Gardening by the Sea

A fascinating meditation on the Pacific coastline, If You Want to Visit a Sea Garden by Kay Weisman and Roy Henry Vickers is a gorgeous book about an interesting topic you may not have heard about until now.

Have you heard of a sea garden? I haven’t and was so excited to find out more in this beautiful book. Kay Weisman, through questions and observations transports, readers to the coast line and to the vital sea garden. Through minimal text she explains sights and sounds of the sea garden and how to carefully tend to this precious space, habitat for many different aquatic creatures and an important food source for Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Northwest. At the end of the book, readers get an opportunity to see pictures of a real sea garden, the people tending to its care and learn more about the sea garden’s importance and why it is a vital resource to be tended with care.

The beauty of this book lies in the striking illustrations. Silhouetted people and landscapes punctuated by bold colours. Roy Henry Vickers incorporates traditional symbols and visuals to create a stunning book that readers will want to continually revisit. The illustrations will also inspire readers to learn more about the traditional art of Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific Northwest as well as create stunning landscapes of their own.