Tending the Earth, Mending the Spirit: The Healing Gifts of Gardening Paperback – October 10, 2012

I would have loved to give a great review to this book and author, however the content is repetitious and frankly boring. I can spare your reading the book by telling you what is in Tending the Earth. Plants and gardens are good. They bring people closer to nature and elevate the spirit. Everyone needs to nurture a plant or garden. Gardens are good for your health, physical and mental. A garden can be of any size or a public garden that you never do anything in. Gardens give you emotional peace. And so on, over and over. Being a gardener who tends large extensive gardens, I can tell you that it is healing and peaceful. Gardens can also be a lot of work, aggravating, and frustrating. That is never mentioned. The rewards are great, but we can sum that up in this review. The little poems at the beginning of the chapters are the best thing about the book. Just not very interesting. Frankly boring after the first two chapters of repetition.

Connie Goldman's radio experience shows through in this book-it's not a book written about gardening, or even a book written by Connie Goldman about the spiritual aspects of gardening. Rather, it's a book written by gardeners-many of them. Using the words expressed by numerous gardners in interviews with her, the author allows regular people to voice what it is about gardening that makes them so passionate about it. If you've ever gardened, you'll find yourself crying "yes-that's it" over and over as you read the book. A wonderful gift, for yourself or another gardner.

This was a birthday gift for my younger sister. Due to an illness, she has been helping get to my doctor appointments, driving me to the store, and, she helps remind me to take my meds. and,(Because I have trouble communicating and remembering ) she has the patience to listen. I chose this book because she loves to garden and with all the help she has given me, I thought this a wonderful meditative read.

I like what I have read so far. Gardening has always been a multi-therapeutic activity and this book relates. Perfect for anyone with a spiritual link to nature.

Back in the 1960s, Eddie Albert starred in a tv show called "Green Acres" about a city slicker who moved to the country with his classy wife and tried to become a farmer. The show was funny, but I did not know until I read TENDING THE EARTH, MENDING THE SPIRIT by Connie Goldman and Richard Mahler, that Albert was a bona fide garderner--big time.Goldman and Mahler have interviewed dozens of gardeners all over the U.S. (some like Albert, May Sarton, and Lama Surya Das are famous, and others not), and asked a fundamental question, "Why do you garden?" The answers they gathered together in this book are not surprisingly different. Rich and poor, famous and not so famous, most folks find gardening a way to restore the spirit and flex the soul.Gardening leads to the contemplation the meaning of life. Real gardening is not a war with bugs, it's a practice that reflects one's growing awareness of the creator's handiwork. The authors note that some Eastern mystics think the gardener is the last reincarnation. The gardener is acutely aware of the cycle of life, the intricate web of connectedness between and among all living things. The gardener knows human beings are not the center of the universe, and that all living things are precious. It would seem one is nearer God's heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth.And, the earth is the Garden of Eden. It seems we weren't thrown out afterall. It's just that we fell from grace and many of us are unable to recognize the garden is still all around us. Original sin is the egocentric destruction the garden. We were charged to be stewards, but we often behave like naughty children smashing our toys. And, sadly, most humans may not recognize this truth until it's too late--the enemy is us.How do humans change and reconnect with the Garden of Eden? The authors tell of kids and adults turning garbage strewn lots into green spaces in the center of the city (Thank you Bette Midler and The Trust for Public Land). They interview the infirm, physically handicapped, mentally challenged--all of whom have been helped through gardening. They talk to older folks who've moved to apartments or retirement homes, and found restoration in a potted plant in a windowsill, a container garden, or a small plot they tend on the grounds of their new logdings. They tell of prisoners and inmates in mental hospitals grow better after they are provided with access to a garden. And, they interview the average gardener who lives with the ordinary loss, pain, and stress of daily living. More than one over-taxed soul has been restored by reconnecting with nature.As Lama Surya Das, says "Gardening gets us back to the source from whence we came." The garden allows one to act like an innocent child again, to celebrate the sense of awe and wonder. Gardening allows you to find your origins as a human being--to find your real roots.This is a HAZELDON book--wonderful for anyone in recovery.

Perfect. Arrived in time. The book ticks perfectly all the boxes of what I was expecting.

It becomes quickly apparent that this book was written by a journalist. It's nothing more than a compilation of interviews.