The View From Federal Twist with James Golden

A New Way of Thinking about Gardens, Nature and Ourselves with James Golden
He fell in love with the house, a simple 1960’s modernist structure with floor-to-ceiling windows all around … but the site of James Golden’s new garden was terrible-a waste of derelict woods, shade, and heavy, wet clay. As Golden thought his way through the constraints of the place, the emerging garden triggered new awakenings, and led him to a new way of thinking about gardens, nature and himself. Golden will tell us about this new way of thinking, and how it changed his life. Hosted by the Essex Library in collaboration with the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon.
James Golden, born in Mississippi though a resident of New York City for most of his life, was a writer in the corporate world. Nearing retirement, and embarking on what he happily calls la vita nuova, he moved to a property in western New Jersey to make a garden. When he began the garden, he also began a now well-known blog, The View from Federal Twist. Fifteen years on, James is a celebrated garden maker and thinker whose garden, Federal Twist, has featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, Gardens Illustrated, the Financial Times, Horticulture, Better Homes and Gardens and other magazines and books. After visiting Federal Twist for the American Gardens film series, Monty Don, the British TV gardening guru, said “after over 50 years of gardening and visiting gardens, it made me rethink what a garden can be and do.” James recently published a new book on his garden-The View from Federal Twist: a New Way of Thinking about Gardens, Nature and Ourselves.