The Wildest Places on Earth: Italian Gardens and the Invention of Wilderness (Merloyd Lawrence) Book

In the hearts of the elaborate Renaissance gardens of Italy, writes essayist John Hanson Mitchell, lie small patches of untended ground, overgrown with moss and tangled undergrowth, called boscos. These wild patches are there to remind us of the untamed country that lies far outside the city walls, the abode of wild animals, where wilderness experiences are to be had for the adventurous traveler. A veteran of many such experiences, Mitchell counsels that wilderness does not teach us much about how to live in and with nature; such lessons lie closer to home, for, he writes, wildness "lurks in the wilder corners of suburbia, or even in cities, and exists as potential even in some of the most barren, devastated environments."

In The Wildest Place on Earth, Mitchell travels to Mediterranean gardens, writing of their meaning and history. Heeding his own counsel, he also sticks close to his own home, restoring a hardscrabble New England farm called Scratch Flat, building mazes and trellises, and exploring the lessons that making a garden offer a student of the natural world. Though his efforts at environmental philosophizing tend to be underdone, his dedication to gardening is evident, and his account of that hard but rewarding work may inspire like-minded readers to take up their trowels. --Gregory McNamee