From seed to dust

"The garden belongs to everyone who looks at it - it's like a book, and everyone who visits it takes something different away."

Imagine a beautiful large garden. Deep red hydrangeas bow to creeping yellow roses, daffodil bands climb dahlias, tulips tie a pink turban on their heads under the golden sun. An old ornamental lake is overlooked by a torn cloud. At the back, the trimmed lawn becomes a meadow of wildflowers, and anyone who goes further, beyond the wetlands in the corner, would be surrounded by mature maples and beeches. But nobody goes in this garden. The lady is away or looking out of the kitchen window and the only person tramping between the beds is the aging bearded gardener. His name is Marc Hamer, and until recently, he's been trapping moles over the winter.

The book From Seed to Dust is actually a sort of manifesto of gardening Zen and an encouraging talk about living in harmony with nature. Where there is no crying ego, something else has a chance to emerge in the resulting void. Maybe luck. Then all you have to do is spot a swift, stroke a nutmeg or watch an elderly neighbour and you're not missing anything.

Put your hands in the ground, just watch quietly for a while and see what happens

Marc Hamer has designed and tended the same five-hectare garden for more than twenty years. Few people go there, so he is the only person who knows all its secrets - but they don't belong to him. His relationship with the owner is both distant and surprisingly intimate, imbued with the mysterious connection between two people who share the same space in very different ways.

In this unique book, Hamer takes us month by month through his experiences working in and out of the garden, with the changing seasons bringing new plants and animals to the fore and leading the gardener himself to reflect on his own past and future. In the author's peaceful and meditative narrative, we learn about gardening folklore and wisdom, the joys of working with one's hands, his journey from lonely homelessness to family contentment, and the cycle of growth and decay that governs not only garden life but ours as well