Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 9, 1992 TAG: 9202090268
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by TONI WILLIAMS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
POLLAN'S `SECOND NATURE' HARVESTS SOME PHILOSOPHICAL MUSINGS FROM THE GARDEN
SECOND NATURE. By Michael Pollan. Atlantic Monthly. $21.95.Do not look to this book for handy gardening tips. It's a series of philosophical musings and reflections on the role of gardening as a bridge between nature and culture.
Michael Pollan, executive editor of Harper's magazine, examines various topics with grace and insight. On weeds: "Burdock . . . holds the earth in a death grip." Lawns: "A lawn in nature under totalitarian rule." Slugs: "a naked bullet of flesh." Green thumbs: "Your own failures will seem more bearable if the other gardener has a gift from the gods." Trees: "To plant a big tree is to throw a big shadow across the future of a place."
Humor is generously laced throughout, as in the author's "Vietnam approach" to pests, where he attempted to burn a woodchuck in its burrow, or in his account of his father's capitulation to the neighbors' pressure to mow his unkempt lawn, whereby he mowed his initials into the knee-high weeds with his Toro. But several segments are likely to be to arid for the casual reader-gardener, such as that on colonial attitudes toward the landscape.
Particularly enjoyable is the chapter on seed catalogs, where Pollan has divined social distinctions among the melange. "Wayside Gardens" appeals to the sophisticated, snobbish gardener; and "Burpee" or "Park" to the all-American, middle-class family. Patronizing certain companies can reflect our environmental or political consciousness, he contends. "Spend a few quiet winter nights with these not-so-quiet catalogs, and you begin to see that, just beneath its placid surface, the garden is buzzing with social and political controversy."
Toni Williams writes from her home near Natural Bridge.