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Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening
Digging Deep is a powerfully invigorating and transformative self-help book for the creatively and spiritually challenged. Overflowing with tips, exercises, and resources, this prescriptive and inspirational guide is even more vital in today’s technology obsessed culture than when first published 10 years ago. Fran shares the lessons she’s learned from gardening over the past twenty-five years to guide you in unearthing the innate creativity and joy of your own true nature.
If you’re yearning to get out of the rut you're in and cultivate more meaning and connection in life, Digging Deep offers encouragement and the tools to make it happen. The 7 Stages of Creative Awakening will take you through the steps of removing the stifling inner voice that says, “I'm not creative,” and replacing it with strategies that will help you harness your instincts, ignite your imagination, open to new possibilities, take more risks, engage in play every day, create the garden of your dreams, and develop a deep connection with nature. The result? A life filled with creativity, joy, and well-being that’s a reflection of your most authentic, artistic self.
If you’re yearning to get out of the rut you're in and cultivate more meaning and connection in life, Digging Deep offers encouragement and the tools to make it happen. The 7 Stages of Creative Awakening will take you through the steps of removing the stifling inner voice that says, “I'm not creative,” and replacing it with strategies that will help you harness your instincts, ignite your imagination, open to new possibilities, take more risks, engage in play every day, create the garden of your dreams, and develop a deep connection with nature. The result? A life filled with creativity, joy, and well-being that’s a reflection of your most authentic, artistic self.
254 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2004
15 people are currently reading
695 people want to read
About the author
Fran Sorin
3 books32 followersFran Sorin is an author, coach, speaker, trainer, writer, CBS radio news and Huffington Post contributor. She is also a veteran of the media—as a media trainer, broadcaster, journalist, celebrity spokesperson, and inspirational speaker.
Her book, Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening, was groundbreaking when published in 2004. It was the first book to address gardening in the context of creativity and as a tool for well-being and personal transformation. The New Revised Edition is even more vital today, because our culture has become increasingly obsessed with technology and progressively more “nature deprived.”
By the time Fran graduated from the University of Chicago, she knew that she wanted to combine her passion for living creatively with a deep desire to help people experience more fulfilling lives. She has spent more than 30 years studying, researching, experimenting, and working on her self and with clients on getting to their authentic creative selves.
Once Fran decided that she wanted to share her passion for gardening with a large audience and approached the local Fox TV station in Philadelphia about doing some gardening TV features, she became a fixture on the TV circuit. She spent years as a gardening authority on Philadelphia’s Fox and NBC stations, was the regular gardening contributor on NBC’s Weekend Today Show, and made several appearances on CNN, MSNBC, Lifetime, HGTV, DIY, and the Discovery Channel. She has also been a celebrity spokesperson for OurHouse.com, MSNBC, and Garden Weasel.
Fran is celebrating her twelfth year as a CBS Radio News correspondent. Her Digging Deep gardening features are heard several times a week on CBS Radio stations throughout the United States. She has also written dozens of articles about gardening and well-being for USA Weekend Magazine, Radius Magazine, and iVillage. Fran was instrumental in developing iVillage’s Garden Channel and was their "Green Thumb” gardening expert.
She is also the co-founder of and contributor to the award-winning gardening blog, www.gardeninggonewild.com
Fran’s website, www.FranSorin.com, focuses on personal development and offers free resources to help improve your life.
Her book, Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening, was groundbreaking when published in 2004. It was the first book to address gardening in the context of creativity and as a tool for well-being and personal transformation. The New Revised Edition is even more vital today, because our culture has become increasingly obsessed with technology and progressively more “nature deprived.”
By the time Fran graduated from the University of Chicago, she knew that she wanted to combine her passion for living creatively with a deep desire to help people experience more fulfilling lives. She has spent more than 30 years studying, researching, experimenting, and working on her self and with clients on getting to their authentic creative selves.
Once Fran decided that she wanted to share her passion for gardening with a large audience and approached the local Fox TV station in Philadelphia about doing some gardening TV features, she became a fixture on the TV circuit. She spent years as a gardening authority on Philadelphia’s Fox and NBC stations, was the regular gardening contributor on NBC’s Weekend Today Show, and made several appearances on CNN, MSNBC, Lifetime, HGTV, DIY, and the Discovery Channel. She has also been a celebrity spokesperson for OurHouse.com, MSNBC, and Garden Weasel.
Fran is celebrating her twelfth year as a CBS Radio News correspondent. Her Digging Deep gardening features are heard several times a week on CBS Radio stations throughout the United States. She has also written dozens of articles about gardening and well-being for USA Weekend Magazine, Radius Magazine, and iVillage. Fran was instrumental in developing iVillage’s Garden Channel and was their "Green Thumb” gardening expert.
