Date: Fri 01-Dec-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: ENIDJ

Quick Words:

Eddison-winter-gardens

Full Text:

w/cut: A Book About The Improbable: Winter Gardening

B Y  A MY  D 'ORIO

Open up Sydney Eddison's latest book and you will get a gardener's view of

winter in America.

It introduces you to people like Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman, who

manage to get vegetables from their garden even when the ground is blanketed

with snow.

Readers will be shown around Lynden Miller's gardens, which look good any

season because she planned it that way, and they will meet up with gardeners

who stop growing plants in the winter, but still maintain a connection with

nature through crafts.

"The thing that gives the book body is that the people are really, really

interesting," said Mrs Eddison, who will be signing her new book, The Unsung

Season: Gardens & Gardeners In Winter , at The Book Review from 1 to 2:30 pm

Sunday, December 3.

"I am really certain it is one of a kind," said the Newtown resident.

On the theme of winter, little has been written about American gardens and

gardeners, especially those in cold-climate areas, she said. Most of the

well-known books on winter gardening focus on gardens outside of the United

States, she said.

The Unsung Season is also special, however, because it is done in

quintessential Eddison style.

In all of her gardening books, Mrs Eddison, in a clean, clear style, has

written as much about people as gardens, bringing the culture around this

pastime alive.

"(Writing about people) is what I like to do best," she said.

Her book consists of a string of stories about individual gardens and

gardeners that lead seamlessly, one into another. The challenge, she said, was

to make sure all the stories had a connection and related to one anther.

The book is broken into several sections. One section focuses on how several

gardeners have brought their passion indoors during the winter.

Planted For Winter is a section on how two gardeners have used woody plants to

embellish the winter landscape.

Other sections focus on flower shows, working with dried flowers, and how some

gardeners extend the growing season.

To complement the stories, pictures have been provided by Kent garden

photographer Karen Bussolini. She also is the reason the book was written. Mrs

Eddison said Ms Bussolini kept urging her to do a book about her garden in

winter.

Mrs Eddison dismissed the idea of focusing solely on her own garden, but liked

the general idea. However, she said she did not feel confident about the

project until one day, while in the bathtub, she drafted a strong outline. She

said she never revised or strayed for it.

Mrs Eddison noted that the words of gardener Joanna Reed, who is featured in

the book, also inspired her. Ms Reed advises that people back into their work,

so they look at what they have accomplished and not what they need to do. It

is her trick to avoid being overwhelmed.

That advice kept her motivated.

Mrs Eddison has published two other books, A Passion for Daylilies and A

Patchwork Garden , which features many gardeners from this area.

Prior to that, she published fiction and taught theater at various schools in

the area. All along, she has been cultivating an enormous, gorgeous garden in

her corner of Newtown's woods and has been at the hub of the local gardening

scene.

Currently, Mrs Eddison is working on a book for beginning gardeners. She is

also contemplating writing a sequel to A Patchwork Garden .

The gardens featured in that book have changed immensely, she said. It would

be interesting to detail how and why.

As for this book, she said she is getting good reviews from people. "Everybody

has mentioned somebody different (from the book). I hope and think that there

is something there for everyone," she said.