THE IMPERFECT GARDEN a memoir
by Adina Sara
Photographs By Rachel Michaelsen
$22.00 / ISBN-13: 978-1-58790-160-7 / 150 pages / paperback / 5.5” x 8.5”
Gardening / Memoir
ABOUT THE BOOK
At last, a gardening book for people who are intimidated by gardening books. The Imperfect Garden, a memoir, traces one gardener’s journey as she discovers her “trash heap” of a garden, unearths blooms, bulbs, and seedlings buried by time and neglect, and eventually carves out a whimsical landscape dotted with decades of failed and successful gardening experiments. The book explores the elements of determination, disappointment, and surprise that shaped the author’s landscape and her life.
The Imperfect Garden evolved from Sara’s gardening column, “The Imperfect Gardener”—a regular feature in the MacArthur Metro, an Oakland neighborhood newspaper. As readers thanked her for giving them the courage to get their hands dirty, Sara decided to write a book that took the mystery out of gardening. The Imperfect Garden aims to inspire novice gardeners to explore, experiment, and most of all enjoy whatever humble piece of nature they have at their fingertips.
Bay Area author Adina Sara’s short fiction, essays, articles and poems have appeared in Peregrine, Cottage Gardener, East Bay Express, Oxygen, and Green Prints.
“ She taught me how to accept the death of a plant and celebrate the life of my garden… a rich, dark and nourishing compost for the soul.”
—D. Peytraud, Artist, Teacher, Oakland, CA
“Sara is an astute observer of the inner and outer life of a garden. She has a way of making the ordinary magical.”
—W. Friesema, Writer, Honolulu, HI
“This book gave me confidence to face my gardening demons.”
—P. Ferguson, zeromilediet.blogspot, Oakland, CA
“I’m not a gardener… yet. But her writing is like a garden itself, working at many levels at once. She lives among nature as a participant. You will see your garden and all of nature with a different perspective.”
—K. Percy, Oakland, CA
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