Observed with a poet’s eye, deeply concerned with social justice, history, community, and the natural world, Camille Dungy’s Soil recounts the process of creating a pollinator garden in her Colorado yard, circling around her history and the history of the plants, animals and politics of the West. “I dig up a lot of awful history when I kneel in my garden,” she writes. “But, my god, a lot of beauty grows out of this soil as well.”
This is a smart, beautiful, wide-ranging book that will draw you in and change how you look at the world around you.
Soil : The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden by Camille T. Dungy, (List Price: 28.99, Simon & Schuster, 9781982195304, May 2023)
Reviewed by Robin Wood, Books & Books @ The Studios in Key West, Florida