Chicago Botanic Garden

Education — Lenhardt Library

Current Books & Book Reviews

PHOTO: bookcover

Lisa Taylor.
A Taste for Gardening: Classes and Gendered Practices.
Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, 2008.
cloth, 218 pp., ISBN 978–0–75467–221–0, $99.95.

A scholarly look at gardening from a media standpoint is the thrust of this analysis of the impact of class and gender on modes of gardening in Britain. This topic may be of interest to British sociologists and the news media, but Taylor's research findings are based on an inquiry of only 21 gardeners (12 women and nine men). One might argue that this sample is far too small to draw elaborate conclusions on gardening, class, and gender. A much broader and diverse sample might have made the conclusions of the author more compelling.

— Marilyn K. Alaimo, garden writer and volunteer, Chicago Botanic Garden.