Gardens of Use & Delight: Uniting the Practical and Beautiful in an Integrated Landscape

Thirty years ago, Jo Ann and Jigs Gardner moved their family of six from New England to a remote farm on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. In an environment wracked by extremes of weather and blessed only with thin, rocky soil, this couple wrested beauty and sustenance from the land.

Gardens of Use & Delight offers the deep pleasure of their story, one filled with the lessons of hardships overcome and the rewards of independent living. It also gives gardeners everywhere, regardless of the extent of their landscape and ambitions for it, the tools to succeed in blending garden form with function. In their charming narrative, the Gardners tell tales of hit-and-miss garden experiments, sharing boundless practical information, from recipes for homemade catsup, to successful methods of enhancing soil, to tips on roses and suggestions for flowering herbs that both decorate the landscape and season food. Additionally, Elayne Sears's stunning watercolors detail the plantings in the actual gardens, landscape, and other features that comprise the Gardner farm. Most of all, the Gardners' plant-by-plant philosophy offers lasting insight into the joys of an integrated garden. Before adding hardscape and trees and shrubs to create the "bones" of a garden, the Gardners show that the most satisfying way to develop a landscape is to let it evolve, taking time to know the contours of the land and the needs the garden must meet. As they counsel: "Life itself, combined with a love of growing things, will push you in the right direction."