The Last Garden

Writer Liza Ketchum invites the reader on a gardener's personal journey that begins and ends in Vermont. In settings as varied as the Adirondacks, a New York suburb, coastal Florida and Oxfordshire, England, she profiles the gardeners-mostly women, but occasionally men-whose techniques and wisdom influenced Liza's life in the garden. These early relationships shaped the gardens she created in a high mountain town; in a pocket-sized city yard surrounded by concrete; and finally, in The Last Garden of this memoir. Readers will meet members of Liza's family, as well as memorable gardeners such as Nancy Lancaster (famed for her English Country Garden style), fine artist Arthur Jones, and organic gardener and educator Helen Haskell. Liza shares the ways that gardens have provided beauty, comfort and inspiration throughout her life, during periods of change, loss, and renewal. Bobbi Angell's detailed, monochrome drawings illustrate the specific plants that trigger memories of Liza's life in the garden.