To Stand and Stare cover art

To Stand and Stare

How to Garden While Doing Next to Nothing

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

To Stand and Stare

By: Andrew Timothy O'Brien
Narrated by: Andrew Timothy O'Brien
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

Reconnect with nature from the ground up and nurture not only your garden but your soul.

There's a lot of gardening advice out there. But none that invites you to think about how to be while you're in your garden. With increasingly busy lives, yet another list of chores seems like the last thing we need when it comes to our own practice of self-care and relaxation. After all, aren't these the things we wanted to escape to the garden for in the first place? What if there was a more low-intervention way to garden, some reciprocal arrangement through which both you and your soil get fed - with minimum fuss, effort and guilt on your part, and the maximum measure of healthy, organic growth for your garden?

In To Stand and Stare, Andrew Timothy O'Brien weaves together strands of botany, philosophy and mindfulness to form an ecological narrative suffused with practical gardening know-how. Informed by a deep understanding and appreciation of natural processes, O'Brien encourages the listener to think from the ground up, as we follow the pattern of a plant's growth through the season - roots, shoots, and fruits - while advocating an increased awareness of our surroundings.

©2023 Andrew Timothy O'Brien (P)2023 DK Audio Gardening & Horticulture Spirituality Gardening Meditation
All stars
Most relevant
Andrew has a way with words and a voice to match. As much an informative listen as a relaxation piece.

A beautiful book, beautifully written and beautifully read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I liked the ‘chat’ as it included important information, but was delivered in a different way.

Entertaining informative company

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this audiobook. So good to have the author narrate his own work, and as a listener you have a great sense of his passion, knowledge and thoughtfulness. The book is a wonderful balance of information and points for contemplative consideration.

I loved the little mindful 'How to' vignettes. I listened to this book at bedtime, and then relistened to the bits I'd drifted off to the next day.

it's beautiful. I didn't want it to finish and will re listen.

Beautiful, comforting listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.