Paths of Desire: The Passions of a Suburban Gardener

By Dominique Browning

Book Overview

With the same warmth, wisdom, wit, and accessibility that readers have come to love and trust in her monthly column, House & Garden editor in chief Dominique Browning offers this lively, charming, and instructive story of restoring a neglected suburban garden.

When a retaining wall in Browning's New York suburban garden collapsed, she was forced into action. Paths of Desire is the enchanting, amusing, and moving account of making a garden -- and confronting the essence of suburban gardening, with its idiosyncratic ecosystem. This meant struggling with depraved skunks and raccoons, marauding teenagers, plastic jungle gyms, toppling garbage cans, uncontrollable eyesores, potholed drives, and all the grinding, honking, and buzzing of the neighborhood.

Browning's delightfully frank prose conveys the very sense of being deep in a garden, with all its organic smells and textures, and the myriad joys of deciding what to plant and watching as the vision is realized. It contains a rich store of advice and illustrative anecdotes for enthusiasts and novices alike, as Browning amusingly documents the missteps she took in the planning of her garden and the satisfactions of finally getting it right. In Paths of Desire she teaches us how to embrace our plots of land -- no matter their size, beauty, or proximity to the city -- and make them our own. But she also reminds us that the life of a garden can never be separated from the people who wander in and out of it: characters like the charming but useless children; the philosophical tree doctor and the band of Helpful Men; the neighbors -- legalistic on one side, aesthetically challenged on the other -- and, best and worst of all, the True Love.

By the end of the book, Browning has transformed her garden -- and her life -- and has created a place of enchantment, which is most of all what a garden should be.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743251091
• ISBN13: 9780743251099
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Paths of Desire: The Passions of a Suburban Gardener

Dominique Browning is an accomplished writer who pulls you into her world - a world that is not always wonderful - a world with not-so-nice neighbors, recalcitrant trees and stone walls that come tumbling down with no warning. Her writing is poetic and you feel that she is a friend sharing her experiences in her garden and in her life. I have never read anything by her but based on this book, I ordered three more books written by her.

Inspiration for Suburban Transplants

As a recent transplant to suburbia and a novice gardener, I found comfort and inspiration in Browning's memoir. Her depictions of her garden-in-progress are fascinating. At times her garden seems enchanted, barely controllable, taking on a life of its own. (Especially that wisteria! I'm now warily eyeing my own twig of wisteria, which is sending out a few ominous shoots). Browning finds the extraordinary just steps away from her door. Passages about a simple pathway or a stand of trees are mesmerizing to read about. I was reminded of growing up in suburbia and finding wonder and mystery in yards that today -- or at least before reading "Paths of Desire" -- I might view as unremarkable. Browning has helped me rediscover some of that sense of wonder in the suburban landscape, and I no longer lament my retreat from the city. Her book has shown me how my own yard is a canvas filled with possibility, and yet to some degree it will always elude my control -- an idea that fascinates me even more. Browning's prose style -- at times restrained, at other times lyrical, and often shot through with whimsy -- is as lovely as her garden.

I don't even garden

I had read a review of her book in the NYTimes and am a fan of the magazine she edits, so I bought the book. I fell in love with the story of collapse, confusion and renewal. Frankly the metaphor of the garden served as many a problem in one's own life. Wrap it all up in gorgeous prose and a compelling (yes! she makes a garden wall collapse and the ensuing drama exciting!) story and I had a book , I couldn't put down. Romantic and sometimes funny it's a good read for the gardener and non-gardener alike.

Charming

Sure, there's some great gardening advice in here, but mostly it's a charming story. The neighbors, the kids, the fix-it men, the romantic crush. I got sucked right in. You're bound to recognize your own plot of land, as well as your own suburban existence. And Dominique Browning is a gorgeous writer, with a great sense of humor. You don't need to know a thing about gardening to enjoy this terrific book.

Utterly delightful

Delightful and informative. The perfect book to start reading now, as the weather starts to improve and we begin to think about the gardening work awaiting us. Dominique Browning inspired me to indulge my dreams of working in my yard. Having finished the book, I've moved on to poring over seed and nursery catalogs, just like Browning herself. The perfect remedy to the gray of late winter. I now feel as if spring is right around the corner. And there's so much to do!