Growing Pains: Time and Change in the Garden

Citing a ``mid-life crisis'' in American gardening following renewed growth in the hobby of horticulture over the last 10 years, Thorpe ( America's Cottage Gardens ) suggests what those of us who are caught in crisis ought to do about it: reassess our work and make some changes. And ``it really doesn't matter how your design or lack of it came about,'' she reassures, because ``you understand more about your landscape than you did.'' Thorpe focuses on, among other things, ``cutting back or cutting down,'' on coming to grips with plants that haven't thrived and probably never will, on adapting old ideas of scale that now won't do (``a small bed of tiny shrubs may not look ridiculous at first. . . .'') and on how to deal with the growth of shade over passing years. Her book is conversational, thorough, witty and grounded in landscape history, as well as in the aesthetics of gardening. Thorpe will be appreciated for her literate swing and for her realism: ``Maturity, in the garden or out of it, should not bring an end to anticipation. Until you have tried zizia or schizanthus, you can't claim to have seen it all.'' Garden Book Club main selection . (Apr.)