She is also the co-founder of and contributor to the award-winning gardening blog, www.gardeninggonewild.com
Fran’s website, www.FranSorin.com, focuses on personal development and offers free resources to help improve your life.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 24, 2024
A pleasant, feel-good read about how gardening can spark your creativity and appreciation of nature, and how it can teach you to observe, be patient and live in the present. It's also a how-to guide that takes you (in seven stages) from finding your own style to experimenting, planning and planting your stretch of land. The author, a former landscape designer, offers encouraging tips along the way on figuring out what you want and making it happen, and easy exercises aimed at helping you choose the mood of your garden.
There are also funny anecdotes from the author's time working with sassy clients to design their gardens, which provide real-life examples of how not to approach your backyard: looking at what your neighbours have, for example, or thinking your own ideas will be too expensive or impractical.
I didn't know there was so much to gardening, or that it could be as rewarding for people as the author describes. I've never experienced planting a tree and watching it grow over the years. I only have a small balcony in a suburb with a few pots of jasmine that I sometimes forget to water. And although this book claimed at first that everyone is a gardener, even if they're only tending an ivy plant in their office, I felt a bit left behind as the focus shifted to hills, landscapes and patches of wildflowers.
Still, this is an inspirational read that made me look forward to having my own garden someday and, in the meantime, take more care in watering the potted jasmine.
There are also funny anecdotes from the author's time working with sassy clients to design their gardens, which provide real-life examples of how not to approach your backyard: looking at what your neighbours have, for example, or thinking your own ideas will be too expensive or impractical.
I didn't know there was so much to gardening, or that it could be as rewarding for people as the author describes. I've never experienced planting a tree and watching it grow over the years. I only have a small balcony in a suburb with a few pots of jasmine that I sometimes forget to water. And although this book claimed at first that everyone is a gardener, even if they're only tending an ivy plant in their office, I felt a bit left behind as the focus shifted to hills, landscapes and patches of wildflowers.
Still, this is an inspirational read that made me look forward to having my own garden someday and, in the meantime, take more care in watering the potted jasmine.
Read
July 31, 2019Gardening and life are natural companions. I loved this book.
May 6, 2012
i enjoyed this - while i'm just a beginning gardener, in reading Sorin's book, i really understood why i'm so drawn to it. like any creative medium, this encourages adaptation, growth and not being afraid to start over (i.e. dig up everything you've planted and rearrange some other place or some other way). a quick read.
April 22, 2015
Creativity is inside us all, and this book gives you a window on how to open up what is inside you. Ms. Sorin presents a well laid-out plan to tap what you really want in a garden, and how to bring forth all that creativity. If you don't garden, perhaps this book will plant a seed. Cheers!
May 13, 2013
A beautiful book that makes your spirit and your garden grow leaps and bounds. A must read.
April 19, 2015
Gardening as wisdom tradition......yes!
May 22, 2022
Reizēm tos amerikāņus neaprotu, kā tik pašsaprotamas lietas var uzskatīt par kaut kādu baigo atklājumu. Bet lasās labi un ātri.
February 18, 2020
Aww I really enjoyed this book. It was a pleasure to read and I can see myself flipping back to it in future when I need a little extra inspiration in the gardening department. A perfect light winter read to help get through the blah's of winter, and spark some creativity in the gardening department!
December 5, 2023
Digging Deep Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening by Fran Sorin
254 Pages
Publisher: Braided Worlds Publishing, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members’ Titles
Release Date: October 31, 2014
Nonfiction, Home, Garden, Self-Help, Self-Improvement
This book is so much more than gardening. The author shows how we need to bring creativity into all areas of our lives. She tells us to look at magazines and go out in nature to give us an idea of what we want in our lives and gardens. She advises us not to second guess ourselves and to trust in our thoughts. Consider what you have and do not judge. Ask yourself what you need is as important as what you want.
Her flowing style of writing gives the readers inspiration to make changes in the gardens of their lives. Our gardens, like life, should be personal and what you need right now. Excellent book for anyone looking at improving their inside and outside gardens.
254 Pages
Publisher: Braided Worlds Publishing, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members’ Titles
Release Date: October 31, 2014
Nonfiction, Home, Garden, Self-Help, Self-Improvement
This book is so much more than gardening. The author shows how we need to bring creativity into all areas of our lives. She tells us to look at magazines and go out in nature to give us an idea of what we want in our lives and gardens. She advises us not to second guess ourselves and to trust in our thoughts. Consider what you have and do not judge. Ask yourself what you need is as important as what you want.
