To Stand and Stare

Ecological and environmental narrative suffused with gems of practical gardening know-how

Reconnect with nature from the ground up and nurture not only your garden but your soul.

There's a lot of advice out there that would tell you how to do numerous things in your garden, but not so much that invites you to think about how to be while you're out there. With increasingly busy lives, yet another list of chores seems like the very last thing any of us needs when it comes to our own practice of self-care, relaxation, and renewal. After all, aren't these the things we wanted to escape to the garden for in the first place? Put aside the "to-do list." What if there was a more low-intervention way to garden-some reciprocal arrangement through which both you and your soil get fed with the minimum degree of fuss, effort, and guilt on your part and the maximum measure of healthy, organic growth on that of your garden?

In To Stand and Stare: How to Garden While Doing Next to Nothing, Andrew Timothy O'Brien weaves together strands of botany, philosophy, and mindfulness to form an ecological narrative suffused with practical gardening know-how. Informed by a deep understanding and appreciation of natural processes, O'Brien encourages the reader to think from the ground up, as we follow the pattern of a plant's growth through the season-roots, shoots, and fruits-while advocating an increased awareness of our surroundings.