The Gardener's Year

By Karel Čapek

Book Overview

Karel Capek's The Gardener's Year is a timeless classic of wit and wisdom, sure to capture the heart and imagination of every gardener--indeed, everyone who has pursued any hobby with a passion that occasionally overrides good common sense. Originally published more that fifty years ago in Czechoslovakia, it transcends the years with grace and ease. Whether Capek is talking about the lack or surfeit of rain, the fruitless search for space to plant just a few more perennials, or the unfathomable mystery of the green thumb, his words strike chord upon chord within every gardener, in every time and place. Fifty-eight sprightly drawings by Karel Capek's brother Josef Capek, lend themselves perfectly to the artful simplicity and humour of this book.
Through the year, Capek does battle with the garden hose, learns the value of patience in spring, prays to the Lord for rain (but only on certain parts of the garden, please), buys far too many plants at every opportunity, curses raspberry canes that invade from his neighbor's garden, routs stones from the soil (they seem to grow from spores), and agonizes continually about the garden while he is on vacation in August. In short, Karel Capek is a gardener, timeless, with all the frailties, hope, and boundless optimism necessarily shared by all gardeners. After the sun sets, he leans on his spade and sighs with deep content: "I have sweated today "

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0299100243
• ISBN13: 9780299100247
• Release Date: August 1984
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.5" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Gardener's Gentle Humor

I bought this book for a friend, as a gift upon her achieving Master Gardener certification. I expected something a bit different, a bit more practical, perhaps, but after leafing through the pages, I read the entire book before I gave it to her. Written by the man known to most of us as a European author of the early 20th century on more weighty subjects, this man's witty description of himself as the sometimes manic master of his small domestic garden both amuses and somehow comforts those of us who share his enthusiasm. I laughed long and loudly at Capek's description of what ensued from his planting of the seeds from just one packet, at the many dozens of little plants in little pots, all of which became bigger and bigger, and had to be taken outdoors, finally, to find places in a tiny garden patch. This is a short book, with short chapters, just right for picking up in odd moments during the winter months when we are only dreaming about the coming of gardening season once again.

Lowdown on Gardeners

This is the best book about gardeners I know of. With grace and humor, this book delightfully explores the glories and foibles of serious amateur gardeners. Any garden nut who reads this book without laughing and almost crying over this inciteful outing of the gardener's soul is a callous person indeed.

The best-ever essays on the GARDENER and Garden!

I'll make this short. These essays are simply the best ever about the act of gardening and the gardeners themselves. Anyone who has ever tended a garden for any length of time will immediately relate to the situations and the people in these writings. They are humorous as well as accurate. You'll laugh at yourself and your friends through these wonderfull essays.