Book Description

Memoirist Heather King rented an apartment in a large Craftsman bungalow in Pasadena, CA. Shortly after moving in, she single-handedly cleared the back lot, then designed and planted her first garden. She learned the horticulture rule of thumb for California native plants: "Year One, they sleep; Year Two, they creep; Year Three, they leap!" She navigates garden pests, noisy neighbors, and the concept of ownership. Four years in, she writes of the struggles and joys of maintaining a garden that is not hers and that could be plowed under at any moment. But as the Scottish site-specific sculptor Andy Goldsworthy says, "All of life is a labor of love that we must leave, whether we want to or not, for the sun to melt, the tide to wash away, the earth to reclaim."