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Steve Bates' The Seeds of Spring; Lessons from the Garden Reviewed By Allan Becker of Bookpleasures.com
http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/3094/1/Steve-Bates-The-Seeds-of-Spring-Lessons-from-the-Garden--Reviewed-By-Allan-Becker-of-Bookpleasurescom/Page1.html
Allan Becker

Reviewer Allan Becker: Allan has been designing and planting flower gardens, since he was a teenager in the 1960's. Now retired from the soft goods industry, where he held several positions in design, product development, and marketing, he has turned his passion for gardening into a second career, as a garden designer for private clients in Montreal, Canada.


In spring and summer, he provides his assistants, most college students, who transform his designs into flower gardens. In winter, he reviews books on garden-related topics for Bookpleasures.com and writes a Gardening Blog.

Allan earned a B.A. from McGill University, followed by two years of studies in design at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia). He lives in the Montreal suburb of Cote St. Luc, Quebec with his wife and travels regularly to Toronto and Boston to visit his children and grandchildren.




 
By Allan Becker
Published on December 26, 2010
 

Author: Steve Bates

Published by CreateSpace

ISBN 13: 978 1453869352

In this collection of inner dialogues, Steve Bates shares the thoughts that ruminate through his mind as he gardens and toils.




Author: Steve Bates

Published by CreateSpace

ISBN 13: 978 1453869352

Click Here To Purchase The Seeds of Spring: Lessons from the Garden

I have just taken a philosophical journey through the mind of a gardener over the span of one growing season. In this collection of inner dialogues, Steve Bates shares the thoughts that ruminate through his mind as he gardens and toils. This intimate conversation with self begins with the ordering and sorting of seed packets, and continues through the planting of the garden, its care and maintenance, the pests and obstacles that must be overcome, the disappointments and the rewards, the harvest and ends with the onset of the winter frost. Every decision, strategy, concern, and disappointment that the author experiences, becomes fodder for philosophical musing. With each challenge that he faces, he discovers a little bit more about the power of nature, about life and human nature and ultimately, about himself.

This is no ordinary gardening book. Its premise is that even the most routine activities in the garden can provide deep insight into happiness, love, humility, pride, life and death. While the author has a narrative to offer about nature’s sustainability, what speaks most to this reviewer is the exquisite use of poetic language used to describe gardening and the human response to the rhythms of nature. The author has at his disposal, a bushelful of adjectives and metaphors that succinctly convey that very personal pleasure and disappointment that we gardeners experience. Many of us try to put that feeling into words when we blog. No one has yet done so as successfully as Mr. Bates. A book lover might decide to read this publication a second time, to appreciate the subtle beauty of the writing.

From the author’s experiences, we learn that there are powerful lessons about life to be gleaned from gardening. That, in essence, is the theme of this intimate book. If we follow Mr. Bates on his philosophical journey, we discover that our gardening education begins with a sense of wonderment about nature, and continues with the development of pride and satisfaction in one’s work, followed by the building of confidence in decision making, a tolerance for imperfections and a new patience for acts and behavior that are beyond our control. We learn about the double edged sword of anticipation, hoping that something good will happen, yet prepared for the worst. We come to understand that the true meaning of compromise is that sometimes we will make the right decisions and sometimes the wrong ones and that every disappointment is a learning experience. Above all, we realize that there will always be a second chance in life to recover and to try again. The kernel of wisdom to be found in this gem of a book; is that gardening exposes us to the nobility of human nature.

Click Here To Purchase The Seeds of Spring: Lessons from the Garden