Becoming a Gardener
What Reading and Digging Taught Me About Living
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Narrated by:
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Janina Edwards
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By:
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Catie Marron
About this listen
A personal account of what it means to become a gardener.
To make her new house in Connecticut truly feel like home, Catie Marron decided to create a garden. But while she was familiar with landscape design, she had never grown anything. A dedicated reader with a lifelong passion for literature, Marron turned to the library of gardening books she’d collected to glean advice from a variety of writers on gardening and horticultural topics both grand and small.
Marron’s quest to become a gardener, however, was about more than learning the basics about mulch or which plants work best in the shade. She sought something far more elusive: to identify the core qualities and characteristics that make a person a gardener and an understanding of what a garden could mean to her as it had to multitudes of other gardeners over the centuries.
In Becoming a Gardener, Catie Marron chronicles her transformation into a gardener over the course of eighteen months, seeding the details of her experience with rich advice from writers as diverse as Eleanor Perényi and Karel Capek, Penelope Lively, and Jamaica Kincaid. As she digs deeper into her readings and works in the garden itself, Marron not only discovers the essence of gardening but in the words of Michael Pollan, “the endlessly engrossing ways that cultivating a garden attaches a body to the earth.”
A delightful blend of informed opinion, personal reflection, and practical advice, Becoming a Gardener explores topics as varied as the composition of dirt, the agricultural wisdom of avid kitchen gardeners George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, the healing power of digging in the soil, and the beauty of finding solitude in nature. Throughout, Marron carefully plants special illustrated features, such as musings on the merits (and detriments) of the rose, essential tools, moonlight gardening, children’s books which feature gardens, and her favorite gardens around the world. Also included is an annotated list of recommended writers, books, and films related to gardens and gardening, and a monthly to-do calendar.
Becoming a Gardener is a very special and moving portrait of life and the enduring power of literature and nature that is sure to become an instant classic.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Catie Marron (P)2021 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall
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From the author of the acclaimed The Brother Gardeners, a fascinating look at the founding fathers from the unique and intimate perspective of their lives as gardeners, plantsmen, and farmers. For the founding fathers, gardening, agriculture, and botany were elemental passions, as deeply ingrained in their characters as their belief in liberty for the nation they were creating. These stories reveal a guiding but previously overlooked ideology of the American Revolution.
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"Outstanding Listen"
- By C. on 05-06-11
By: Andrea Wulf
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The Cottage Fairy Companion
- A Cottagecore Guide to Slow Living, Connecting to Nature, and Becoming Enchanted Again
- By: Paola Merrill
- Narrated by: Paola Merrill
- Length: 2 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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The Cottage Fairy Companion is your accessible and beautiful guide to mindful living. It teaches the fundamentals of cottagecore style through the practices of The Cottage Fairy’s daily life.
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Gentle soul
- By Jacqueline Gonzalez on 12-08-22
By: Paola Merrill
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The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating
- By: Elisabeth Tova Bailey
- Narrated by: Renee Raudman
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Elisabeth Tova Bailey tells the intimate and inspiring story of her year-long encounter with a snail. While an illness keeps her bedridden, she becomes an astute and amused observer of the snail's surprising nocturnal adventures as it lives in a flowerpot on her nightstand. Intrigued by the snail’s clear decision making abilities, hydraulic locomotion, mysterious courtship, and molluscan anatomy, Bailey takes the listener deep into the life of this tiny amazing animal. With wit and grace, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating recounts a remarkable journey of human and gastropod survival and resilience, and shows how the natural world illuminates our own human existence. Winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for Nonfiction, the John Burrough Medal Award for Natural History, and a National Outdoor Book Award. If you enjoyed Wesley the Owl, The Guest Cat, and Marley & Me, you'll enjoy this unique interspecies audiobook listen.
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This is an unexpected wonder. The quiet virtues of the snail reflect the quiet voyage of the author.
- By Frances on 08-03-15
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The Triumph of Seeds
- How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses & Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History
- By: Thor Hanson
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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We live in a world of seeds. From our morning toast to the cotton in our clothes, they are quite literally the stuff and staff of life, supporting diets, economies, and civilizations around the globe. Just as the search for nutmeg and the humble peppercorn drove the Age of Discovery, so did coffee beans help fuel the Enlightenment and cottonseed help spark the Industrial Revolution. And from the fall of Rome to the Arab Spring, the fate of nations continues to hinge on the seeds of a Middle Eastern grass known as wheat.
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Delightfully simplistic!