Her flowing style of writing gives the readers inspiration to make changes in the gardens of their lives. Our gardens, like life, should be personal and what you need right now. Excellent book for anyone looking at improving their inside and outside gardens.
November 7, 2017
A kind of artists way through the medium of gardening. Useful self help, work on self kind of book. Highly recommended not just for gardeners
June 23, 2023
Not sure I was the target audience. If you are a new gardener, this might serve as the encouragement you need. As an avid gardener, it was preaching to the choir.
March 28, 2023
Super grāmata. Maza rokasgrāmata dārza ierīkotājiem, lai varētu tikt galā paša spēkiem. Viss tik skaidri un vienkārši izskaidrots.
Atliek ķerties klāt pie sava jaunā dārza ierīkošanas ☘️
Atliek ķerties klāt pie sava jaunā dārza ierīkošanas ☘️
February 17, 2020
Nebiju gaidījusi, ka būs tik forši. Skaisti, iedvesmojoši, ne tikai par dārzkopību. Pārsvarā par dārzkopību pat mazāk, bet par radošumu, iedvesmu, prieku.
August 8, 2015
Very inspirative book! But if you are looking for a book to master your gardening techniques, this is not for you. But if you are longing to find and/or deepen your creativity through dirtying your hands in the garden, this is the right one.
The authoress Fran Sorin is obviously passionate about the connection between nature outside and "nature" inside - between the garden and the human soul. The deeply believes that gardening can deepen a person´s creativity and personal joy and happiness. And this is not any "new age"! It is just than working in a garden can connect person with his/her soul more deeply and can awaken his/hers possibility to see the beauty literally everywhere. If you are willing to dirt your hands, you can enrich your soul and your well-being. You get to know yourself better, you understand yourself better and you know what truly push your buttons. Fran Sorin believes than gardening can simply grow your creativity (and that creativity you can use in any area of your life). And you learn very important lesson in this stress-filled times - you are not in control. God/nature (name it for yourself) is.
The book is divided into 7 chapters - imagining, envisioning, planning, planting, tending, enjoying and completing. Fran serves as the guide, because everything is on you, your dreams and desires. She is "just" showing the way by inspiring and offering the creative tips, which I find very helpful in their seeming simplicity, like a sensitive and caring teacher. They really speaks to me. And they are not expensive! Just on your time and the spark within you :)
I don´t have a garden myself, but I have several plants in my office. I think I will spend more time with them onwards. I feel inspired by this book.
The authoress Fran Sorin is obviously passionate about the connection between nature outside and "nature" inside - between the garden and the human soul. The deeply believes that gardening can deepen a person´s creativity and personal joy and happiness. And this is not any "new age"! It is just than working in a garden can connect person with his/her soul more deeply and can awaken his/hers possibility to see the beauty literally everywhere. If you are willing to dirt your hands, you can enrich your soul and your well-being. You get to know yourself better, you understand yourself better and you know what truly push your buttons. Fran Sorin believes than gardening can simply grow your creativity (and that creativity you can use in any area of your life). And you learn very important lesson in this stress-filled times - you are not in control. God/nature (name it for yourself) is.
The book is divided into 7 chapters - imagining, envisioning, planning, planting, tending, enjoying and completing. Fran serves as the guide, because everything is on you, your dreams and desires. She is "just" showing the way by inspiring and offering the creative tips, which I find very helpful in their seeming simplicity, like a sensitive and caring teacher. They really speaks to me. And they are not expensive! Just on your time and the spark within you :)
I don´t have a garden myself, but I have several plants in my office. I think I will spend more time with them onwards. I feel inspired by this book.
May 12, 2015
I am not the gardener in my house but I liked the blurb for this book when it talked about creativity. It is obvious that many gardeners are creative, and creativity of all sorts interests me, so I approached the book with an open mind. What a treat I found!
Ms Sorin is a garden designer and plants woman unlike any I have ever come across. The bibliography of the book has Thich Nhat Hahn, Thomas Merton, Deepak Chopra and Joseph Campbell. So regardless of my lack of green fingers, I knew there was much to learn here.
The book is structured around seven stages including envisioning, planning, tending and enjoying. There are exercises for each stage along the way and they don’t all involve getting into the soil. Some are about “being” and mindfulness and just noticing things properly. A flower, a patch of weeds, a butterfly. It might sound a bit “new age” (as if that is an insult…) but it is very grounded – pardon the pun. The exercises here are about bringing your focus onto your creativity regardless of whether you are a gardener, a poet or a knitter. Ms Sorin states “creativity is very simply the energy of making something new where there was nothing before.” And again, “Training ourselves to see what is possible rather than what isn’t is the very essence of creativity.”
