GARDENING : FOCUSING ON GARDENER'S EYE, HE GETS BACK TO HIS ROOTS.

In an era of self-help, how-to and quick-tip writing, Allen Lacy stands alone. He has no interest in being a crowd pleaser. He confesses to having had some problems in the publishing world since he refuses, in his words, ``to pander.''

Lacy has written several important books. One of them, ``The Gardener's Eye and Other Essays,'' published in 1992, deserves reading by anyone whose interest in plants goes beyond questions such as ``Is this the right time of year to pinch back the chrysanthemums?''

Lacy describes the gardener's special way of seeing plants in religious terms: Revelation comes to those who would be gardeners. ``Whether the gift of a gardener's eye comes early or late in life, it comes all at once, or at least within a very brief span of time. One was not a gardener, because the gardener's eye had not yet been given. Then the gift comes, and one knows that one had been living in darkness, but that now there is suddenly a new world to see, a world whose beauties and wonders, many lifetimes would not be sufficient to encompass.''

I know what Lacy is talking about because, until the age of almost 35, I had no such eye. I had just taken a job working at the Peter Pitchess Honor Rancho - the county jail farm in Saugus. My assignment was to occupy 50 inmates propagating plants from seeds and cuttings; once grown, these plants would be used for landscaping government buildings in Los Angeles County.

I remember the first three ornamental plants whose names I learned: heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica), Persian lilac (Melia azederach) and golden mimosa (Acacia baileyana). Maybe it was being in a place of coarseness that attracted me to these plants of refined foliage. How strange; until that moment I had no idea leaves could be so delicately crafted. Such intricate detail in the botanical world astonished me. My gardener's eye had opened.

Why is having the ability to see details in leaf shapes so important? Why should we wish to rise above the plateau of ``all plants look alike'' anyway? Lacy repeats the famous maxim that ``God is in the details,'' and he quotes the English critic, John Ruskin: ``Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion - all in one.''

During my tenure at the jail farm, I discovered an invaluable book called ``Plants for Dry Climates,'' by Duffield and Jones. The appeal of this volume was in its candor. Each plant listed was described in terms of its ``advantages'' and ``disadvantages.'' You soon realized that any plant could be problematic, and this knowledge, in a backhanded way, was a confidence booster; you understood that your failures were not a sign of inadequacy, that it was typical for plants to encounter difficulties in growing, regardless of who was tending them.

With the proper eye and attitude, you have only to start planting and then plant some more and some more. In our climate, watering is a constant concern, and you must become familiar and comfortable with a hose. I believe that Los Angeles would have many more gardeners and gardener's eyes if sprinklers never had been invented. In gardens where plants are hand watered, the waterer, on account of close proximity to his plants, cannot help but become more horticulturally observant than in gardens in which sprinklers do the watering by remote control.

Lacy is full of affectionate thoughts on horticulture and its practitioners. ``Horticulture is sometimes described as a science, sometimes as an art, but the truth is that it is neither, although it partakes of both. It is more like falling in love, something that escapes all logic.

``I suspect that more loving and caring people can be found among gardeners than among any other group, united by common interest. I think that the possession of a gardener's eye, which is primarily aesthetic in character, also has a moral effect.

``The young child who puts a seed in a pot of dirt, waters it and then watches with fascination, as it becomes a living plant, has as much claim to being a gardener as someone who writes a book of relentlessly practical advice telling us what we should be doing when, month by month throughout the year.''

Lacy has a quarterly newsletter, Homeground, which may be ordered by writing to P.O. Box 271, Linwood, N.J. 08221. A one-year subscription is $38, and a two-year subscription is $70.

Gardening tip: Think of planting coleus for fall color in partial sun situations. Coleus is not just for indoor use, although, coleus tip cuttings root easily in water or well-drained soil and will brighten up a planter box or window sill on either side of the window pane.

MEMO: Joshua Siskin's column appears every Saturday. He welcomes questions from readers. Write to him in care of the Daily News Features Department, P.O. Box 4200, Woodland Hills, Calif. 91365-4200. You can also reach him through this on-line mailbox: JoshSiskinaol.com.