Tara Austen Weaver

If you like stories about gardening, food, family gatherings and a dysfunctional mother daughter relationship, this memoir has it all. As is the way with all opposites, Tara Austen Weaver and her feisty mother have never really taken the time to get to know each other. Having just bought a big old timber house, with half an acre of overgrown garden in Seattle, Tara hopes to finally make a home for herself, a home that family and friends will fill. Restoring the garden back to its full production of fruit trees and vegetables starts a journey for both these women. Family gatherings, a sense of community and being able to please her mother are things Tara has craved all her life. I liked the way she refers to her mother as a hummingbird - never at rest, always working! Now, working together, it's the garden and its demanding control over them that starts to work some magic. I'm going to miss my daily fix of reading this excellent memoir.… (more)

A lyrically written memoir about how Tara Austen Weaver grew a garden and in the process came to peace with herself, her family and the tough childhood that left her mother distant and estranged from her daughter. Throughout her adult years, Tara has an on and off again relationship with her mother and brother and they do not see each other often. In her 70's her mother decides to move the same city as her children and buys a home and garden which Tara attends to. In the long journey of becoming a master gardener Tara's mother, and in some ways, her brother, come to count on each other, respect each other and just accept that while their relationships might always be fraught and somewhat difficult that this is OK. The gap between them unexpectedly narrows as they spend time nurturing the common space, the home and garden, between them and make it beautiful and sustaining.

As a city dweller with little interest in gardening I found myself happily immersed in the lengthy and gorgeous descriptions of the fruits and vegetables that grew and the complicated and rewarding work it took to make this happen. My favorite part of the book was to watch Tara create a strong and loving "family" of friends and neighbors. It seemed to me that this gave her the sustenance to wade through her feelings of hurt and isolation from her own family of origin and create the close, authentic relationships that she was longing for. I think it also allowed her to accept that her mother and brother might always be more remote than she wants but that was not because she was flawed or unlovable and that there are many places to go for love. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this book.… (more)

I loved this story of a single woman searching to build a warm and nourishing family structure through gardening. When her mother buys a house in Seattle with a huge yard, Tara joins her in restoring the yards into vegetable gardens, orchards, fruit vines, and meadows. I don't usually use cover blurbs, but this one is so perfectly descriptive: " For everyone who has ever planted something that they wished would survive - or tried to mend something that seemed forever broken -- [Orchard House is a tale of healing and growth, set in a most unlikely place."

I love the promise of a garden, like Tara I rarely think ahead to the pounding work of the summer garden, the urgent cry of fresh produce needing attention, the relentlessness of the weeds. Like Tara I am seduced by the promise of beauty and sustainability, the taste of the fresh tomato, and joy of a child eating strawberries. This book resonated with me because I could see myself getting sucked in to this huge, time-consuming project. I can see myself falling for the magic.

Recommend this book to anyone who loves the garden, is interested in the food culture of Seattle, or who would like to heal a family.… (more)