Barbara Damrosch is the featured keynote speaker for the, Camden Garden Club, "Edible Gardens & Bountiful Tables” Expo. Tickets are now on sale for the July 17 event. Go to: camdengardenclub.org/2025-garden-expo for your ticket and to read all the details.

Last October, “Downeast Magazine” interviewed Barbara Damrosch about her life and her new book. Her opening quote from the article is so compelling that it bears repeating,

“When my Italian honey fig started making fruits so full of sweet nectar that they would plop into my outstretched hand,” she writes inA Life in the Garden(Timber Press; hardcover; $40), “I was quick to tell the greedy rooted tree, ‘Go ahead. Take over my little greenhouse. Take over my life.’ That could happen with a tomato. Or a melon.”

“Go ahead…take over my life.” Her request of nature is fulfilled in the creation of Four Season Farm, her masterpiece, created by her and her husband, Elliot Coleman. The beauty of her life choice is that she can not wait to share it with you.

Here is a sneak preview:

When visiting Four Season Farm in April, Barbara was asked about the work involved in gardening year-round, as she and Eliot have advocated. Her answer is practical and makes sense.

“It’s not that difficult to do a cold frame or a little greenhouse that will allow you to grow cold-hardy crops over the winter. For many gardeners, spring is this frenzy of getting the soil ready, starting the seeds, planting them, keeping them watered and weeded. And then there’s the canning and freezing afterward. But if you spread it out over the months, you’re not starting every crop simultaneously. I make some tomato puree and freeze some corn and peas, but I don’t go crazy. Doing it this way doesn’t necessarily mean more work — you’re just spreading it out instead of having it all at once and taking over your life.”

Your writing is always accessible and engaging. How is this book different from your other “Horticulture How To’s?”

“The reader is welcome to garden alongside me. It is not a memoir but a personal look at my life and growing my own food. It is practical DIY that, I hope, will seduce gardeners, cooks, and small-scale farmers. I find a sense of empowerment in the garden, and the importance of a partnership with the real expert: nature."

Here is what is being said about  A Life in the Garden(Bring your book or buy it on site from Left Bank Books and Barbara will sign it for you.)

“Barbara Damrosch has saved from extinction the art of the personal essay. Not since Charles Lamb have we had such enjoyable reading. She makes kitchen gardening an imaginative experience.”

—Daniel Hoffman, 22nd United States Poet Laureate.

“The Queen of organic growing…a human search engine when it comes to questions about gardening and cooking.”

—Heidi Julavits, The New York Times Style Magazine

“This is a wonderfully informed how-to guide on nearly every aspect of backyard veggie growing, though it’s cleverly disguised as simply a leisurely stroll through the garden.” 

—Booklist