Garden story books12/28/2023 Lloyd writes so beautifully of his experience gardening at his home, Great Dixter, effortlessly conveying his colour, personality and opinion within the pages. I return to this book again and again, sometimes for knowledge and advice but more often than not for the late Christopher Lloyd’s dry sense of humour and entertainment. They also state that ‘plant stress’ (growing plants ‘hard’ with no coddling) is an asset – an idea championed by Great Dixter and Beth Chatto and an increasing number of growers. The ideas not only take aspect into account but also soil, topography and the local climate in summer and winter – dry, wet, mild etc. It’s not a new message, but it’s from a design perspective. Their fundamental message is to think in terms of ‘vegetations’ – plant communities that thrive alongside each other. Their advice is applicable to larger landscapes as well as smaller ones – even planters. Thomas Rainer is a landscape architect and Claudia West a wholesale perennial grower, so they know their subject inside out. It speaks to the zeitgeist of contemporary gardening practice, being guided by observations in nature, our understanding of the soil, sustainable approaches and climate change – all under the veil of good design. Funny and vibrant Von Arnim discovers that the path to joy lies in having a garden, rather than a room, of one’s own to escape husband, family – ‘relations are like drugs, useful sometimes, and even pleasant, if taken in small quantities and seldom, but dreadfully pernicious on the whole, and the truly wise avoid them’ – and servants, mocking her gardening mistakes, her love for lilacs, Madonna lilies and roses is altogether captivating.Ĭhosen by Errol Reuben Fernandes, head of horticulture at the Horniman Museum and GardensĪ truly innovative guide to horticulture and garden design. A fictionalised account of living with her children and German husband – ‘the Man of Wrath’ – in Pomerania, this book is a semi-autobiographical account of making a garden, although not in the same way you or I make gardens as it would have been ‘indecent’ to get stuck in as an important lady at the time, although later in life she really gardened. In 1898 she wrote this instantly best-selling novel under her married name although she is now better known for her later books, particularly Enchanted April. Mary Antoinette Beauchamp, born in Australia, was brought up in Europe in Bohemian circles. If Alice Vincent hadn’t written Rootbound, I’m quite certain I would never have found the courage to write my own story and, for that, I am eternally grateful that Rootbound exists.ĭon't miss Alice's column in Gardens Illustrated.Ĭhosen by Isabel Bannerman, garden designer I read Rootbound at a time when I was coming to truly understand the intimacy that I felt with the plants that I nurtured and was, myself, beginning to write about the role that growing had played in helping me see that I am a being who needs to deeply sense my connection to the natural world in order to feel whole. This book deepened my appreciation for the green spaces of London – the city where I realised my food growing ambitions – while offering snippets of botanical insight and gardening history, all woven through a very human, very heart-centred story. Rootbound is a book that tells the story of moving from heartbreak through healing and coming back around to love, all while discovering how the alchemy of growing plants can steady a wayward soul.
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