Gardening at the Dragon's Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World

The beginning of the book is absolutely lovely sharing the history of the areas and the author's beginnings as a gardener, including her move from the the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in the Ventana Wilderness, east of Big Sur, where she started, to Marin County at the Green Gulch Farm and Zen Center. As the book continues, though, it gets increasingly detailed. So much so, that I started skipping parts in an effort to get to those portions of chapters that had information I could use in our small garden. The author's gardens are a huge undertaking and her accomplishments are amazing. While I hope to get to the end of the book, I'll never get all of it read. The writing is outstanding and the book is a testament to the author's love of the earth and gardening. A perfect version of this book, for me, would have been the beginning exactly as it is followed by a condensed version of the balance. For those who enjoy Gardening at the Dragon's Gate or are looking for a book that is an easier read, you may also want to check From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden, Amy Stewart, (no Zen) and Plant Seed, Pull Weed: Nurturing the Garden of Your Life, Geri Larkin (lots of Zen).

Gardening At The Dragon's Gate is for the Earth Starved - I love gardening and do not take the time to do it enough; however, Wendy Johnson's well written, heartfelt, intelligent, humorous, historical and motivating novel has brought me back to my own love of the earth - Each day I read it, I vow to go back to dirty fingernails and the rich taste of earth dust as I crawl around digging and planting - This book rivets you back to your own lovely moments communing with your own garden, however great or small it might be - This book is informative too. I lived in San Francisco and visited Muir Beach and the area many times - I wish I had known of Green Gulch - I plan on visiting now - Any one who has any affinity to the earth, to gardening, to eco-consciousness and to living a life near the soil of their home will be completely pleased, and engrossed in this timely and lovely rich writing and teaching of how to love, and to care for our earth, simply by loving it where ever you are -

The book is profoundly beautifully written and inspiring on so many level. Yes, there is a lot of practical advice in here for gardeners, but it also opened my eyes and heart to a more meaningful relationship between me and the little plot of earth I call my garden. So grateful for this book.

The author’s distinct voice is so enjoyable. I love the history, the long view of the actual work of growing food as a way of life and I appreciate the pages devoted to providing instruction. A must read for gardeners of any sort as well as those considering or continuing their own endeavor tending the land.

I have read this book Gardening at the Dragons Gate, so many times that the pages are a bit dog eared. It is beautifully written, by a woman who has a real love and respect for the garden, for plants and animals and insects that are in the garden. She understands how the garden is an important part of our existence and is also a place of meditation and reflection. She learned about the particular web that exists where she lives and that we must really get to know the "soil" and "community" of plants and insects and birds and Trees that live there where she lives and we do too.

This is a beautiful considered and written book about a contemplative and celebrating approach to the practice of gardening. It is both reflective and as earthy as gardening itself, with wonderful illustrations, and some history of the movement to restore organic practices to gardening in recent decades. There is also a lot of information about plants along the way. The style of writing is a bit like a most excellent and trusted friend confiding what it's been like to be gardening all these years. And it addresses the question - do we create our gardens, or do our gardens (if we're really into it) create us?

I read this book years ago while working at Southern Dharma, a silent, contemplative retreat center in WNC. I actually used to go to week-long work-studies at Green Gulch Farm (Zen Center) in the North Bay where Wendy wrote this book...so when she speaks of the land and the natural phenomena...I can draw from experience... A beautiful, heart-warming, and soulful account of a woman connecting so deeply with the land around her...

Every so often (if you're fortunate), you can stumble upon a book that resonates so deeply with your essential experience that it becomes a permanent field marker, a 'north star', for measuring the growth of your inner life.In "Gardening at the Dragons Gate" the author has gifted us with a wondrous book which cannot be pigeon-holed.....a how-to manual for life? a gardeners treatise? a Zen prayer book? Wendy Johnson has woven many beautiful strands into an enthralling, inspiring book that gently calls on us to re-connect and re-learn our place in the natural world.P.S. I have tried to purchase at chain bookstores, in order to gift others, but it is not available, so thank you, Amazon, for giving us access to hard-to-find books!

I love dragons and I am a professional gardener so it lured me to buy it - however it is specific to America and a tiny bit more 'New Age' than I was expecting. A lovely book for the right person.

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