UPDATE: We have a winner! It’s Liz Genovese, with this comment (chosen at random): “Remember the days when having the most correct and most beautiful place settings was a thing? Gardening has suffered the same history. Hooray for those women who helped break the mold. I want to read their stories and share with my garden club.”
It seems so long ago now but I do remember that Marianne and I were excited to hear Jennifer Jewell talk about her new book – The Earth in He Hands – 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants – at the Smithsonian.
That was in late March, so you all know what happened to the event. At least I was able to hear our colleague Tom Christopher’s excellent interview with Jennifer about the book – the interview that convinced me I really should read the book because it features such an interesting and diverse assortment of women and career paths.
How do these women “work in the world of plants?” By owning nurseries and garden centers, collecting and selling seeds, heading up public gardens, advocating for urban gardens or farming, photographing and writing about gardens, designing gardens, and working as horticultural therapist, scientist, garden educator or historian.
Regionally, the 75 women are from across North America and the U.K., Australia, Japan and India, where Jennifer found Dr. Vandana Shiva. She’s “a celebrated international leader in environmentalism, ecofeminism, and agroecology.” Despite my lifelong feminism, I was ignorant of any “eco” version, and asked Jennifer to enlighten me by email. She wrote:
“As for ecofemisim, it is a philosophical approach to seeing the demeaning/degrading of women and the feminine principles/energies/bodies in the world as being hand in hand with the demeaning/degrading/extractive mindset humans tend to have to the earth – and that both set of problems are born of the patriarchal mindset. That if you change that mindset and its attendant power and abuse of power, both the earth/environment AND the state of/quality of life of and respect for women the world over improve dramatically. This is a mainstay of the work of Vandana Shiva.” So now we know!
The 75 women also represent a wide range of ages, though the book doesn’t reveal their actual ages. I applaud that editorial decision.

Photo by Rob Woolmington
Now it’s time for some serious name-dropping! I loved discovering in the book all these women I actually know, starting with the ones in my area: Susan Pell, Beth Tuttle, Ira Wallace, Claudia West and Cindy Brown. Then there are the ones from elsewhere whom I know or have at least met: Lorene Forkner, Mia Lehrer, Marta McDowell, Debra Prinzing, Margaret Roach, Rene Shepherd, Flora Grubb, Annie Hayes and, of course, GardenRant co-founder Amy Stewart.
A writer I’ve never met but would dearly love to is Jamaica Kincaid, who to my surprise is wearing a “I can’t breathe” T-shirt in the book. I hadn’t realized that the phrase became a meme back in 2014 after the killing of Eric Garner.
About GardenRant!!
But back to Amy Stewart, one of the 75 “extraordinary women.” Amy’s profile covers her biographical journey and her many books but also quite a bit about GardenRant:
“Beyond her books, she has helped catalyze change in the horticultural world through the energetically irreverent GardenRant blog platform, which injected the field with some much needed (often female) sarcasm and deep critique of its precious and often-elitist posture.”
“In 2006 Amy cofounded GardenRant with garden writers Susan Harris and Michele Owens, and later, Elizabeth Licata. For its tenth anniversary Amy describes the new undertaking as ‘a modest little idea we had to stage as a horticultural revolt. We were tired of what the mainstream gardening media had to offer—warmed-over garden tips, repurposed press releases about the ten thousandth new coleus on the market, dull little essays about the wonders of spring—and we were convinced that bloggers could overthrow the gardening establishment. Like all good revolutionaries, we began by writing a manifesto.
“The manifesto began ‘We are convinced that gardening matters.’ To Amy,it was critical that for gardening to matter, gardeners had to “get out of the lifestyle section and as far away from home decorating as possible. We’re talking about how we interact with the plant kingdom, not how to choose a throw pillow. This shit is important! We’re flabbergasted at the idea of ‘no maintenance’ gardens. Gardening is something you do. It’s not something you buy and arrange around the exterior of your home in between fluffing the aforementioned throw pillows.’
“GardenRant was a compelling twist in gardening conversations that leveraged the new powers of the socially connected digital world to disrupt the gardening-as-consumerism model. Amy describes the beginning, recalling,’You could not say things critical of a company, or any-thing like “I f ***ing hate nandinas and they should be banned.” It was so boring.’ GardenRant opened doors in garden communication and addressed a blind spot for plantspeople that needed attention.'”
Thanks, Jennifer, for that nice reminder of our origins and for finding so many other women for us put on our radar and be inspired by.
