Gardening for a Lifetime: How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older »

Sydney Eddison has written six other books on gardening. For her work as a writer, gardener, and lecturer, she received the Connecticut Horticultural Society’s Gustav A. L. Melquist Award in 2002; the New England Wild Flower Society’s Kathryn S. Taylor Award in 2005; and in 2006, The Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut’s Bronze Medal. Her garden has been featured in magazines and on television. A former scene designer and drama teacher, Eddison lectures widely and continues to teach a course on color at the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York.

Sooner or later, every older gardener faces a similar challenge. At some point, we all find ourselves asking “If I can’t get out there and dig, plant, and prune as I used to, what am I going to do?”

The garden has been an everyday part of Sydney Eddison’s life for over forty years. It has witnessed the changing of seasons, her greatest joys, and her deepest sorrows. The garden and the gardener have aged and changed together. Gardening for a Lifetime is a touching memoir about having to scale back after widowhood and painful joints made it impossible to keep up with a large country garden.

Intermixing personal experience with practical gardening tips, Eddison has written an encouraging roadmap for accepting and embracing a new and simpler way of gardening. Elegant black and white illustrations evoke Eddison’s everyday joy, sorrow, and contentment in the garden. Gentle, personable, and practical, Gardening for a Lifetime helps transform gardening from a list of daunting chores into the rewarding, joy-filled activity it was meant to be.

The New York Times - Dominique Browning

[Eddison's] a perfectionist, and her book is really about learning to let go, to find satisfaction in simplicity…I half-dreaded reading this book, expecting it to depress me, but it's full of cheer.

Acknowledgments 9

Preface 13

1 A Look Backward: Tracing the Garden's History 17

2 Changes: Rethinking the Perennial Borders 27

3 A Step Toward Simplicity: Substituting Shrubs for Perennials 39

4 Minimum Care: Appreciating the Shady Border 47

5 Woodland Gardens: Living in Harmony with the Forest 57

6 Sanity Saver: Learning to Make Lists 69

7 Juggler's Dilemma: Searching for Help 79

8 Lessons from the Garden: Accepting Imperfection 91

9 From Lawn to Meadow: Learning from Experience 103

10 Pick Your Battles: Managing Mature Plants 115

11 What Next? Deciding Whether to Stay Put or Move On 127

12 New Gardens: Keeping Them Small and Simple 139

13 Borrowed Landscapes: Using the Garden Setting 153

14 Container Gardening: Arranging Potted Plants with a Purpose 163

15 Miniature Landscapes: Exploring New Ways to Garden 175

16 A Summing Up: Making the Most of What You Have Left 189

Index 197