整个花园以不同种类的植物为人们所着迷，它们迎合了其他的园丁们，同样也为鼓吹者所痴迷。本书——就像他们的花园——充满了其他生命所留给它们的痕迹。

阿尔. 拉利姆，“阿姆斯特的教练和一个热情的紫丁香花爱好者”，他的收藏品已经有成千上百，他们从克里斯. 芬德生，一位传奇的新汉普郡园丁那儿得到他们第一批灌木，那时他只有三十岁，瓦特露德和艾克接受了一份礼物——传说中的喜马拉雅蓝罂粟。并且，正如来自园丁的礼物倾向于做的，如果加以适当的珍爱，那些稀有的皇冠繁殖起来了，变成几十倍的惊人的植物。

The garden grows as they are drawn to different kinds of plants, and as they meet other gardeners and propagators as obsessed as they are. The book – like their garden – is full of the traces others’ lives have left on theirs. Al Lumley, “the track coach at Amherst and a passionate lover of lilacs,” whose collection runs into the hundreds, they got their first bushes. From Kris Fenderson, a legendary New Hampshire gardener by the time he was in his 30s, Winterrowd and Eck received a gift of the fabled Himalayan blue poppy. And, as gifts from gardeners tend to do, if properly cherished, those rare crowns multiplied and became several dozen breathtaking plants.

正是对日常的园艺劳动的叙述才使这本书如此感人。佛蒙特的冬天又冷又长，要保护稚嫩的玫瑰是一件艰苦的工作，将沉重的花盆移进花房，还要捆扎、覆盖、护根。即使在春天事情也不轻松，在准备蔬菜园子的时候，“垄沟必须整了，堆肥和石灰被用桶装来，第一批种子必须被撒下。”我的手指被霜冻弄得发麻。越冬的标记被涂在地上以限制过道，然后用草盖上。不过这些只是些杂事，被很容易地分着做了，很多年来，这两个人的生命的关键部分都在一起播种。

It’s in the description of the day-to-day labor of gardening that this book is so moving. The Vermont winters are long and brutal. It’s hard work to protect the tender roses, to move heavy pots into the greenhouse, to wrap and cover and mulch. Things don’t get easier in spring, when it’s time to prepare the vegetable garden, “when rows must be turned, compost and lime bucketed in, and the first seeds sown.” My fingers turned numb in frostbitten empathy. The winter’s catalogs are spread on the ground to define walkways, and then covered with hay. Yet these are chores that are shared, easily and gladly, a vital part of two lives sown together over many years.

在这本漂亮的书里透露了无数乐趣。蔬菜园出现了金芹菜、紫色球芽甘蓝和菊苣。“它们的茎可以被撕开，浸在冰水里，直到其蜷曲，然后与橄榄油、大蒜、香醋和许多捣碎的凤尾鱼搅合在一起。”芳香的荚莲枝干、垂柳、蓝莓被浸在水的深处。六月份，种植在盆里的玫瑰集中和散布在整个房子。三月份，紫藤花近在厨房的窗户，让人觉得“午饭后的洗涮是一种竞相争夺的特权。”关于那棵冬青树，在二月，它那干枯的浆果吸引了成群黄色和紫色的松雀。“那是我们看到那些鸟的唯一一次，我们坐在厨房的桌边…… 高兴地看着它们。”

And the pleasures revealed in this beautiful book are countless. From the vegetable garden come golden celery, purple Brussels sprouts and puntarelle, “the stems of which you can slit and soak in ice water until they curl, and then dress with olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar and lots of mashed anchovies.” Branches of fragrant viburnum and willow and blueberry are forced in the depths of winter. In June, roses are gathered and floated in bowls throughout the house. In March, a wisteria flowers near a kitchen window, so that “washing up after lunch is a privilege to be fought for.” About that ilex: in February, its dried berries draw flocks of yellow and purple grosbeaks. “That is the only time we see those birds, and we sit at the kitchen table… gladly watching them.”

花园以它的要求和馈赠给出了它们的生命结构，它的规则是周期性和可预见的。“它实际上教导我们热爱我们生活的每一天，除此之外，人们不能从花园那里要求更多的爱。”我们也不可能对一本讲花园的书要求更多，除了为我们显示：为什么这种爱是如此之多。

The garden, in its demands as well as its gifts, gives their lives structure, an order that is seasonal and predictable. “It actually has taught us to love every day of our life. One cannot ask more of love for a garden than that.” and one cannot ask more of a garden book than to show us why this love matters so much.

(From the New York Times Bookreview2010)