My favorite gardening books for winter are those that make me stop and reflect on what I’ve just read. They also bring back fond memories of my garden through vivid descriptions or show the evolution of the author’s garden complete with maps. Lilactree farm is a book that does all three. It also has a bit of wit.

It’s becoming harder and harder to find garden books that are primarily written, rather than illustrated. They used to be collections of newspaper columns or essays (Henry Mitchell [affiliate link]), but now they’re the best parts from the Lilactree Farm Garden Notes email newsletter that Brian sends out six or seven days a week, just before he opens his garden.

Full disclosure For several years I received Notes and liked them so well that I asked for permission to reprint them. You can view them here. I’ve visited his garden . The back cover of minding the garden includes an excerpt from my review of his previous book .

This is the first gardening book I’ve seen with this kind of structure. The notes are arranged in season order, regardless of the year that they were written. Maps of the garden appear throughout the book, allowing you to see how the garden has changed and grown over time. Each passage is numbered, but the subject matter remains a mystery. The length can vary from a couple of paragraphs to several pages. This book is perfect for those waiting rooms at doctors’ offices, car repair shops and airports where you don’t know how long it will take. You can read it whenever you have the time.

Gardening as an artistic creation

Brian calls gardening the “most demanding of all arts”. He sees parallels with poetry, novels and concertos. His thoughts on the relationship between garden and other art forms certainly made me think. Do I want to tell a tale with my garden design? Do I want my garden to provoke a reaction from the “readers”, those who come and visit it? Employing a designer for a garden stifles the voice of the gardener? How natural is a garden? How can I strike the perfect balance between serendipity, and control? It’s so satisfying to think about these things as the wind howls and the snow swirls!

Gardening with the heart

What if you are not a deep-thinker? Brian has plenty to offer you. He is a true hands-in the-dirt gardener who frets about the lack of rainfall, waits anxiously for the return of a transplanted flower, grows trees out of seed, even though they may not be hardy in the area where he gardens and fights lily bugs. “In this spring, it was beyond blissful to be alive”, he says. He also enjoys gardening on a more intellectual level. He writes with vivid imagery–“Martagon Lilies…wander…like an invading force that has lost their maps”.

Planting in the Cold

Brian gardens in Canadian Hardiness Zone 4b which is roughly equivalent to USDA Hardiness Zone 3. You’ll need a pen and some paper if you live in a cold climate to note down all the plants that Brian grows. Most notably, seed-grown trees, clematis, and even seed-grown trees are not supposed to survive there. The peonies that line the Blue Bench Walk are all self-sown seeds. I didn’t know this before. Imagine species peony seeds sprouting in your garden. Imagine enough to cover both sides of 30m (98ft), a path.

It’s worth noting that Brian’s garden is sandy, as opposed to my heavy clay. This may be why the martagon lilies at Lilactree aren’t as “borderline” invasive here. It’s possible that the excellent drainage is what allows his plants to survive the winter.

You might be lucky and find a book on gardening that includes at least one garden map. Minding The Garden provides 11. Yes, I did count. Brian thinks that “the art is garden design is a process of undoing previous errors.” He views his garden’s evolution as “a story of setbacks, failures, and successes as much as they are of success.”

I have no idea what I am doing in my own garden either. It comforts me, however, to know that passion and ignorance can produce a beautiful and enjoyable garden. You have to be passionate. You must be aware of what you are doing. Oh! Minding The Garden : taking care of it, tending to it, and thinking about it. All the information is in this book.