- By Adrian on 03-30-16
By: Thor Hanson
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Uncultivated
- Wild Apples, Real Cider, and the Complicated Art of Making a Living
- By: Andy Brennan
- Narrated by: Brett Barry
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Long before the advent of conventional farming methods - which have focused on constant growth, human intervention, and genetic homogeneity - the apple had already grown to become the ubiquitous all-American symbol it is today. Known for their hardiness, ability to adapt to new environments, natural diversity, and plentiful bounty, wildly grown apples were once known as “America’s fruit” throughout the trading world.
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Hardship of small business
- By Montie E. Milner on 12-19-24
By: Andy Brennan
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Song of Increase
- Listening to the Wisdom of Honeybees for Kinder Beekeeping and a Better World
- By: Jacqueline Freeman
- Narrated by: Jacqueline Freeman, Robin Wise
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The most joyful emanation produced by a colony of bees is known as the "song of increase" - declaring that the hive is flourishing and the bees are happy in its abundance. Song of Increase takes us inside the world of the honeybee to glean the wisdom of these fascinating creatures with whom humanity has shared a sacred bond for millennia. Within these minutes is a bee-centric approach to living with honeybees, rather than advice for simply maximizing the products they provide.
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Couldn't Get Past the First Few Chapters
- By Stephen Hopper on 06-10-17
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Seedfolks
- By: Paul Fleischman
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 1 hr and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Thirteen lives. One garden. Set in Cleveland, Newbery-Award-winning author Paul Fleischman's poignant book is a large lesson in connectedness and community for all. When a derelict vacant lot is gradually transformed into a community garden in inner city Cleveland, the people of this community find their differences are less apparent and their isolation dissolved. Performed by thirteen multicuturally and age-authentic voices, this audiobook is designed for listeners of all ages.
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Excellent to listen
- By Rina on 10-12-09
By: Paul Fleischman
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The Bucolic Plague
- How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional Memoir
- By: Josh Kilmer-Purcell
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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A happy series of accidents and a doughnut-laden escape upstate take Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his partner, Brent Ridge, to the doorstep of the magnificent (and fabulously for sale) Beekman Mansion. And so begins their transformation from uptight urbanites into the 200-year-old-mansion-owning Beekman Boys. Suddenly Josh---a full-time New Yorker with a successful advertising career---and Brent find themselves weekend farmers, surrounded by nature's bounty and an eclectic cast.
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Selling your dream and name dropping
- By Mark on 09-13-12
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Poemcrazy
- Freeing Your Life with Words
- By: Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
- Narrated by: Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Following the success of several recent inspirational and practical books for would-be writers, Poemcrazy is a perfect guide for everyone who ever wanted to write a poem but was afraid to try. Writing workshop leader Susan Wooldridge shows how to think, use one's senses, and practice exercises that will make poems more likely to happen.
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Her Words, Her Voice...
- By S. Schultz on 11-21-14
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The Biophilia Effect
- By: Clemens G. Arvay
- Narrated by: Kyle Hebert
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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The audiobook edition of the best seller in Germany, The Biophilia Effect transforms our understanding of our interconnection with nature - and shows us how to engage the natural world wherever we live for greater health, inspiration, rejuvenation, and spiritual sustenance.
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Patchy narration repairs.
- By tobymugg on 08-13-18
By: Clemens G. Arvay
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The Fruit Hunters
- A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession
- By: Adam Leith Gollner
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Tasty, lethal, hallucinogenic, and medicinal - fruits have led nations into wars, fueled dictatorships, and even lured us into new worlds. Adam Leith Gollner weaves business, science, and travel into a riveting narrative about one of the earth's most desired foods.
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Interesting world...
- By Henry Scalfo on 07-16-08
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The Art of Travel
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Aside from love, few actvities seem to promise us as much happiness as going traveling: taking off for somewhere else, somewhere far from home, a place with more interesting weather, customs, and landscapes. But although we are inundated with advice on where to travel, few people seem to talk about why we should go and how we can become more fulfilled by doing so.
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Dull, suggestions for better alternatives
- By J. Natael on 08-07-13
By: Alain de Botton
What listeners say about Becoming a Gardener
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Vas Sladek
- 12-07-24
Author does the research for wannabe gardeners
Another book born during the pandemic. The question is good: can you become a gardener? Of course you can. Marron did her research on other famous gardeners and sometimes it reads like a school essay project. I don't recall too many great lessons but I am printing the pdf so I can look up the other famous gardeners and writers.
The annual garden task list is helpful for new gardeners. I wanted to see the bibliography.
At 85% off the regular price, it was a good listen. Don't waste your full credit on this.
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- Teresa
- 10-30-23
Lovely but ultimately slight
Perfect thing to listen to while working in the garden but I doubt this one will stay with me.
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