“Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening” by Carol Wall

c.2014, Amy Einhorn Books $25.95 / $28.95 Canada 295 pages

Every day, all spring and summer long, you try to go to bed.

First is the flower bed, with waves of yellows, pinks, and reds. Then there’s a garden bed filled with the promise of lunch. Sheets of plants make the beds you love.

hadn’t known the appeal of such a bed; in fact, she hated plants until she met someone who taught her not to. In she spills the dirt on a friendship that changed everything.

No doubt about it: the Wall’s yard needed TLC.

Dick Wall hated mowing, so the grass was wild and overgrown. Trees needed pruning, holly scraped the windowpanes, and azalea bushes – which Carol Wall – stood in defiance on one side of the house. That’s how it was on that March afternoon when Wall noticed her neighbor’s new gardener.

She knew that the man worked with Sarah at the local garden shop, and he made Sarah’s yard flourish. If he could do magic there, Wall imagined that he might at least be able to dig up those detested azaleas. She asked if he could work for her and, within days, Wall met Giles Owita.

He was slender and gentlemanly, with a brilliant smile and calming demeanor that contrasted with Wall’s tendency to worry. He had a deep understanding of horticulture – she was later embarrassed to learn how deep — and despite her overwrought ideas for what he called her “compound,” he knew what she wanted more than she did.

And thus, a fifty-something West Virginia white woman became friends with a middle-aged emigrant who hailed from Kenya.

As the seasons passed and Owita delighted Wall with garden surprises and lessons, their friendship grew like the plants they tended. Owita supported Wall through breast cancer and the death of both her parents. Wall came to the rescue of Owita and his family during his health crisis. Theirs was an easy friendship, but Wall sensed reluctance from the Owitas to relax.

They were quiet and reserved. They never burdened anyone with their problems and were embarrassed when they had to accept help. Wall could never understand why – until she learned the truth…

There’s one important thing I know about “Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening”: bring a box of tissues. Maybe two.

I don’t think I’m ruining anything by telling you that; this is, after all, a book about two people who couldn’t possibly be more different, but who became extremely important to one another. There’s bound to be emotion in that kind of story, but author Carol Wall infuses joy in it, too, as well as a sense of mystery and delightful humor. I loved that and, though you won’t normally find a memoir described as a page-turner, that’s exactly what I thought this memoir was.

This is a book for gardeners and non-gardeners alike, for book groups, and for anyone who cherishes an unexpected friendship. If that’s you, then “Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening” is a book you won’t be able to leaf.