The book is full of anecdotes about Ms Sorin’s clients and “proper” gardening advice even if you have a very small patch of earth. The book is about using gardening to transform more than just the ground you own.
Buy this book for the gardener in your family and then borrow it…
I was given a free copy of the book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.
October 16, 2014
Had me out in the garden relishing getting my hands dirty before I was halfway through!
In Digging Deep, Fran gently takes you by the hand and leads you through ‘7 stages of creative awakening’, showing beautifully how gardening can be a truly creative endeavour. There are plenty of practical tips too. But it’s not just for gardeners – I found that I was reading a lot of her words and applying them to writing, particularly when she talks about creativity (and gardening) as a journey that just keeps on evolving.
There’s something irresistible and infectious about her love of gardening and the creative process. I’ve always been a very practical gardener (I grow veg and fruit and don’t think too much about the overal aesthetic), but the book made me realise that it’s my garden, and I can make it beautiful to me. My favourite thing in my whole garden is a giant dahlia that I put in on a whim and which keeps getting bigger and more pink and exhuberant every year. Secretly, I wanted the whole garden to have that feeling – and now, thanks to this book, I’m realising that it’s up to me to make sure that it does!
In Digging Deep, Fran gently takes you by the hand and leads you through ‘7 stages of creative awakening’, showing beautifully how gardening can be a truly creative endeavour. There are plenty of practical tips too. But it’s not just for gardeners – I found that I was reading a lot of her words and applying them to writing, particularly when she talks about creativity (and gardening) as a journey that just keeps on evolving.
There’s something irresistible and infectious about her love of gardening and the creative process. I’ve always been a very practical gardener (I grow veg and fruit and don’t think too much about the overal aesthetic), but the book made me realise that it’s my garden, and I can make it beautiful to me. My favourite thing in my whole garden is a giant dahlia that I put in on a whim and which keeps getting bigger and more pink and exhuberant every year. Secretly, I wanted the whole garden to have that feeling – and now, thanks to this book, I’m realising that it’s up to me to make sure that it does!
December 18, 2014
Gardening is indeed soulful. The reason it is soulful is because it is a return to our childlike selves. As the author explains, our childlike selves are who we really are. I have always had trepidation about gardening. I just did not want to make mistakes and felt a bit apart from nature. But this book made me feel that mistakes are what make gardens even more precious. The evolution in gardening is a growing process in us.
The “To Try” portions at the end of each chapter are a good source of ideas to planting a garden. One chapter is about how garden reflects your own moods and tones. I never thought of gardens as an extension of our own emotions in connection with nature. Every word on every page is a love story to nature. Whether you are a beginner, like me, or at an intermediate or advanced stage of gardening this book is for you. Anyone who is looking to express themselves creatively by planting flowers, plants, shrubs, and trees will experience true beauty. I have been taught, and am the better for it.
I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
The “To Try” portions at the end of each chapter are a good source of ideas to planting a garden. One chapter is about how garden reflects your own moods and tones. I never thought of gardens as an extension of our own emotions in connection with nature. Every word on every page is a love story to nature. Whether you are a beginner, like me, or at an intermediate or advanced stage of gardening this book is for you. Anyone who is looking to express themselves creatively by planting flowers, plants, shrubs, and trees will experience true beauty. I have been taught, and am the better for it.
I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
January 23, 2015
Digging Deep aims to help bring out your creativity through gardening, and to make the most out of the process. The book walks you through the process of creating the garden of your dreams, but also shows how the process itself (discovering, planning, planting, care, etc) actually can be wonderful and meaningful in and of itself. I really liked how Sorin presents the process; as a new gardener, I really get overwhelmed by how many options I have and often feel like I don’t know what I’m doing, but reading this book really showed me a better way to approach gardening, with a more thoughtful process of what I want. I really like this book, and definitely will be using her advice when planting this season.
I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
May 9, 2015
Facing the creation of a garden can be a daunting task. Where to begin? Fortunately Fran Sorin takes readers by the hand and graciously and expertly introduces them to the basic elements that transform one's outdoor space into the happy habitat of one's dreams. Fran is a master at asking the questions that both guide and kindle the answers that lead one to the perfect personalized garden. Pure inspiration!
August 10, 2017
I won this book a while ago at a Goodreads giveaway and i am SO thankful! Such a precious read for gardeners, but actually for all people active in the creative fields of life!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews