Book Reviews

The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants by Jennifer Jewell

April 21, 2020

Should you be looking for inspiration in these challenging times, it can be found in the stories of the women profiled in The Earth in her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants by Jennifer Jewell. These are women who are reshaping the horticultural landscape with their creative and communal spirit. They are building upon the rich history of the women who came before them and forging a path for those to come.

One of Jinny Blom’s lushly layered garden designs. Photo credit: Andrew Montgomery.

Jinny Blom in her studio. Photo credit: Rachel Warne.

For many years, women’s contributions to horticulture and its allied fields has been underrepresented, a footnote in the history books. Yet, these contributions have been profound, anchored in the need to create physical space and integrate green and growing things into their lives and the lives of others. Jewell likens this communal expression of passion and connectivity “akin to mapping mycelia pathways between collaborating organisms in the soil of the forest.”

Sasha Duerr’s color palette of summer flowers. Photo credit Sasha Duerr.

These women are extraordinary, indeed. Their diverse stories transcend boundaries of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic and religious backgrounds, sexual orientation and age. Compiled as an exuberant, textured collection of individual profiles, each includes an introduction to their work, plant, plant journey and the other women who inspired and continue to inspire them. The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants provides a welcome addition to the ongoing exploration of women making their lives with plants and broadening the field of plant knowledge and practice.

The profiles are drawn from the geographic scope that Jewell, the host of the national award-winning, weekly public radio program and podcast Cultivating Place: Conversations on Natural History & the Human Impulse to Garden, knows best – US, England, Ireland, Wales, Canada, Australia, India, and Japan.

Midori Shintani at work in the meadow garden at the Tokachi Millennium Forest. Photo credit: Shogo Oizumi.

Their innovative work is ongoing and broadly relates to horticulture in all its iterations including botany, environmental science, landscape design/architecture, flora culture, agriculture, social justice, plant hunting and breeding, seed science, gardening, garden writing, garden photography, public garden administration, research and public policy.

Ira Wallace. Photo credit: Eze Amos Photography.

Ira Wallace, founding owner and worker of the sixty-acre Acorn Community Farm in Charlottesville, Virginia grew up gardening with her grandmother in Tampa, Florida. Ceramic artist and potter, Frances Palmer of Weston, Connecticut grows up to 50 varieties of dahlias and teaches at the New York Botanical Garden. Midori Shintani is the head gardener of the Tokachi, Millennium Forest in Hokkaido, Japan. Jinny Blom is a British garden designer and writer with an international clientele. Australian Georgina Reid is the editor and founder of The Planthunter, an online magazine. Renee Shepherd is a nurserywoman and the founder and owner of the web-based, Renee’s Garden.

Renee Shepherd. Photo credit: Caitlyn Atkinson.

Each comes from wildly different worlds and perspectives, but they are bound together by their passionate embrace of and advocacy for plants.

Vandana Shiva. Photo credit: The Seeds of Vandana Shiva, vandanashivamovie.com.

While Jewell acknowledges that, “there is no telling the whole story of women making their lives with plants or of women broadening the field of plant knowledge and practice” The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants is a welcoming reminder of the historic role that women have played in horticulture. It is also a celebration of the vibrant women forging new paths in horticulture and its allied professions today.

Frances Palmer in the studio. Photo credit: Jane Beiles

In the generous spirit of community that pervades Jewell’s sensibilities, I thought it would be fun to share some of the books that inspired the subjects of her profiles. You may, like me, be dipping into your past to revisit some of your favorite garden writing to get you through this difficult time. Enjoy.

A cascading hand-held bouquet capturing the lush profusion of spring—clematis, ranunculus, geum, narcissus, fritillaries, foliage, and a nod to the past with a spray of dried hop bracts. Photo credit: Christin Geall.

In no particular order: Once Upon a Windowsill: A History of Indoor Plants, Tovah Martinson (2009); A Modern Herbal, Mrs. M. Grieve (1931); Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land, Leah Penniman (2018); Flourish, Willow Crossley (2016); Silent Spring, Rachel Carson (1962); Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden, Eleanor Perenyi (1981/2002); Gardening for Love, Elizabeth Lawrence (1988); Constance Spry Book of Flower Arranging, Constance Spry (1985); Planting in a Post-Wild World, Claudia West (2015); Garden People, Valerie Finnis (2007); The Apple Book, Rosie Sanders (2010); We Made a Garden, Margery Fish (1956); The Garden Primer, Barbara Damrosch (1988); Onward and Upward in the Garden, Katherine White (1979); The Dry Garden, Beth Chatto (1995); A Country Year: Living the Questions, Sue Hubbell (1986); Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World, Emma Marris (2015); The Japanese Garden, Sophie Walker (2017).