Orchard House by Tara Austen Weaver

My first time with this author and it was a wonderful read. I like agriculture myself and am almost a full time one so this book really appealed to me. However it was much more than building a garden. It was a story of family - and a daughter who bent over backwards to reconcile with, and understand a mother whose personality was so very different from her own.

The author wants an empathising, soft, warm hearted mother. Someone who will almost gather her into her arms with a 'it will be all okay' sort of wisdom. What she gets is a rather clinical assessment of the way things could go! Tara wants to unite her brother, his wife and specially the three children into a cohesive family unit and build up memories for the children for their lifetime. This she intends to do by taking one and a half acres of wilderness and turning it into a magical garden - orchard, vegetable garden, chooks  and all.

The travails and heartbreak of gardening - weeds which are determined to thrive, floods, drought, the way gardening ties you down to a routine that never seems to let up. All these are very detailed, very descriptive and kept me wanting to know more.

I loved the easy almost conversational style of the book with its two pronged story of the family and the garden.

Sent to me by Edelweiss.