Win the Book
Just post a comment here (or on our Facebook page) about why you want the book, and we’ll choose one at random. The deadline is a week from Monday – July 13.
In the meantime, check out Jennifer’s award-winning podcast Cultivating Place: Conversations on natural history & the human impulse to garden. It’s sooooo good. And learn about Jennifer here.
I’m on a ecology, feminism, multicultural, reading binge, I see see no reason to let up now! Bring it on. Can some crafty artist draw Durga with garden knives?
Would love to read about these women and add some of their inspiration and strength to my own gardening efforts!
I would love to have the book. I volunteer garden with a lot of women. I have never met a gardener that was a bad person.
I’m a novice gardener, just getting started on my first vegetable bed. I’d love to read about other women who can guide my journey.
I need this book!
I would love to read this book!
I love wild and crazy garden women and want to get to know more.
I don’t have enough garden books yet!
Would love to have the book for my granddaughter (11) who is getting interested in plants and ecology
My focus this year has been reading books written by women authors. I especially enjoy reading about strong women who may be making a difference in small yet significant ways. We don’t need to be splashy to have a positive impact! This book is definitely going on my list!
I’d love to know more about these strong plant-minded women!
I sure hope Ruth Stout gets mention in this book! She was my original gardening inspiration long, long ago.
Thank you. I find that chaos gardening (gentle chaos) is a heartening concept. I will try a plant three times, and if three times it doesn’t take,well, ok then. I will likewise find out what it is that has volunteered and, if it’s native and plays well with others, then it’s a keeper. Always learning. Thanks for offering this book to one lucky reader. The rest of us can use our libraries!
Agreed that gardening needs to get away from home decorating. I’m thinking about pollinators, dammit.
So many women here that can inspire me to get out there and sweat. I’ve been wanting this book for a while.
Remember the days when having the most correct and most beautiful place settings was a thing? Gardening has suffered the same history. Hooray for those women who helped break the mold. I want to read their stories and share with my garden club.
Wow, this book sounds amazing! So many names I don’t know so I will have to get my hands on it. Thanks for Garden Rant and the reminder about your origins.
The need to pass on information before I passeon is important to me. This book will help me cheerlead, guide, and show the potential to the young people in the circle of land stewards in which I sit.
Sounds interesting and I would like to read it. Will donate to my local small public library for others to enjoy.
Oh how fun! If I don’t win, I’ll surely buy this beauty. I am new to gardening and this is the first year I am really getting going – and I. Am. Obsessed. 😀 I would love to learn about women who are working with plants and scoop up all the ideas and inspiration and happy green vibes I can. Thanks for the opportunity!
Would love to win this book. I always enjoy learning more about how other gardeners work their 1st love.
The photo of Jamaica Kincaid convinced me that I need to read this book.
This book would make an excellent gift for a decades-long friend who has become, over time, my garden “mentee.”
Would love to have and read this book.
I love Garden Rant and I think it is a great photo of Jamaica Kincaid.
I’ve been trying to expand and diversify the gardeners that I have knowledge of. This book looks like a great opportunity to continue to do this.
The one good thing about 2020 (and there are not many) is that I found ‘Cultivating Place’ and have become a J. Jewell fan. I’m looking forward to reading her book at the beach this summer.
“Gardening is something you do. It’s not something you buy and arrange around the exterior of your home in between fluffing the aforementioned throw pillows.’
LOL. This is why we love Amy Stewart and all the writers on Garden Rant. I am posting this by my computer to remind me the next time I write a gardening article.
A book about strong women and gardens? Sign me up!
I would love to win this book. All too often, women in horticulture have been brushed over.
I would love to read about how these women dug their way forward in the gardeneing world!
Sounds like a shot of inspiration we all could use at this point in our troubled world. Count me in! And if I don’t win it, I’ll buy it!
I stumbled upon gardenrant.com after moving into my house here in Richmond VA. I’ve learned a lot from your emails and my garden has benefitted! I love to read and I love to garden so I need this book! Thanks.
Many woman gardeners have inspired me over my life, some in person, some in the pages of books. As a landscape contractor and employer of several women (and men) gardeners, I hope I inspire them as well. I love Cultivating Place; it is a podcast I listen to sometimes while working on a job as it almost always teaches, inspires and makes me feel part of this larger community of gardeners.
I would love to read this book about women in horticulture, I have been a gardener most of my life and have worked in the field for over 25 years. I have met many wonderful, strong women and would love to read about others.