Listen to the Land

In Mountain Brook, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham, homes are often passed from one generation to the next. Such is the story of Louise Agee Wrinkle, who remembers her childhood at 2 Beechwood Road, when there was little more than woods, a bridle trail, and a brook. As a child, she called the property The Jungle because it was so overgrown. Today, that land features a well-cultivated woodland garden. Wrinkle shares memorable stories of her youth, her return to the property as an adult, and the sometimes funny, sometimes harrowing trials and successes of tending a natural woodland garden. Any gardener will appreciate her efforts and the wisdom she imparts.

Although this book concerns a specific garden in a specific place, the challenges and joys of grappling with unexpected weather disasters (who thinks of blizzards in Alabama?), insects, stubborn soil, weeds, drought, flood, sun, frost, microburst, tornado, and the ravages of time itself will be familiar to any gardener. With surprising wit and humility, Wrinkle shares with us her responses to all these challenges and the changes she has made over the last 35 years, giving credit to those people who collaborated and contributed to its development. The book includes the author's annotated list of plants she has encountered--both successfully and unsuccessfully--which stands alone as an invaluable resource for the field.