Everlasting Wonder

A new compilation of Madeleine Wilde’s ‘Notes from the Garden’ capture timeless, poignant observations.

Longer ago than I care to recall, I found “Green Thoughts, a Writer in the Garden” by Eleanor Perényi on the shelves of my local bookstore. The book, an alphabetical compendium of 72 short essays, observations, and notes is, and always will remain, a sentimental favorite as it was on Perenyi’s strong opinions, erudite language, and blunt admonishments, that I first honed my horticultural reading chops. 

Hardworking garden resources and photo-filled design titles are pragmatic and inspiring, but those books don’t lodge in my heart the way most garden memoirs do. Filled with thoughtful reflection, expert advice, and let’s face it, fellow commiseration, gardeners who write about their garden seem to see their way into our own growing spaces.

Madeleine Wilde was a gardener and a writer. Together with her husband, David Streatfield, a professor in the school of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington, Wilde tended a woodland garden above the southwest slope of Queen Anne Hill. And, beginning in the 1990s, for more than 20 years her “Notes from the Garden” column appeared in the Queen Anne & Magnolia News. I knew Wilde as a loyal nursery customer and can attest to her horticultural expertise as well as her gift for finding beauty in every sense and season.

Read the entire story in the link below
GROW in The Seattle Times

Notes from the Garden, Creating a Pacific Northwest Sanctuary by Madeleine Wilde (affiliate link)