustrated by Susan Davis to whom he dedicated the book, and Allen Lacey has written a very nice introduction. Mr. Mitchell died in the early 1990s but his essays are as fresh and wonderful today as they were the day he wrote them. I love his books and wish I had originally bought them all in hard cover as I have read them over and over.

Simply, the best gardening writer ever....:
I had spent many years reading Henry Mitchell's gardening columns in "The Washington Post," one of the greatest joys of that particular paper, and I was crushed by his death. How exciting to find anthologies of his columns! I've tossed the old, yellowing clippings of several columns that I had kept over the years. A wonderful reading experience, and wonderful stories (i.e. the hound and the clematis). Pity the folks who offered poor reviews and hope that their eyes will be opened.

When it's too cold to garden, this is a fair substitute...:
I was compelled to comment, as I noticed one reviewer felt that the book had no merit whatsoever. I would disagree completely. Mitchell's book is a wonderful and relaxing read and can be quite informative, if in a offhand sort of way. The only bad thing about the book is my envy. Mitchell had so many more options in his zone 7 garden in DC, than my zone 4 in Minneaopolis. Regardless, it's a very nice read in the evenings.

Annual (and Perennial) Pleasure:
Every year, at the dreariest moment of winter, one of life's great morale boosters is to unshelve a book on gardening by the great Henry Mitchell for some self-indulgent wallowing in his witty and highly knowlegable musings on gardening and nature. "Henry Mitchell on Gardening," published in 1998, was the writer's last book, regrettably. But nine years after its publication, its homey philosophy and unending practical advice about gardening have lost none of their zing and crackle. This book and its predecessors, "The Essential Earthman" and "One Man's Garden," largely consist of Mitchell's columns from The Washington Post, but they approach serious literature in their wonderful use of the English language and their warm-hearted and optimistic attitudes toward living. For those gardeners more interested in plant specifics than memorable prose, Mitchell provides endless comparisons of plants species, types, etc. and much, much advice on how, why, where and when to plant them. In my opinion, no one writing on this subject has ever come close to the books of Henry Mitchell.