Grounding: Finding Home in a Garden

A deeply moving book that begins in shadow - with a recently-bereaved mother under threat of eviction - and becomes a light-seeking, hope-giving exploration of what it means to cultivate a garden, a life, a legacy, at a time when so many of us will forever rent, never own, the ground we hold dear. Exquisitely-written and full of tender feeling... It is a book like a secret garden, opening doors onto alternative ways of growing and grounding a life -- Tanya Shadrick We all make our little utopias in our gardens, our attempts to reclaim memories we never had, the futures we hope for implicit in seasons of growth. They are perpetually renewed, here too, in Lulah Ellender's elegant prose and her gathering of personal histories and defiant rites, as the author proposes that optimism which is the garden, our lives, our homes, our hopes, reborn again and again -- Philip Hoare There are turns of phrase to die for in GROUNDING, and I felt like I was given a guided tour through the gardens of others by Lulah's curious eye. A much-needed book that offers a deep and moving insight on motherhood, letting go, and how our gardens can help us -- Alice Vincent, author of Rootbound I read GROUNDING as I moved through a period of deep uncertainty; leaving my first garden to step towards a great unknown as a new mother with my small family in tow. Ellender's words delivered such solace; a quiet, soothing reminder that we make home through the way we spend our days - each season we pass through leaving its mark on us - allowing our story to unfurl. This story is one of resilience, honesty, hope and healing. Ellender leads us by the hand through all the gardens we both know and do not; reminding us that to sow is a way to carve a life out of uncertainty; to make room for the returning light, always -- Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author of The Thin Places An intimate exploration of what it means to be rooted in place and of how a garden can become a safe haven in uncertain times -- Sue Stuart-Smith, author of The Well Gardened Mind As Lulah sows, deadheads and weeds she explores her feelings of place and identity, fear and loss. A lyrical delve into how gardening literally roots us to places and helps us look towards an uncertain future with hope -- Kathy Clugston, presenter of BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time An admirer of Ellender's debut Elisabeth's Lists, I also much enjoyed this beguiling blend of memoir and cultural history, in which she describes how she found deep solace in her Sussex garden, even with the threat of eviction from their rented home hanging over her family. While her first instinct was to stop cultivating altogether, she soon went back to putting down roots, even though she knew she might not see the shoots emerge. The result is an absorbing meditation on the reasons that any of us gardens, which had me longing for spring (and ordering a shedload of seeds) -- Caroline Sanderson * Bookseller * Beautifully capture[s] just how important our own patch of ground is to our sense of identity * Daily Mail * Wonderful ... Filled with such a love, such an ache, the child-like need to be understood, the human urge to foster growth -- Jen Campbell * Toast * Glorious... I've read a lot of gardening books... but I've read very few as moving and literary as Grounding * Observer *