Most of his chapters begin with something actual – a task in hand – before the moment is dug over into a philosophical-ish aperçu. All are well made; some read true, others are squishier. The formula is much repeated. There seem more than enough insights – a glut of soft fruit – and too many come to rest in descriptions of their describe ... A good chapter retells the life history of an aphid, then, nearby, Hamer imagines himself a raindrop; on another page he’s the Minotaur. It adds up to a whole heap of curious self-regard in a book ostensibly about the need to shred the self.
... chronicles the final year he spent as the sole hired gardener on a country estate before trading his pruners for a laptop to focus on his writing ... What Mr. Hamer suggests, without quite spelling it out, is that while life is short, it can seem longer if we pay attention ... It sounds like a diminishing comparison, though in Mr. Hamer’s prose, seeing is itself an act of imagination. As the world emerges from lockdown and more of us resume our distracted lives, his quality of perception is an ideal worth remembering ... an invitation to read this world as Mr. Hamer does—with a close eye to what changes, and what does not.
Hamer here turns thoughtfully to the complex of plant and animal life he encounters over one calendar year in the 12-acre garden in Wales that he has worked for two decades, full time, for its elegant, wealthy, somewhat detached owner, the widow Miss Cashmere ... Which might be all that any humble gardener could wish for.
Hamer showcases his intimate knowledge of the natural world. The book is organized by season, resembling a diary of a year in the garden. It’s a lyrical reflection on days spent with hands in dirt and decisions based on close observation of the weather ... As the year unfolds, Hamer reflects on the cycles to which all living things are bound. Little happens in the narrative, save for the dramatic living and dying of all things, but Hamer’s careful eye for detail and deep knowledge of the garden’s dozens upon dozens of plants are used to great effect, creating a lush landscape into which a reader can disappear. In Seed to Dust , Hamer invites readers to join him in quiet meditation on the earth.
A lyrical if navel-gazing memoir of this time working as a gardener in Wales ... Hamer frequently refers to the authors he’s reading (Sebald, Bukowski, Rimbaud) and his own poems, and writes in a luminous prose ... Such beautiful descriptions come often, but the effect is spoiled by Hamer’s unrelenting man-of-the-earth posturing ... by the end, it’s overpowering. Still, gardeners and armchair philosophers will find his musings strike a chord.
